Tuesday March 26th, 2024
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2013 Nationwide Conference USSSA Columbus, Ohio Major Report!

 

 

 

 

2013 Nationwide Conference USSSA

 

1st Annual

 

"Columbus B.A.T.S" Major

 

Columbus, OH

 

May 31- June 2

 

GTL Doerflinger R&M's Vince Bisbee hits with the Columbus skyline in the background

 

Link to the Softballcenter.com picture album of the Columbus  Major

 

USSSA Columbus tournament info and bracket link

 

 

Laservision/Desert Falls/Boombah/Easton came back from a nasty beating at the hands of Shoppe/TYJA/Louisville Slugger in the winner's bracket championship on Saturday night of the 1st Annual Ohio Major to win 3 straight games on Sunday by a combined score of 111-80 and "double dipped" Shoppe for the championship!  Laservision wins their 2nd tournament of the year as the strong field of 17 Nationwide Conference USSSA clubs teamed up to knock out the previously undefeated Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth.

The weekends hottest teams were Shoppe and GTL and the two of them met the #1 Resmondo and #2 Laservision respectively in the winner's bracket semi-finals.  Early on, both teams looked like they would pull the upset but only Shoppe was able to hang on at the end beating Resmondo 42-39 on the strength of some great defensive plays by substitute shortstop Jonathan Lenz and some great team offense.  GTL however lost a late lead when Laservision hit a pair of grand slam homers and won 26-19.  Then in the winner's bracket finals Shoppe crushed Laservision 37-15 when they had an incredible 22 run 4th inning!  Wow!

The tournament was played under the threat of rain storms but rain only hit briefly on Friday night and again briefly on Saturday night and did not really affect the games.  Many of the teams struggled to adjust to the strong winds which blew in the same direction the entire tournament and reduced scores on field #15 and especially on field #16 to single digits at times.  There was also some confusion with the game balls as not all games were played with the stadium ZN.  The lesser conference ball was used for a number of games on Saturday and it was fun to see the teams try to manufacture runs and group hits together with that ball on the big fields.

The tournament was well run and the fields played perfect with the big artificial turf infields and the longer fence distances.  Now all the Columbus tournament needs are scoreboards and the ability to set the base distances further back to 75 feet.  I hear the scoreboards may be coming for next year!

The fans were treated to some great defense by GTL's Kevin Bazat, Resmondo CF Nick Santana, Shoppe SS Jonathan Lenz, and LineDrive 2B Sal Formosa among many others.  And there were a few fans in attendance including appearances by the legendary Tommy Thompson and former Hague sponsor Jeff Hague both from the Columbus area.  The fans also got to see some absolute bombs hit at the home run derby on Friday night which was won by Lee Powers who beat out Kevin Filby and others.

GTL takes on Albicocco late on Saturday night

DW's Soap Box: 

There were a few pitchers hit in this tournament and at the Major in Seattle and USSSA should always be reevaluating safety.  We had a number of big collisions at first base as well which could have been prevented by a safety bag which I know USSSA is against using but that the league teams would like.  I think this was caused by a shorter than normal first base. The pitchers getting hit also could have been affected by what looked like the use of two different pitching rubbers, the closer of which looked to be an incorrect distance from home plate but I suppose could have been an optical illusion.

All in all a great weekend of competition with hard hitting smash mouth softball and some new winners on the leader board which is good for the game. We got to see some "small ball" with the Dudley Classic M and some big ball with the stadium ball.  Both made for good games.

 

The wind was blowing straight out on fields 14 and 17 and straight in on 15 and 16. At times up to 35 mph

GTL Doerflinger R&M takes on LineDrive on Sunday morning 

The artificial turf infields were sweet and cut deep giving infielder room to play without having to worry about the cut of the grass

Field #16 had a mini green monster in left. Resmondo pitching to Linedrive.

Stadium ZN's were in short supply and a good number of games on Saturday used the regular Classic M ball


 

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 Ohio Major Final Standings & Awards

Place State Team Team
Class
Wins Loses Ties Runs
Scored
Runs
Allow
Avg
Runs
Avg
Allow
Avg
Diff
Max
Runs
USSSA
Points
1 NYU laservision/desertfalls/boombah/eas SPMensMajor 7 1 0 215 166 26.8 20.7 6.12 41 0
2 TN shoppe / tyja / louisville slugger SPMensMajor 5 2 0 220 155 31.4 22.1 9.28 42 0
3 MI line drive sportz/sss/miken SPMensA 6 2 0 147 146 18.3 18.2 0.12 41 0
4 IA gtl doerflinger r&m/easton SPMensA 4 2 0 194 127 32.3 21.1 11.1 45 0
5 NYU albicocco/the scene/easton SPMensA 4 2 0 162 139 27 23.1 3.83 37 0
5 FL resmondo – specialty tank / worth SPMensMajor 3 2 0 159 98 31.8 19.6 12.2 39 0
7 MN Nordkap/Suncoast Reebok SPMensA 3 2 0 108 67 21.6 13.4 8.2 36 0
7 FL demarini/dirty/xtremeathletics SPMensA 3 2 0 103 97 20.6 19.4 1.2 29 0
9 OHO 3rd street/louisville slugger SPMensConfTBD 3 2 0 78 58 15.6 11.6 4 23 0
9 MI p&p333/suburban/larry/mojo/easton SPMensConfTBD 3 2 0 87 97 17.4 19.4 -2 34 0
9 OHC Bellas/MOJO/Miken SPMensC 3 2 0 83 87 16.6 17.4 -0.7 25 0
9 MI trust/ detroit elite/ easton/ mojo SPMensConfTBD 3 2 0 79 114 15.8 22.8 -7 27 0
13 OHN cash house atm / louisville slugger SPMensConfTBD 3 2 0 93 78 18.6 15.6 3 25 0
13 IN red's astros/slugger/stucco/dirty SPMensConfTBD 2 2 0 70 64 17.5 16 1.5 26 0
13 OHO pure romance/chic's/insanity/easton SPMensConfTBD 2 2 0 61 72 15.2 18 -2.7 30 0
13 IL precision/hang rite athletics SPMensConfTBD 2 2 0 75 69 18.7 17.2 1.5 26 0
17 MI TG Brand.MOJO.Easton SPMensConfTBD 2 2 0 62 42 15.5 10.5 5 28 0
17 OHC Dirt Brothers SPMensD 2 2 0 35 32 8.75 8 0.75 11 0
17 OHS njb automotive/gabriel homecareQualified SPMensC 2 2 0 55 61 13.7 15.2 -1.5 21 0
17 PA tailgaters/boys/b&e/mdsoftballshow SPMensC 1 2 0 46 50 15.3 16.6 -1.3 22 0
17 DE ADS/AIN/Unique Image SPMensC 1 2 0 66 57 22 19 3 30 0
17 OHS Cooper/Yuengling/EastonQualified SPMensC 1 2 0 28 40 9.33 13.3 -4 14 0
17 OHS dill's plumbing/pb roofing/citizevsQualified SPMensC 1 2 0 42 49 14 16.3 -2.3 24 0
17 OHO fred's boys/louisville slugger SPMensC 1 2 0 54 54 18 18 0 22 0
25 OHC Team Fear SPMensD 1 2 0 20 46 6.66 15.3 -8.6 11 0
25 OHC Stiffler SoftballQualified SPMensD 1 2 0 14 60 4.66 20 -15. 12 0
25 OHC Bad MOJO/Ants BoysQualified SPMensD 1 2 0 45 42 15 14 1 24 0
25 OHC MJ LoweQualified SPMensD 1 2 0 44 52 14.6 17.3 -2.6 19 0
25 OHO ME 5 ME/Schmoe's SPMensD 0 2 0 15 53 7.5 26.5 -19 11 0
25 OHC associates/xtreme/jerks/bcp SPMensD 0 2 0 21 61 10.5 30.5 -20 11 0
25 OHC Cotner Funeral HomeQualified SPMensD 0 2 0 10 50 5 25 -20 7 0
25 OHS rsc/alphadawgsports/reebok/combat SPMensC 0 2 0 29 46 14.5 23 -8.5 15 0
33 OHS reliable tax / baileys boyzQualified SPMensD 0 2 0 13 38 6.5 19 -12. 9 0
33 OHC lancaster stampede/smithfarms gary SPMensD 0 2 0 17 52 8.5 26 -17. 9 0
33 OHO s&s pools/tpe/sportsco/easton SPMensConfTBD 0 2 0 8 26 4 13 -9 7 0
33 OHC Zero Tolerance SPMensD 0 2 0 15 28 7.5 14 -6.5 10 0
Player Tournament Awards Players Name Plays For
Tournament CO-MVP Brett Helmer LaserVision/DesertFalls/Boombah/Eas
Tournament CO-MVP Kyle Moyer LaserVision/DesertFalls/Boombah/Eas
Offensive Tournament MVP Robert Blackburn SHOPPE / TYJA / LOUISVILLE SLUGGER
Defensive Tournament MVP Brian Wegman LaserVision/DesertFalls/Boombah/Eas
All Tournament Team Brad Reckart GTL Doerflinger R&M/EASTON
All Tournament Team Lee Powers SHOPPE / TYJA / LOUISVILLE SLUGGER
All Tournament Team Kevin Filby LaserVision/DesertFalls/Boombah/Eas
All Tournament Team Chad Durick LaserVision/DesertFalls/Boombah/Eas
All Tournament Team Bryson Baker LaserVision/DesertFalls/Boombah/Eas
All Tournament Team Scott Kirby LaserVision/DesertFalls/Boombah/Eas
All Tournament Team Kyle Cowart SHOPPE / TYJA / LOUISVILLE SLUGGER
All Tournament Team Eric Thompson SHOPPE / TYJA / LOUISVILLE SLUGGER
All Tournament Team David Kessler SHOPPE / TYJA / LOUISVILLE SLUGGER
All Tournament Team Cory Large Line Drive Sportz/sSs/Miken
All Tournament Team Ryan Parfitt Line Drive Sportz/sSs/Miken
All Tournament Team Casey Rogowski SHOPPE / TYJA / LOUISVILLE SLUGGER
All Tournament Team kevin kennington LaserVision/DesertFalls/Boombah/Eas
All Tournament Team Brian Rainwater LaserVision/DesertFalls/Boombah/Eas
All Tournament Team Brandon Dillon GTL Doerflinger R&M/EASTON
All Tournament Team Faron Miller Line Drive Sportz/sSs/Miken

Awards haven't been entered for a couple of weeks on USSSA.com so lets go with Laservisions Kevin Filby as MVP

GTL's Kevin Bazat is my pick for Defensive MVP as he made some impressive sliding backhands and quick throws to first base.

Lee Powers won the HR Derby on Friday night and was on it pretty good all weekend.  Lee is my pick for Offensive MVP.

 

 

 

 

 


 

Team by team notes brought to you by:


 

1st Place – Laservision/Desert Falls/Boombah/Easton

Conf 'M' from NY  7-1 Record

Laservision/Desert Falls was stuck over on field #15 most of the winner's bracket.  The wind was blowing in from RF pretty strong and they struggled through some low scoring games.  Then in the winner's bracket semi-finals they were losing most of the way to GTL Doerflinger R&M before some late inning grand slams pulled out a 25-19 and saved their weekend.  In the winner's bracket championship game they were mercilessly pounded by Shoppe 37-15.  On Sunday morning in the loser's bracket championship they knocked off a hot Line Drive team 36-19 and double dipped Shoppe in the finals 41-35 and 34-26 in games they controlled an advantage most of the way.

Kevin Kennington has a bad wrist and was playing right field this weekend.  Kirby was moved in to second base.  The outfield defense struggles at times but Laservision now has won 2 tournaments and showed some heart by double dipping a very hot Shoppe team.  Laservisions computer rankings get a real boost over 4.0 and you have to give them credit for some very solid offense those last 3 games.  Kevin Filby looks like a great fit in the three hole and the rest of the lineup is buying time for Rainwater, Helmer, and some of the other guys to find their stroke and for everyone to get healthy.

Brian Wegman was tournament director and masher

Laservision's Chad Durick

Kevin Kennington played RF for Laservision

 


 

2nd Place – Shoppe/TYJA/Louisville Slugger

Conf 'A' from TN  5-2 Record

 

Shoppe/TYJA/Louisville Slugger looked like they had this tournament in the bag and it would have been Shoppe's first tournament win in a couple of years.  The team run ruled their first 3 opponents including their nemesis Demarini/Dirty 25-9.  Then they slugged it out with Resmondo in the semi-finals with Powers and Robo leading an offense that scored 42 runs and batted around in a couple of innings.  At the end of the game they received a big double by David Kessler and two diving stop defensive plays by shortstop Jonathan Lenz to seal the deal with a 42-39 win.  There are a lot of teams that would have had a letdown after beating Resmondo but Shoppe then dominated Laservision from the start 37-15.  

On Sunday Shoppe was a lock to win the tournament but Laservision came along and put up consistently solid offensive innings and Shoppe wasn't able to win either game.  Regardless of the outcome Shoppe beat the #1 and #2 teams in the nation back to back and losing in the finals should leave a little fire in the belly for Chicago and The Dudley coming up.

Shoppe received contributions from just about everyone on the team as they used the full squad.  Vitcak was pitching well, Rogowski lengthens and already stout top of the lineup and they have so many lefties that are tough outs that Shoppe should break through and win one of these soon.

David Kessler came up big with a double late in the Resmondo game

 


 

3rd Place – Line Drive Sportz/SSS/Miken

Conf 'A' from MI  6-2 Record

 

Linedrive played a rash of games with the wind blowing in and pulled out games against P&P and 3rd Street.  In the loser's bracket they beat Nordkap 16-12 in 8 innings after getting Kap to ground into a double play with 1 out and runners on 1st and 3rd with the score tied at 12-12 in the bottom of the 7th.  This win put them up against Resmondo who was no hitting Linedrive for the better part of 4 innings with a strong wind blowing in.  Then Linedrive caught fire and scored 11 runs in the top of the 7th to take a 21-20 lead and held Resmondo scoreless in the bottom half of the 7th to score quite possibly their biggest win ever!

On Sunday at 8 AM, Linedrive played a 2 hour plus slugfest against GTL Doerflinger R&M.  Linedrive outscored GTL 12-10 in the 6th inning to take a 36-34 lead and held on 41-34.  The number of extra base hits Linedrive hit in that game almost made up for all of the low scoring games they had to play earlier in the tournament with the wind blowing in.  Linedrive may have found their infield starting lineup with Sal Formosa playing a great 2B and Jared Krasselt looking good at SS.  Cory Large was setting the table with his effortless offense and pitcher Faron Miller shouldered all of the pitching duties with Billy Barrett still out.  I have labeled Linedrive as the "Sonny's of the east" as the two teams have so many similarities with their line drive hitting styles, timely home runs, and capable defense.  And everyone on both teams can run the bases.

LineDrive two hitter and center fielder Ryan Parfitt was hitting backside bombs!

Conference veteran Jason Ferguson launches one for LineDrive

 

LinedDrive infielders Matt Rear, Jared Krasselt, Steve Whaley, and Sal Formosa (or is that Joel Ramos?)

 


 

4th Place – GTL Doerflinger R&M/Easton

Conf 'A' from IA  4-2 Record

 

GTL Doerflinger R&M/Easton gets their 3rd top 4 finish in 4 tournaments played this year.  GTL run ruled Pure Romance and Nordkap/Suncoast Reebok early in the tournament.  Then they held a lead almost the entire game against Laservision before collapsing late in a 25-19 loss.  GTL has never given up this year though, and they overcame a big early deficit to beat Albicocco 45-26 late on Saturday night and lost a marathon game to Linedrive 41-34 on Sunday morning.

The GTL players have some odd personalities but they seem to mesh pretty well and have such a great blend of young up and coming stars with the veterans like Sean McDonald, Rusty Bumgardner, JD Genter, and Vince Bisbee.  These guys had not lost to an 'A' team all year until Linedrive beat them Sunday morning.  That kind of record bodes well for them come 'A' world time.

GTL celebrates another homer

JD Genter is putting up some big numbers in 2013

The GTL Doerflinger R&M uniforms are starting to look like the old GTL unis

 

 

Tied 5th Place – Albicocco/The Scene/Easton

Conf 'A' from NY  4-2 Record

Albicocco won their first two games in Columbus, running their winning streak to 7 games.  The wins included knocking off Reds Astros 28-13 early in the tournament.  Then Resmondo beat them 24-11 in a game that was 5-4 Resmondo after 5 innings?  In the loser's bracket Albicocco took advantage of field #17 with the wind blowing out to knock off Bellas 37-16, Demarini/Dirty 36-27, and jumped out to a big lead early on GTL before letting one get away 45-26.

Albicocco brought in Brad Stillwell to play infield and Evan Gallmeier to play center field.  I believe they were missing SS Robert Knoblauch and sponsor/manager Toni Albicocco.  A solid weekend for Albicocco who had some good success against top 10 teams.

 

Albicoccos lead off man Steve Allen

Albicocco picked up Evan Gallmeier to play CF

Ballard didn't win the HR Derby?  Oh ya, he wasn't invited…

 

Albicocco celebrates a Tmack bomb!  Is that a Brad Stillwell sighting (above right)?

 

 


 

Tied 5th Place – Resmondo – Specialty Tank/Worth

Conf 'M' from FL  3-2 Record

Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth just did not have it this weekend.  Their win streak to start the season was halted at 25 games.  Early in the tournament they did not play well against Trust/Detroit Elite, a 'C' team who had them tied up at 14-14 mid-way through the game.  They didn't play well against Albicocco who trailed just 5-4 after 5 innings.  Then Resmondo played an epic shootout with Shoppe who made just a few more big defensive plays down the stretch and Resmondo's win streak came to an end with a 42-39 loss.  In the loser's bracket with the wind gusting in, Resmondo held Linedrive scoreless through 4 innings but the defense made some more uncharacteristic errors and allowed Linedrive to come back to a 21-20 lead going into the bottom of the 7th.  Resmondo was unable to muster a run in the bottom half and lost the game to make their losing streak two in a row.  

A bad weekend for Resmondo and yet they still finished 5th and lost both games in the last inning.  All of the Resmondo players are pretty healthy now with only Bobby Hughes still recovering from a surgery.  Resmondo will regroup with tournaments in Chicago and Minnesota in the coming weeks and still easily remain in 1st place in both the points and the computer rankings.

 

Some days the ball just doesn't bounce your way

There is the Purcell knuckle grip.   Don't try this at home…or maybe try it and see if you can duplicate it!  🙂

 


 

The Rest of the Conference Teams:

7th Place – Nordkap/Suncoast Reebok  3-2 – Kap beat 3 'C' teams but dropped two to rival 'A' teams. 

Pitcher Wolf Wilson had his helmet taken clean off by a line drive but stayed in the game.

 



7th Place – Demarini/dirty/xtremeathletics  3-2 – Dirty used a walk off hit by Joe Gordon to beat 3rd Street, was run ruled by Shoppe, and outslugged by Albicocco.

Chemistry seems ok, the 2012 swagger is lacking.

 



9th Place – 3rd street/louisville slugger 3-2 – Lost on a walk off hit to Dirty, sent home Precision, and was ousted 9-7 by Linedrive with the wind blowing in at 30 mph.

 



9th Place – P&P333/suburban/larry/mojo/easton  3-2 – Lost to Linedrive 9-7.  Beat Tailgaters and Cash House.  Sent home big by Dirty.

 


 


9th Place – Trust/ detroit elite/ easton/ mojo  3-2 – Trust actually had a pretty good weekend.  They sent home rival TG Brand had a big win over Reds Astros.  Both games were low scoring and heavily affected by the wind.  Before that they had Resmondo tied at 14-14 before losing 38-23.  If they shore up the infield defense this team could surprise some people.

 



13th Place – Cash house atm / louisville slugger  3-2 – Still trying to get first win against Conference opponent.

 


 


13th Place – Red's astros/slugger/stucco/dirty  2-2  – I like the new "Dirty" uniforms.  Reds didn't adjust to the wind like their opponents did.



13th Place – Pure romance/chic's/insanity/easton  2-2 – Congratulations to Steve Edwards and his wife on the baby!  Get some tips from Jon on how to change a diaper.  🙂

 



13th Place – Precision/hang rite athletics  2-2 – Was 0-2 vs Conference opponents and missing most of their Conference experienced players.  They did pick up Robert Sena to do some pitching.


 


17th Place – TG Brand.MOJO.Easton  2-2 – Lost to Cooper in their Friday opener.  Couldn't beat rival Trust with wind blowing in hard.  Bring back the pink uniforms…


 


33rd Place – S&S pools/tpe/sportsco/easton  0-2 – 8 runs in two games…

 


 

More pictures below

 


 

Hot Links section brought to you by:

I would like to thank all of my sponsors, USSSA, the SoftballCenter and Oldscout advertisers!

I would also like to thank tournament directors Brian Wegman and Elliot Clark.

USSSA Columbus Major tournament link

Link to Softballcenter.com pictures of the Columbus Major

Send corrections to dw@softballcenter.com

Link to the SoftballCenter.com Youtube channel

Link to the 2013 Tournament Reports

Link to the 2012 Tournament Reports

Nationwide Conference USSSA Points Link

SoftballCenter.com Computer Rankings Link (Updated later in the week)

 


 

Some more pictures for you:

Over on the field next to this one (#15) Sam Lopez hit that building on a massive homer.

It is 435 right down the left field line to the building so he hit it at least 440 and probably longer!

These are the cameras that USSSALive.com uses for the livestreaming

In order to announce a game I would have had to stand under the camera and try to see the game through the green "infielders eye" below the camera.

Just wasn't a good situation.

This was the livestream cameras view of the game

Scotty "Slim Fingers" Oneill the former Taylormade manager is back as a Conference umpire!

The outfield fences had some odd nooks and crannies

It was "see ball, hit ball" for this Mojo Masher.  Bellas/Mojo was the highest finishing non-Conference team at 3-2 and tied for 9th

Get your MOJO on!  MOJOSportsgear.com

19% of us were right!

 

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