Top Gun All-Star Weekend Game 3: WR 7U 5, Efland Hawks 1

Something very unfamiliar happened in this game: West Raleigh 7U was the home team. Don't worry, Coach Sean didn't suddenly master the art of the coin toss. Instead, the home team was decided by seed, and Blue earned the right to be the home team for the 9 a.m. start by virtue of their third seed.

The first opponent of the day's eventual tripleheader was the Efland Hawks, the same team 7U had whipped 24-0 on the previous day. Sunday's rematch didn't include quite as many fireworks. In fact, if you missed Sunday's game, we've managed to secure an exclusive photo of pretty much every single thing you didn't get to see. Here it is:

That's a picture of an umpire adjusting a pitching machine. If the two teams were on the field for 90 minutes, I would conservatively estimate that the pitching machine was being adjusted for 89 of those minutes. The game didn't exactly have a lot of rhythm, but 7U persevered and battled through some very long at-bats fighting off some crazy pitches--Timmy had a 10-pitch at-bat, Bryce had a 9-pitch sequence, and Elias saw eight pitches before picking up a fifth-inning RBI--to get the win.

The victory moved West Raleigh 7U into a rematch with Winter Park 8U National, which would prove to be just slightly more exciting than the day's opener.

Game 3 West Raleigh 7U scoring plays
Second inning
Chace led off with a sharp double to left-center. Gavin followed with another fly ball to left-center, and then Joey scored Chace with a sacrifice fly to the right side. Gavin's aggressive baserunning allowed 7U to get two runs off the sacrifice. Joseph, who along with Mason was responsible for four of WR's nine hits, singled to left to reignite the offense, and then Mason drove him in with a triple.
Score after two innings: WR 7U 3, Efland Hawks 0


Fifth inning
After Efland cut their deficit to 3-1 in the top of the inning, 7U answered right back in the bottom of the fifth. Elias and Asher picked up RBI singles, scoring Joseph and Mason, as 7U tacked on a couple of insurance runs in their final at-bat.
Score after five innings: WR 7U 5, Efland Hawks 1

Game 3 Web Gems

• Elias glided under a fly ball into left field to end the first.
• Chace made a diving snag of a pop foul near the Hawks dugout leading off the third.
• Trey fielded a ground ball by navigating around the pitching machine leading off the fourth, then made the strong throw to first to retire the hitter.
• The West Raleigh defense overall was very solid, as the first 14 Efland batters in a row were retired.

Game 3 line score	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H
Efland Hawks	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1
West Raleigh 7U	0	3	0	0	2	X	5	9