Summer recap

Officially, the first day of summer in 2012 was June 20. Unofficially, the first "real" day of summer is today, when the last Mudcat (or in one case, former Mudcat) completed his summer season. A quick recap of what happened in summer ball for the All Blacks in competition for the various West Raleigh summer teams:

Christopher Gruskin, who last played for the Mudcats in the spring of 2011, played with the 9U West Raleigh Red squad. They finished in third place this weekend at the Summer Championship event in Greensboro.

Zach Hurand, who last played for the Mudcats in the spring of 2011, played with the 9U West Raleigh Blue team. With Zach handling almost every inning at catcher, 9U Blue won the Southeast Regional championship today in Gaffney, S.C., with a 13-3 win over Palm Beach Gardens, Fl.

Brady Dunlap, a 2012 Mudcats alum, played with the 8U West Raleigh Red team. Brady played both second base and outfield, and made a key defensive play getting a forceout from the outfield in the championship game as Red won the Tarheel state title today with a 5-1 win in Shelby over Rolesville.

Brady was joined on the Red team by Bryce Friedlander, another 2012 alum. Bryce played first base--where he dug out several throws in the title game today to preserve the great defensive performance by the Red team--and outfield for the state champs.

The third Mudcat member of the Red team was '12 Mudcat Donovan Shepard, who hit leadoff, flew around the bases, and made a terrific catch in centerfield in the title game--in other words, a typical Donovan game.

The achievements of the Red team are even more prolific considering they had to hit off the dreaded southpaw, Coach Andy, who wasn't above throwing the occasional brushback pitch just to keep the hitters loose. 

Yet another eight-year-old, Charley Hegeman, played for the 8U Blue team that won the southeast regional championship last weekend in Alabama. Charley is a 2012 Mudcat alum (are you getting the feeling the 'Cats are losing a lot of key players?). 

Gavin Gallaher, a seven-year-old in 2012, played for the ENC state champion 7U Blue team. Gavin played almost every inning at shortstop and was one of the team's leading hitters for a 7U team that blew their way through the state tournament in Wilson. The 7U team was coached by Coach Sean, who was mostly interested in throwing water balloons at the coaching staff.

Asher Lucas was also a member of the 7U team, and spent most of his time at catcher, where he consistently drew quizzical looks from opposing hitters wondering why the catcher was constantly shouting the current outs and game situation.