In Sunday's first game, it was the Carolina Havoc that built a lead, holding a 4-3 advantage at the end of three innings that they eventually stretched to 5-3 going into the bottom of the fourth. The Havoc did it with defense, as Big Blue was crushing the ball offensively, but a Havoc defender was always there to make a play.
Coach Kevin gathered the hitters after the third inning and had a simple request: "Keep hitting the ball." That's exactly what they did. The hits eventually found holes in the fourth, as five runs crossed the plate to wipe out the deficit. Big Blue tacked on two more runs in the fifth while playing very solid defense to hold on for the 10-5 win.
"I was very proud of you," Coach Kevin told the team afterwards. "A couple things didn't go your way, and you picked yourself up and played Big Blue baseball. We did the little things, and when we do the little things in a game like this, it's going to work out for us."
Many of those little things were subtle defensive plays that wouldn't necessarily show up in the box score, but might have kept a force out in order or prevented an extra base. As you might expect, the game's Web Gems listing is lengthy.
The victory meant Big Blue could clinch the weekend championship with a win over King Kryptonite in their final game of the day.
Incidentally, loyal readers will remember that the Charlie Daniels Band was staying at the same hotel with the team. Have you ever wondered what a night out with Charlie Daniels might look like? Coach Kevin snapped this photo of an unidentified morning-after victim with an incredibly vicious case of bed-head that might explain it:
Game 3 Big Blue scoring plays
Second inning
With one out, Jake knocked a single the opposite way. Mason followed with a double to deep center that scored Jake. With two outs, Ben came through with a clutch double that scored Mason and tied the score.
Score after two innings: Big Blue 2, Carolina Havoc 2
Third inning
Elias led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Asher, where he was scored by Trey's double to right-center.
Score after three innings: Carolina Havoc 4, Big Blue 3
Fourth inning
The biggest inning of the game began with Gavin's double to deep right-center. Chace ripped an RBI single to left and moved to second when the ball was too hot to handle. That enabled him to score on Jake's single to right. With Jake on third and two outs, Ben's grounder scored Jake, and then Timmy's single put runners on first and second. Elias doubled home Ben and Asher singled home Timmy to finish the big five-run inning.
Score after four innings: Big Blue 8, Carolina Havoc 5
Fifth inning
Bryce and JT went back-to-back with doubles to score a quick run. With one out, Chace's double to left-center scored JT.
Score after five innings: Big Blue 10, Carolina Havoc 5
Game 3 Web Gems
- Elias started the game by grabbing a fly ball in left field from the Havoc leadoff hitter.
- With a runner on first later that same inning, the Havoc cleanup batter crushed a ball to deep center field. Timmy scampered back to field it and fired it into second base, where Gavin was waiting to receive the throw and slap the tag on, nailing the hitter trying to stretch it to a double and ending the inning.
- Gavin showed incredible toughness in the second. After taking a bad-hop grounder off his head, he stayed in the game and then ended the inning with a diving play on a sinking liner in the hole to his right.
- Bryce came barreling in from third base on a bunt with two runners on in the fourth, scooped it up, and then fired hard to Chace at first to get an out.
- With one out in the fifth, the hitter drove a ball deep to left-center. It looked certain to be extra bases, but Joey cut it off and limited the batter to a single. That turned out to be very important, because...
- The very next hitter slapped a ground ball up the middle, where Gavin scooped it up, stepped on second, and threw to first to record the inning-ending double play.
- Ben earned style points plus web gem points by waiting until the last second to leap and haul in a hard-hit liner to right center in the sixth.
- NOT A WEB GEM: Jake was minding his own business in the bushes behind the Big Blue dugout, where he was, ah, you know. He didn't have time to go deep in the bushes because he was the third hitter of the inning. Gavin accepted the challenge and fouled off a ball that missed Jake, who had his back to the field (thankfully for all of us), by perhaps a foot. Jake did not make the play, and no one wanted to touch that particular foul ball.
| Game 3 line score | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | H |
| Havoc | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 12 |
| Big Blue | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | X | 10 | 14 |
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