The 14U Major Texas North Super NIT which was held May 30-31 in Mansfield and Grand Prairie just outside of Dallas, Texas turned out to be one of the most well attended Super NITs this season.   20 major teams competed in the Super NIT including most every 14U major team in the Dallas area, the Dynasty Black from Houston and the BLBA Black from Waco.  Three of the teams, D-BAT Mustangs Blue, D-Bat Mustangs Southwest and the Dallas Tigers had already qualified for the Elite 32 World Series and are ranked in the top 15 teams by TBS.  The Texas Blackhawks also participated and are a TBS top 15 ranked team. 

Six teams won both of their pool games and obtained the top six seeds as follows:  Texas Blackhawks #1, Dallas Tigers #2, Dallas Patriots #3, BLBA Black #4, D-BAT Mustangs Blue #5 and Garland Cubs #6.

A portion of the bracket play started in Mansfield at the Big League of Dreams.  D-BAT Blue came through the first rounds successfully out performing the Allen Wranglers with a score of 8-5 including a Grand Slam Home Run by Ronnie Gideon in the third inning.  In the second round the BLBA Black gave a good fight but was unable to out score D-BAT Blue who again was victorious with a score of 8-5.  D-Bat Southwest lost a hard fight with a score of 3-2 against the Frozen Ropes Blue Sox in their first game.  The Blue Sox were then handily beat by the Blackhawks 12-0.  The Blackhawks had previously beaten the McKinney Marshals with a score of 13-2.

The other side of the bracket play was being held in Grand Prairie, Texas where the Dynasty Black and the Garland Cubs dominated.  The Dynasty Black started the bracket play beating the Dallas Patriots Red 7-3 and then barely sneaked by the Dallas Tigers 5-4 and D-BAT Mustangs Kervin 7-6.  The Garland Cubs beat the Texas Braves 11-4 and then pulled out a close victory of 6-5 against the Dallas Patriots.

The semi-final games were all held in Grand Prairie.  The first semi-final game between the Garland Cubs and the Dynasty Black was an action packed hitting game that went back and forth.  At the end of the game the Garland Cubs came out on top with a score of 12-9. 

The second semi-final game was between the Texas Blackhawks and the D-BAT Mustangs Blue.  This game was truly going to be a pitcher’s battle between Christian Gonzales and Matt Walker of the Blackhawks and Ronnie Gideon and Dallas Alderton of D-BAT Blue.  D-BAT Blue took an early 2-0 lead.  The Blackhawks came back and tied up the game in the second inning and went a run ahead in the third.  D-BAT Blue was not to be stopped and scored 3 runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings.  D-BAT Blue won the right to play for the championship with a score of 8-3.  Dax Powell, Coach of the D-BAT Mustangs Blue said that “Ronnie and Dallas did a great job on the mound tonight.  They kept them off balance with good fastballs and little mixture of off speed pitches.”  Coach Powell went on to say that “this was the first time I’ve seen this team [Blackhawks] held in check like that – their hitters were really frustrated tonight.”

The championship game started at 9:20 pm against the Garland Cubs and was a battle of endurance for both teams.  D-BAT Blue scored 6 runs during the first four innings and allowed only 2 runs by the Cubs in the fifth inning.  At 11:10pm, after a 13 hour day of baseball, D-BAT Mustangs Blue was named the 2009 Texas North Super NIT Champion.  After the game, Coach Powell commented that “once again, we had good pitching and good defense.  When we do those two things, we are a pretty good team.  We have been getting timely hitting all year and I think we are only going to get better.  Our kids fought hard this weekend and that’s just the character of this team.” 

Subsequent to the tournament, TBS thought highly of the D-BAT Blue Mustangs as indicative of their high ranking (there are over 500 Major teams in Travel Ball and to be in the top 25 is a credit to those teams) but after this impressive outing, expect them to climb the ladder as they shoot to be known as the best in the nation.

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