The 10U Gainesville Cannons are no slouches.

They entered Saturday's double-header against the Virginia Generals ranked No. 16 in the nation and entered the day winners of eight in a row.

Fresh off a tournament win in Richmond, the Cannons had at least a little momentum going into the first game.

So why then the 13-3 loss in the first game? It's not that the Cannons were that bad - far from it, especially given the sluggers-fest that was game two, with Virginia pulling out a 12-10 victory.

It's just that the Manassas-based Generals are that good.

Virginia (37-1) showed why it is ranked the top 10U team in the United States Saturday morning and afternoon with a resounding opening victory where the boys took advantage of mistakes and executed their fundamentals on both sides of the plate.

The Generals managed to take a closely-fought 4-3 contest in the third inning and blow it up to 7-3 by inning's end through mature hitting.

"Well, being patient is one of the things that we've had to be learning on," said winning pitcher Noah Goins as he talked about quality at-bats.

That is a concept the team's coaching staff decided to teach simply because the team is mentally capable of understanding and implementing it.

"As a coaching staff, we thought, this is a little advanced. There's no one doing this at 10 years old," said head coach Rich Solomon. "And we said, you know, we talked to them about different counts. And in the past, we would never take a swing away from one of our guys because they just weren't that good yet.

"So we would say, 'Swing away.' We introduced to them, when you've got a 2-and-0 count, are you going to swing at anything, or are you going to tighten up your window a little bit and get a good pitch that you can hit? And I think you might have saw that in this game. The kids are taking it and are running with it.'"

Catcher Nathaniel "Rock" Owens mentioned that the coach's son Tyler Solomon, who pitched in the first inning and moved to catcher briefly before playing shortstop, is one of the players who has taken the advice to heart the most.

"Well, he's been able to get up there and get on base and help us win," Owens said of Solomon, who hit two doubles in the first game. "He's a really good pitcher and he gets on base a lot."

On the mound, Goins, who relieved Solomon in the second inning, threw so well that even the home plate umpire was blown away at one point.

With two down and two strikes on the Cannons final batter in the top of the fourth inning, Goins delivered a devastating knuckleball for out No. 3.

"That was beautiful. It was right down the middle," said the umpire as he walked toward the backstop while the teams transitioned behind him.

Youth baseball coaches tend to agree it is not safe for their pitchers to throw curveballs at young ages, but that doesn't mean a quality hurler like Goins only has to be limited to fastballs and change ups.

According to the young man himself, he's been working with his father on the knuckler for the last two years.

Getting a grip on the ball is "kind of tough the way this guy throws it," said the catcher Owens as he stood next to Goins during a post-game interview. Mentioning how the ball moves around in the air, he added, "But I think I've got the hang of it the way he pitches it."

Closing pitcher E'lan Goodwin showed his own merit on the hill as well by blanking the Gainesville offense in his one inning on the mound.

Owens explained the assets of his pitchers' throwing styles by saying Goins "has a lot of different pitches and for me he is a little bit faster. And he can get the ball out of his hand a little quicker.

"But Elan, he's still a really good pitcher. He can throw strikes and get people out," Owens added.

Coach Solomon would be hard-pressed to disagree. Offensively, he has been able to preach the importance of quality at-bats to a team that may far exceed its goal of 50 wins and 5 losses.

"Well, we said as a group of coaches and parents really, if you set high goals and you don't reach them, you've still accomplished a lot," said Solomon, stressing the importance of setting high standards for the boys teaches them life-lessons.

Gainesville skipper Mike Logan said he really wasn't concerned so much about wins and losses as long as the team is improving and making progress with the hopes that by the time the boys head up to Cooperstown, NY for a tournament this summer, they'll be able to compete hard against the 100-team field.

"I just want to compete and minimize mistakes. And when we minimize mistakes, we've done pretty well," said Logan.

Winning the Richmond tournament is a prime example of what can go right when the boys execute the way they are capable of doing. Logan mentioned that Saturday's starting pitcher Brian Reinaldo has "good fundamentals" and generally keeps the ball low in the strike zone.

Relievers Tommy Logan and Michael Taylor also got their chance to face off against the top team in the nation, with the manager pointing out Taylor's unorthodox style of delivery.

The southpaw sidearmer is the Cannons' "ace in the hole," according to coach Logan. "Like, this game today, we wanted to stop the bleeding and try something new so we brought him in there."