NYBC Championship: Canes 7, Tri-State Arsenal 3

They did it. They really did it. In a tournament stocked with guest players, Canes-Gallaher took the exact team they've played with all season--except with multiple players limited by injury--went to the National Youth Baseball Championship, and won the whole darn thing.

The championship was earned with a 7-3 win over Tri-State Arsenal, one of the best programs in the United States. And now, based on the results this week in Long Island, you'd need to put this team in that company, also. 

We've almost gotten desensitized to them winning tournaments, because there has been a lot of winning with this group. But the NYBC isn't an event where you just show up and win. It takes a complete team effort for the full five days, and even then sometimes you just run up against a team having a better day. As Coach Sean reminded the team two days ago, last year the Canes beat Arsenal in pool play, but then Arsenal won the title. This year the reverse happened, and man was it sweet. The Canes got a variety of incredible pitching performances, some very timely hitting up and down the lineup, and played terrific defense (just two errors in the tournament) during the entire week.

The Canes finish the spring 45-5 and finish the 13U season (counting the fall) at 71-6. Back when they were seven and we were lugging that pitching machine all over West Raleigh, being a national champion was nothing more than a far-away dream. Today, it's reality. As Tyrone told us, there truly is no mountain too high.

Championship Canes scoring plays

Second inning
Wes singled. Macon was hit by a pitch. Jake moved the runners over, and Ty drove them in with a two-run single.
Score after one and a half innings: Canes 2, Arsenal 0

Third inning
Chace walked and scored on Drew's two-run homer.
Score after two and a half innings: Canes 4, Arsenal 0

Fifth inning
Gavin reached with one out. A wild pitch put him on second. He tagged up on Chace's liner to center and went to third, and then scored on Wes' two-out single.
Score after four and a half innings: Canes 5, Arsenal 2

Seventh inning
Gavin reached with a leadoff bunt single. Drew walked. Wes singled. Macon hit an RBI single. Bennett drew an RBI walk.
Score after six and a half innings: Canes 7, Arsenal 3

Pitching Performances

Drew worked through three and two-thirds innings of great pitching, striking out three and allowing just a pair of hits.

Chace closed with three and a third innings of tremendous pitching, allowing just two hits and retiring the final four batters in order.

Dugout Wisdom
Tyrone Mathis graced the boys with an unbelievably good pregame prayer. Retyping it here wouldn't do it justice. You remember how excited Tyrone gets about blueberry cheesecake from Costco? Now imagine him channeling that energy into the pregame prayer.

Some of the umpire's comments were truly entertaining, but we'll just let those be a mystery for now.

Championship Web Gems

• Jake made a sliding catch on the line in right field to end the first.
• Perfect PFP in the second, as Drew hustled over to take the throw from Chace at first.
• Gavin made a ridiculous barehand play on a slow roller in the fifth and made a strong throw to get the runner by a step and a half.
• Eli cut off a would-be double in the gap in the sixth and limited the hitter to a single. Why did that matter? Because the next batter grounded into a force at second that wouldn't have been a force without Eli's hustle.
• Andrew finished the sixth with a nice running catch in the right-center gap.

Championship line score	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H
Canes	0	2	2	0	1	0	2	7	11
Tri-State Arsenal	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	3	4