GA State Champions - 13u

This was an unusual year for the Little League championships.  Makes sense.  Last year was completely abnormal (summer of 2020).  The spring baseball program closed down.  The summer all stars did not happen.  This meant that the regional championships did not happen... nor the state championships... and certainly not the National Little League World Series.  That was the "big" year - to contend for the 12 year old NLL.

Things were a bit better this year, however, not everything has been reinstated.  Also, it seems that as the boys get older -- get past the 12 year old NLL opportunity -- things start to break-up a bit.  We noticed that in our own club last year and this year - we had to play outside of our Little League and go "intraleague" with clubs near us in order to have enough games.  The past few seasons - at the end of the regular league play - our club was at the top.  When Hobgood hosted East Marietta last season, the championship came down to the two East Marietta teams.  When Smyrna hosted us this season, the championship came down to the East Marietta teams.  

When Mercer's team went to state during the 11u run, we had to play against 3 other leagues to earn the District 2 championship (Smyrna, Hobgood and Milford).  There was a lot of excitement building up to state.  There was fundraising and events too.  It was crazy and exciting.   (This is the throw-back picture from regional championship 2 years ago leading up to state.) 

This year, Milford didn't play -- or at least at our level.  And - Hobgood and Smyrna decided not to play in the regional playoffs.  East Marietta advanced to state automatically.    

This year, state was closer to home:  Peachtree City - south of Atlanta.  There were not as many groups that played in the state championship either.  It was a head-to-head match with the Peachtree City All Stars. 

It was not an equal match-up.  Their team was made up of players that were mixed ages -- some younger players playing "up" to the 13u.  Perhaps they did not have enough players at this level either? 

The tournament was a double-elimination.  We had 2 games scheduled for Saturday and 1 game for Sunday.  As it turned out, they did not need to play the Sunday game. 

   

 

The first game was matched pretty well to begin with.  EM was ahead, but as the game moved on, their lead grew.  

They won 16-1.  Their pitching was not strong and there were a lot of our boys who were walked.  I don't recall any significant hits that Mercer had, honestly.  (One of his teammates hit one out of the park which was exciting!)  You could tell mid-way through the pitcher from the other team was feeling defeated.  (I did feel a little bit bad, honestly.)  The game was called due to the Mercy rule (15 runs ahead).

The next game, Mercer started out pitching.  (The league sent a photographer down to take some team photos.  She arrived at the 2nd game, so we have LOTS of pictures of him pitching!)   

The first set are mine.  The really good pictures below are hers!

Todd said that Mercer's team played the best that they have played together.  Their defense was good - no errors or mistakes.  They had really good fundamentals.  The head coach of the team said the same.  (I talked with the head coach after the game and he said the other coach "looked them up" (You can see who was on the All-Star rosters for the last several years.)  The other team's coach told our coach that he noticed that the team had been kept together.... and that it showed... that played together so well.  (Interesting!)

The majority of the guys did play together. 
There have been a few players move in and out over the years, but the core group has been together.  (well, except for one - Blake - #12)  

The league honored Blake in two ways:  the #12 patch on the kids' jersey's and coaches shirts... and they had his own All-Star jersey made to present to Blake's family.  <3 

A funny thing about Mercer pitching:  his hat keeps falling off!  That hair... we've got to cut that hair! 

Mercer pitched 3 innings.  They brought in another pitcher in the 4th.  No runs were given up.  They called the Mercy rule again at the end of the 4th.  (Which - someone told me - is 4 innings or 15 runs.)  East Marietta won the 2nd game 18-0!   I did feel a bit bad for the other team.  You can tell they felt defeated.  You could see it in their body language.  :( 

There was a (mini) presentation by that league's commissioner.  She gave the boys on both teams "State Playoff" pins and presented the coach with a banner for our club to display. 

 (Admittedly, the boys were a little upset that there weren't trophies.  They got trophies at regionals two years prior before going to state... but the host league isn't required to provide trophies (usually they do, but not a requirement.)   Our coach talked to the league after the tournament -- state is a BIG deal after all!  He emailed out that our league would provide trophies for the boys. 

The photographer who came down took some team photos, then that was it.   It was a little bit of let down, honestly.  Once the trophies come in, there will be a proper celebration, though!

One cool thing about having a tournament in Peachtree City:  airplanes.  

(It's close to the Atlanta airport...but also there was a group of bi-planes flying over -- and the Commissioner, when I said something about them -- said there's a club that pilots are in / practice these formations.   They circled around... they formed diamond shaped patterns... and these three lines as shown in this photo.  I don't think it was too distracting to the players.??

We did not need the 2nd day (Sunday), but we had the room booked overnight and made a mini vacay out of it.  Several of the families stayed the night in the same hotel.  They hung out at the pool together for awhile. 

Later, three of the families (plus extended family for one of the groups went to Senoia Georgia which is about 10 minutes away from the baseball field where we were playing.  

(these are not my photos.... they're from the internet)

It is such a cute historic downtown... definitely had a lot of character.  It was actually a little up-scale... probably because there's a lot of tv/movie money there.  The most famous show filmed there is The Walking Dead (TWD) -- the show about zombies.   The director and one of the actors opened a restaurant in town. 

The director was actually having dinner there when we were.  (One of the baseball moms was going crazy b/c he was there - she's a big fan.) 

I think the kids had fun going out to dinner together, having breakfast in the restaurant at the hotel the next morning and hanging out in the hotel gym together... having fun outside of baseball.

It's a little sad knowing that this is probably the last time that these guys will (mostly) play together.  No one is really talking about it (there are little rumors here and there / one or two people have said some things about it one-on-one), but it sounds like about half of the team will try out for different travel teams / baseball clubs.  

Mercer may be the only one in our school district.  He can play on the JV high school team in 8th grade... the rest are in the neighboring school district and will have to wait 'til they're in 9th grade.  

I'm glad we made a little trip out of it!