Annandale-North Springfield proves tough to top for Gainesville youngsters

The Gainesville District Little League all-stars entered the Virginia Little League District 10 double-elimination tournament this weekend to a mixed scorecard, with one of its teams showing complete dominance while others enter Monday preparing to regroup.

At Long Park in Haymarket Saturday morning, Annandale-North Springfield Little League manager Scott Choate explained that when 9 and 10 year olds take the field, sometimes it only takes one inning to completely swing the momentum of a game.

The ANSLL American all-stars happened to be on the better end of that deal against their Gainesville American counterparts, breaking open a 4-0 score in the bottom fifth inning with six runs in the period of eight at-bats, forcing the game to be called at 10-0.

Things had not been all so bad for Gainesville early on as starting pitcher Max Lilek struck out six batters in three innings pitched, giving up two earned runs on two hits and two walks. However, he was one pitch shy of reaching his maximum pitch count that would have prevented him from throwing in the following game, so the Gainesville coaching staff opted to reposition him off the mound.

"Their pitcher was awesome," said ANSLL's Choate, referring to Lilek.

But Annandale's Ryan Haynes proved to be a tough customer for the Gainesville sluggers too as he went 5.1 innings before being pulled for pitch count reasons for his own. Carter Strain earned the last two outs for the visiting team from Fairfax County that was technically the home team as Long Park had been declared a neutral site and they won the draw.

That said, Gainesville entered the game ready to play, according to GDLL manager Jim Whitt.

"The mood out of the dug out was that they were very confident because they're 9 and 10 and don't know any better," said Whitt with a laugh.

While the boys made contact off of Haynes, the difference between the pop coming from the Gainesville bats versus the Annandale ones proved to be just where the baseballs traveled.

"They hit 'em where they ain't and we hit them where they were," said Whitt.

For instance, Gainesville scored a little luck when Griffin McKeever hit a fielder's choice grounder to third base with teammate Tommy Bowie on first base with one out in the top of the fifth inning. Bowie beat the throw to second and McKeever scooted down the first base path safely too, giving GDLL one of the club's best chances of the day to get a rally going.

However, Annandale's first baseman managed to turn two four pitches later, fielding a ground ball, stepping on first base for the force out and then throwing it to second base for a tag-out that ended the top half of the inning.

"Listen: that's just bad luck," Whitt told the boys as they huddled near the dugout.

In other action Saturday, the 9 and 10 Lower Loudoun Little League American all-stars topped the Gainesville National team, the Gainesville American Majors team came up one run shy against Annandale-North Springfield Little League and the Gainesville National Majors team won 8-2. Gainesville teams are slated to open the junior league playoffs on July 10 for the American team against the Fairfax Little League National team and July 12 for the National team against the winner of Coles and Lower Loudoun.