2013 GSL “Open” division tournament report!

2013 GSL MOJO Moneyball

Columbus, Ohio

March 22-23

The tournaments main field had a nice backdrop of the Columbus skyline

Link to Softballcenter.com picture album of the GSL 'Open'

The MOJO Moneyball Open division and home run derby kicked off a big weekend for the GSL (Global Sports League).  This is the associations 3rd year of existence and Berliner park in Columbus with their 8 artificial turf infields made it so all games would get played.  I know some of the divisions finished up after 9 PM on Sunday night.  

In the open division Creative Stucco, an all star team based out of Ohio, split the championship with P&P 333 a GSL 'A' team out of Michigan, when the teams decided playing til 1:45 AM on Sunday morning was more than enough ball. Creative went 2-0 in pool play and 2-0 in the single elimination bracket while P&P took the hard route going 1-1 in pool play and winning 3 straight in the single elimination.  There were some close games and some blowouts but over all the games and matchups were fairly competitive with cold evening temperatures taking some of the fun out of the event.   But at least there wasn't any rain.

12 teams started the event in 4 "pools" of 3 teams each.  Bellas, Tailgaters, and Creative Stucco each won their flight with a 2-0 record.

At 7:30 PM they started the single elimination bracket and when the sun went down it became a battle of attrition.  If you have a team in the midwest and enjoy pre-season upper level competition, this is one to put on your calendar for future years.

Single Elimination bracket was played after each team completed 2 games in pool play

Field #16 had a mini green monster 300 feet to left

The infields at Berliner park may be the best in the nation.

They are big and I did not see a bad bounce all day.

The outfields at the baseball quad are spacious with great fence distance.

Nightime at Berliner Park.

Nice high light poles, turf infields, and long fence distances made for a good place to play upper level ball!

The outfield grass had too many divots as if they use those fields for football practice

The main field was #14 in the upper right

Dimensions were 309-330-365-345-297

The other 3 fields as you can see have some very large but odd dimensions

Video Highlites brought to you by:

GSL 'Open' video clips

Some random HR Derby clips

Reeboks Dustin Roberts from the right side and Tailgaters Buddy Wolf from the left side had the longest home runs of the derby!

GSL Mojo Moneyball Home Run Derby

Chris Larsen defeated Ryan Disbennett in the finals of the Mojo Moneyball Home Run Derby.  Disbennet won the open division earlier Friday when he hit 7 homers to qualify for the "Big Hitters" derby which started at 7 PM.  

At the "Big Hitters" derby, Dustin Roberts, Chris Larsen, Ryan Disbennett, Buddy Wolf, Scott Zaciewski, and Jason Baxter made the final 6.

Larsen, Wolf, Disbennett, and Roberts made the final 4.

And Larsen beat Disbennett to win the belt.

Dustin Roberts was hitting the longest balls of the right handers.

Buddy Wolf hit the longest balls of the left handers.

1 hour and 37 minute mark starts the final 6
Disbennett puts up a 12 homer round at the 1 hour and 50 minute mark
Disbennett puts on another show at the 2 hour 20 minute mark
Larsen and Wolf hitoff to make finals at the 2 hour 27 minute
Finals start at the 2 hour 34 minute mark

"Local Hero", Bella's/Mojo's Ryan Disbennet won the qualifying derby Friday afternoon with 7 homer's

Then he made the cut to 6 in the "Big Hitters" derby.

Then he made the final 4 and finally the championship and finished 2nd!

At one point, Ryan knowing he was going to make the next round, switched to the left side and hit a homer left handed!

One round he had 12 homers out of 15 pitches!

Demarini's Chris Larsen who won the 2011 Long Haul Bombers tour, won the GSL MOJO Moneyball Home Rund Derby!

He got this awsome championship belt!

Chris Larsen from Demarini wows the crowd in Columbus

The "Miken Masher" of the week is Bellas Ryan Disbennet!

See above HR Derby for more info on Ryan's HR hitting display

GSL Moneyball 'Open' Final Standings:

Team by team notes brought to you by:

Tied 1st Place – Creative Stucco

'A' from Ohio  4-0 Record

You have to give credit to the Creative Stucco all star team.  They had by far the best roster on paper, but they backed it up by going undefeated in the tournament and fought the cold as good as any of the regular teams that may have had more built in chemistry.  Shane Spicer pitched after throwing hundreds of pitches at the derby on Friday night.  Kessler, Dillon, Larsen, Moyer, and Filby I think were the first 5 batters.  A pretty potent lineup and timely defense by Brian Blount at MI and the team rolled through the tournament. 

  Creative Stucco (OH) (A)
 Kevin Filby
 Chris Larsen
 Kyle Moyer
 Chris Moon
 Brian Blount
 Jason Ferguson
 Scotty Zaciewski
 Shane Spicer
 Steve Edwards
 Brandon Dillon
 Dave Kessler
 Shaul Illidge
 Colton Bloomfield

Brian Blount flashed some leather as usual

"Mr GSL" Brandon Dillon

2nd Place – P&P/Suburban/Mojo/Easton

'A' from Michigan  4-1 Record

P&P start their season as co-champs of the GSL Open division.  They split their pool play games with the wind blowing straight out to right center which were very long games.  Then they won 3 straight games back to back in the bracket to make it to the championship where they agreed to split the title with Creative Stucco.  P&P was missing some players but have added Reds 3B Jake Stambazze, conference veterans Bryan Goins, and Brian Puckett, and some new up and coming players like masher Archie Pemberton and outfieler Brandon Bongard. 

P&P 333/Suburban/Mojo/Easton (MI) (A)
 Josh Onstott
 Dave Andrus
 Brian Puckett
 Jake Stambazze
 Matt Rogers
 Joey King
 Archie Pemberton
 Kenny Geiersbach
 Micheal Ortiz
 Todd Fairbanks
 Kyle Yerkes
 John Zocco
 Ryan Lyster
 Matt Lavender
 Brandon Bongard
 Scott Hille
 Dustin Adkins
 Bryan Goins 

Josh Onstott (left) and Archie Pemberton (right) will look to power the Plumbers in 2013

Along with veteran pickups Bryan Goins and Brian Puckett

Bryan Goins did the pitching for P&P

P&P SS Ryan Lyster (I believe?)

Tied 3rd Place – Tailgaters/Boys

'B' from Pennsylvania  3-1 Record

Tailgaters ran a lot of bases this weekend as they hit gaps and lines to beat Tings in their opener and Floors Unlimited in pool play.  In the bracket they picked up a signature win over Reds Astros before losing to Creative Stucco.  This team has a nice lineup with Buddy Wolf and Eric Marshall supplying most of the power.

Tailgaters/Boys (PA) (B)
 Eric Marshall
 Jonathan Sullivan
 Jonathan Dombrowski
 Zach Messer
 Don Schreckengost
 Kenny Balderson
 Chris Miller
 Lawrence Wolf
 Tim Sheeler
 Bill Lewis
 Doug Kosmerl
 Justin Bishop
 Bradley Mcconnachie
 Jesse Young
 Michael Dzanaj

TailGaters bring a hard nosed brand of ball to whatever tournament they play, even if they have a Steelers logo on their shirts!

Zach Messer is back with the Gaters

Eric Marshall, Tailgaters DHH

Tied 3rd Place – Bellas/MOJO

from Ohio  3-1 Record 

Bellas has put together a nice team as they add former Columbus Pipe veterans third baseman Larry McCoy and outfielder Mike Malesko.  Second baseman Doug Shaneyfelt is also on the team and home run sensation Ryan Disbennet (who hit 3 homers in the first game of the tournament).  Bellas should compete well against most 'B' and 'C' teams in the midwest and beating Tings, SKS, and PRI this weekend is a good start. 

 Bellas
 Larry McCoy
 Mike Malesko
 Tito Workman
 Eric Workman
 Corey Moore
 Anthony Mattix
 Doug Shaneyfelt
 Ian Craze
 Chris Hoffer
 Mike Beckett
 Jason Slack
 Scott Carr
 Brook Crawford
 Ryan Disbennett

The rest of the Moneyball teams

Red Moore yucks it up with GSL UIC Chevy Chase.

Reds played some good ball.  Lost a long game to Creative Stucco when they came back multiple times from double digit deficits.

Then they beat TG pretty good and put up 20+ on PRI in the first inning of the single elim.  Then Tailgaters beat them late Saturday night.

Reds Astros won the Cincinnati Bash 4 Cash last weekend.

Tings beat Floors Unlimited after losing to Tailgaters in pool play. 

At night in the single elim they sent home TG before losing to Bellas.

Ryan Wood was in fact safe and may have been untouched

Dave Boldt is Team Canada's CF

TJ Jorgensen and the Street Kids look on.  SKS beat PRI on a walk off sac fly then lost to Bellas. 

In single elim bracket they beat the Bullshippers before Creative sent them home.

Bullshippers lost to P&P and beat Cooper in pool play.  They were sent home by Street Kids.

This guy for Bullshippers had one sweet swing

TG struggled in all 3 games.  0-2 in a tough pool then sent home by Tings/Orioles.

Jeff Payton left and Vince Bisbee right

The left side of the TG infield

PRI laid down including a 30 run loss to Creative Stucco to end their tournament.

Cooper beat P&P 333 in their opener but lost to Bullshippers but still got a top seed and lost to P&P in the single elim.

More pictures below

Hot Links section brought to you by:

I would like to thank all of my sponsors, GSL's Cliff Majni, and Mojo's Mark Witte for their support!

Some of the archived games from the GSL 'Open' can be found here

GSL website link

Link to Softballcenter.com pictures of the GSL 'Open'

Send corrections to dw@softballcenter.com

Link to the SoftballCenter.com Youtube channel

Link to the 2012 Tournament Reports

Some more pictures for you:

GSL mobile headquarters was this large tent, complete with widescreen tv's to watch basketball and a heater

There was some fan interest in both the HR Derby and some of the early open games

"Softball Guy" picture of the week!

This giant beer can was actually a HR Derby raffle prize which is a grill

I'll have to take her word for it, as I wouldn't know 🙂

I am not sure what Witte was reaching putting the belt on Larsen? 

Maybe his fingers were cold?

Chris Larsen and Ryan Disbennet pose with the MOJO girls before the finals of the HR Derby

GSL RULES:

MOJO TOURNAMENT BALL PROCEDURE

EACH TEAM WILL RECEIVE THEIR TRUMP (ASA STAMPED ONLY 44/375) BALL WHEN THEY CHECK IN BEFORE THERE 1ST SCHEDULED GAME…

IF TEAMS NEED ADDITIONAL BALLS THEY WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ON-SITE DURING THE TOURNAMENT 3 BALLS FOR $10 OR 12 BALLS FOR $40….

SEE BELOW FOR DIVISIONAL BREAKDOWN….

CLASS “E”  – 3 BALLS

CLASS “D” – 4 BALLS

CLASS “C” – 6 BALLS

“OPEN” CLASS – 12 BALLS

Classification Homerun Limit:

 ( A ) DHH + eight ( over the fence home runs then all other over the fence home runs are
outs
 ( B ) DHH + six (6) over the fence home runs then all other over the fence home runs are
outs
 ( C ) DHH + four (4) over the fence home runs then all other over the fence home runs are
outs
 ( D ) DHH + two (2) over the fence home runs then all other over the fence home runs are
outs

BASE BURNER IS GONE:

Teams may use a courtesy runner every inning and the courtesy runner may be ANYONE
on the roster. The courtesy runner may be used unlimited times for one player per inning.
If the courtesy runner is on base and comes to bat, an out will be taken for that spot in the
order. There will be no substitution for a courtesy runner. Courtesy runners must be in
uniform.

Run rules for all GSL play are as follows: (3rd inning/4th inning/5th inning)                                                     
– 20 runs after 3 innings, 15 runs after 4 innings, 10 runs after 5 innings
 Classes “C” and “D” – 20 runs after 3 innings, 15 runs after 4 innings, 12 runs after 5
innings
 Class “B” – 20 runs after 3 innings, 17 runs after 4 innings, 15 runs after 5 innings
 Class “A” – 25 runs after 3 innings, 20 runs after 4 innings, 17 runs after 5 innings

Faking/Juking/"Magic" is allowed in all GSL tournament play.