When the Mechanicsville Nationals All-Star team won the Virginia Junior League state title last Tuesday they made local history. The 13-14 year olds became the first Mechanicsville Little League team to advance to Southeast Regional play. However, what may not be noted in the history books is how the team won.

  To say that the Nationals dominated opponents in both the District V and State tournaments would be somewhat of an understatement. In 11 tournament games, less than half went the full seven innings due to the mercy rule; with a 10 run lead after five innings games are ended. Mechanicsville blazed their way through the two tournaments with a combined score of 193-13.

  In three games of state pool play against some of Virginia’s best teams Mechanicsville ran away 79-1, defeating Culpepper 26-0, Woodbridge 11-1 and finishing off with an astounding 41-0 victory over Dulles.

  The championship round the competition was tougher but still the Nationals knocked off Alexandria 9-2, Essex Co. 11-1 and took the title with a 10-2 win over Fleet Park.

  Despite the lopsided numbers, Nationals manager Steve Lam attributes the wins to pitching rather than offense. “We’ve got an extremely, extremely deep rotation,” he said. “We’ve probably got three No. 1s and a whole bunch of No. 2’s.”

  According to Lam, nine of the 13 team members could take on the role of starting pitcher, therefore the mercy rule played a key role in his strategy. “Pitching rules are very stringent in Little League,” Lam said. “If you go over 20 pitches you can’t pitch the next day. That’s always an advantage when you can play five innings.”

  Lam staffed the three games of pool play by throwing a different pitcher in each inning, keeping them all under 20 pitches. By doing so, Lam had his best three pitchers, Matthew Corley, Josh Lam and Taylor Campbell still available for the quarterfinal, semi-final and championship games where they dominated their opponents.

  “They were absolutely carving guys up,” Lam said. “All three of them had their fastball and curveball going. They were dead on.”

  Corley pitched a complete game against Alexandria while Josh Lam gave up one run in a complete game effort against Essex. In the title game, Campbell went 5 2/3 innings against Fleet Park before being relieved by Bryce Sheppard.

  The Nationals pitching staff finished the state tournament an ERA of 1.23.

  Most surprising, the Nationals finished the state tournament without hitting a single home run. Instead they carved up defenses with well placed hits. As a team they batted .470 with a .603 on base percentage and recorded 97 RBIs.

  “The state tournament director (Bob Sottile) told us it was one of the most dominating state tournament teams he’s ever seen,” Lam said. “He certainly thinks this Virginia entry has a chance at the Southeast Regional against some very tough teams.”

  But more than winning, it is the respect that his players earned during tournament play that Lam is most proud of. “He (Sottile) told us our team really handled ourselves with a lot of class and humility even though they were winning some ball games by some pretty good scores.

  “They’re great kids first and I think they’re great baseball players second,” Lam said. “That’s what I’m most proud of, how they carry themselves and how they respect the game of baseball and work very, very hard.”

  According to Lam, camaraderie has also been a key component with his team. Eleven of the 13 Nationals played together at Stonewall Jackson Middle School and will be incoming freshman at Lee-Davis this fall. Corley will attend Hanover along with incoming sophomore Jeffery Decker.

  The Nationals will now travel to Greenville, SC August 6-12 and open pool play against Tennessee. Mechanicsville will also have to face West Virginia and Florida in their pool. Pool B consists of teams from North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and Georgia. The top two teams in each pool advance to the semifinals on Mon. Aug. 9. The championship will be played Tues. Aug. 10 at 5 p.m. with the winner advancing to the World Series in Taylor, MI. Aug. 15-21.