Tuesday March 26th, 2024
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A look back at the 2013 USSSA Major World Series tournament report!

 

 

 

 

2013 USSSA Major World Series!

 

September 18-22

 

Kissimmee, Florida

 

Scott Brown of Team Combat announced his retirement from playing.  This was his last at bat.  A base hit!

Thank you for all the great years.  One of the best hitter's in the game for a long time.

Enjoy your retirement!

 

Link to the Softballcenter picture of the Major World Series

 

USSSA Major World Series tournament info and bracket link

 

I would like to thank Don Dedonatis, Laurie Timmons, and Elliot Clark of USSSA for their hospitality!

Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth wins the Major World Series as they went unbeaten and used a walk off homer by Ronald "Bubba" Mack in the bottom of the 9th inning to beat Laservision/Desert Falls/Boombah/Easton 33-31 in the final game! 

The championship game was full of drama and may have been the best game of the 2013 World Series.  The game started with an incredible diving line drive stab by Resmondo 3rd baseman Jimmy Salas who then jumped quickly to his feet to double the runner off of first base.  In the second inning Brian Wegman hit a grand slam for Laservision and Kevin Kennington added a 3 run homer to push Laservision out to a 10-2 lead. Wegman then made the Laservision lead 14-3 on a 3 run homer in the top of the 3rd.  In the bottom of the 3rd Resmondo's Greg Connell hit a 2 run homer to make it 14-5 and Laservision closed out Resmondo on a nice play by Scott Kirby at 1st base and a home run robbing catch by Wegman in left field. Laservision opened the door for a comeback when they failed to score in the top of the 4th and Resmondo came in and got a 3 run homer from veteran Howie Krause and a 2 run homer from the big lefty BJ Fulk to close the gap to 14-13. In the back and forth game that the championship became, Laservision put up another zero in the top of the 5th and Resmondo responded with 3 run homers from Fulk and Bubba Mack to cap a 9 run inning and a 22-14 Resmondo lead. The 6th inning started with Laservision loading up the bases and a controversial line drive stab at 3rd base that was called "no catch". After a long discussion between umpires they got the call correct and everyone was safe.  That led to a Scott Kirby grand slam and a 23-22 Laservision lead which could have been more if not for Resmondo left fielder Jeremy Yates running down a ball in the outfield.  Resmondo came in and scratched across 3 runs to take a 25-23 lead to the 7th inning.

In the top of the 7th Laservision scored and impressive 9 runs as their top 4 hitters all got hits and the inning was highlighted by a 3 run homer by Kevin Kennington. That was followed by solo homer's by Geno Buck and Brian Rainwater and then they took to the field with the gloves in the bottom of the 7th with an unexpected 31-25 lead.  Resmondo was on the ropes and staring an "if" necessary game in the face when Laservision got the first batter out.  Then a solo homer by Howie Krause got Resmondo going and they closed the gap to 31-29 on a 3 run homer by pitcher Andy Purcell.  Laservision then changed pitchers to the Hall of Famer Billy Messina to try and close out the game. BJ Fulk promptly singled, Jimmy Salas walked, and Don Dedonatis Jr brought Resmondo to within one run with a big one out double up the middle.  Bubba Mack then had a chance to end the game with the tying run on 3rd and the winning run on second and with one out he hit a fly ball to left field for a sacrifice and tied game at 31-31.  Laservision then intentionally walked Yates and got a fielder's choice to end regulation tied.

In the 8th inning the top of the Laservision order which had been rock solid all tournament long went 1-2-3 and Resmondo returned the favor in the bottom of the 8th as they managed just one base runner.

In the 9th inning Laservision again went 1-2-3 with Andy Purcell stabbing his second Travis Clark liner up the middle of the game.  In the bottom of the 9th Resmondo started with a walk to Fulk then got two putouts before Bubba Mack deposited the game winning homer over the 385 sign in the left center field gap for the win, and the celebration was on for Resmondo who won their 8th World Title for sponsor Travis Resmondo. The agony of defeat hit  Laservision pretty hard as they had more than enough chances with the gloves and the bats to win the game.

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Championship game of the Major World Series!

 

Resmondo's Bubba Mack drives a ball 385+ feet for the walk off Championship winning homer!

The 2013 USSSA Major World Series champions Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth

 

Championship Sunday, Jeremy Yates in LF and Nick Santana in CF

Lots of green grass at Champions Stadium

The tournament began back on Wednesday, September 18th with some bracket play in games by the lowest 4 seeds out of the 18 teams starting at 2 PM.  BaughFord.com used a game winning walk off hit down the right field line by Sean Greer to beat the Military representative West Coast Drash 14-13.  Precision had some spectacular play by their outfield (Porter and Kvasnicka) to beat Team Adiktiv 22-14.

The top 4 seeds then took to the Champions Stadium field in the round of 16 on Wednesday evening with Nordkap knocking off Team Combat 15-11 on the strength of a 4-4 with 4 HR and 7 RBI performance by big Chris Greinert who's 2 run homer in the bottom of the 6th with two outs was the difference in the game.  Then Laservision jumped out to a 14-2 lead on BaughFord.com and had to survive a barrage of Baugh homers and play 7 innings in order to win 30-24.  This was followed by two blowouts as Resmondo jumped out to a 12-0 lead with a 9 run second inning and finished off Precision 38-7 with a 14 run 4th.  Then in the night cap Shoppe jumped out to a 14-0 lead on recent 'B' World champs Chaps with a 9 run 3rd inning and "flip flopped" and run ruled Chaps 18-1 in the 5th.

The remainder of the round of 16 was played out on Thursday with GTL run ruling PRI 27-7 in 4 innings with two 8 run innings and a 10 run inning led by center fielder Brandon Dillon who was 3-4 with 2 HR and 7 RBI. In the second game of the day Line Drive Sportz and Taylormade scratched 2 and 3 run innings out most of the game.  then in the bottom of the 6th Taylormades Billy Moran hit a big 2 run homer to put them up 14-10.  Line Drive though fought back with 2 out 2 run homer by Matt Rear to tie the game at 14-14 in the top of the 7th before Taylormade center fielder and lead off man Brian Logan won the game with a walk off single 15-14. In the third game of the day Red's beat Albicocco 27-18 after Albicocco scored 7 runs in the 1st and Red's took advantage of some Albicocco mistakes in the bottom of the inning to score 8 runs with 2 outs.  The game was close most of the way but Red's pulled it out in the 6th on a Steve Kingsolver grand slam which led to 10 runs in the bottom of the 6th.  In the final game of the round of 16 Demarini/Dirty smoked Fence Brokers 18-2 on the strength of multiple homers by Chris Larsen and 4th inning homers by Joe Gordon and Lee Payne.

Late Thursday afternoon the round of 8 began as Shoppe handled GTL fairly easily 20-7. Shoppe center fielder Kyle Cowart was 3-4 with 3 homers and 5 RBI.  Nordkap had an entertaining battle with Demarini/Dirty as both teams big sluggers (Chris Greinert-Nordkap and Chris Larsen-Demarini) exchanged 3 run homers in the first inning which ended with an 11-9 Nordkap lead.  Dirty got 6 runs in the 2nd to take a 15-12 lead.  Another Chris Greinert bomb in the top of the 5th closed the Dirty lead to 22-21.  Then in the 7th inning with Demarini leading 24-22 and the winning run at the plate, Demarini pitcher Sean Jones body blocked a hard grounder up the middle, recovered, and flipped to 2nd where Kevin Lucas slipped coming across the bag but was still able to complete the double play with an off balance throw to first for the win!

Laservision then walked through Taylormade 19-4 on a 10 run 2nd led by Scott Kirby's 3 run homer.  In the night cap Thursday Resmondo jumped out to an incredible 18-0 lead on Red's Astros in the first inning on big 3 run homers by Jimmy Salas and Jeremy Isenhower.  A BJ Fulk grand slam made it 27-5 Resmondo in the 3rd.  But Red's never rolled over and in one of the more entertaining games of the tournament they scored 8 runs in the 3rd and 10 runs in the bottom of the 4th to cut the Resmondo lead to 31-23!  Resmondo never let off the gas though and scored at least 4 runs in every inning of the game and held off Red's 43-27 in 6 innings.  Resmondos BJ Fulk was 5-6 with 3 HR and 10 RBI in the game. Resmondo hit 13 HR in the game and Jeremy Yates and Jimmy Salas also had 3 homers each.

On Friday the winner's bracket was down to 4 teams as Laservision took on Shoppe at 4:15 PM.  The game was a shootout as Laservision scored 33 runs on 16 homers and scored 10 runs in the bottom of the 5th and 9 more in the bottom of the 6th to win.  Kevin Filby had 3 homers and Bryson Baker, Kevin Kennington, Kyle Moyer, and Brian Rainwater had 2 each!  Shoppe kept pace until the bottom of the 6th with 24 runs on just 5 homers.  They tied the game in the top of the 5th with 7 runs, and closed the gap to 1 in the top of the 6th with a 9 run inning but only put up 1 run in the 7th and lost.  Shoppe was led by Eric Thompson who was 4-4 and the top of the order – Powers, Cocco, Blackburn, and Haglund who were a combined 13 for 18 in the game. 

In the other semi-final which was broadcast along with the Home Run Derby on ESPN3.com, Resmondo and Demarini/Dirty were locked in a head scratching low scoring night game?  Resmondo center fielder Nick Santana single handedly kept Dirty in check with 3 incredible running or diving catches.  Steven Lloyd accounted for most of the Demarini scoring with 2 run homers in the 2nd and 7th innings.  Greg Connell gave Resmondo a 5-2 lead in the bottom of the 3rd with a 3 run homer.  Santana and Dirty 1st baseman Mike Wrenn exchanged great defensive plays to keep both teams scores low in the middle innings.  Then in the bottom of the 6th, Resmondo's Jeremy Yates hit a 2 run homer to give his team a 10-3 lead and Resmondo ended up winning a game that neither team seemed to want, 14-7.

Saturday night brought the long anticipated winner's bracket championship "heavy weight" title fight on ESPN3.com between the two remaining undefeated teams, Resmondo and Laservision.  In front of one of the larger crowds of the year (if not the largest) Resmondo put up a zero in the top of the first inning.  Laservision picked up 3 runs in the bottom half but Brett Helmer got thrown out at second base trying to stretch an RBI single.  In the second inning Resmondos Jeremy Yates and Greg Connell each hit 2 run homers for Resmondo and Geno Buck and Kevin Filby hit 2 run homers for Laservision.  Laservision led 9-7.  In the 3rd inning Resmondo turned up the defense getting a bases loaded double play and a great running catch by Santana to keep Laservision close 10-7.  The offensive flood gates opened up for Resmondo in the top of the 4th as Fulk, Isenhower, Krause, and Purcell all homered their way to a 20-10 Lead.  Brian Wegman and Laservision closed that gap to 20-14 on a Wegman homer.  In the 5th Resmondo put up a zero but Laservision could only manage a Buck 2 run homer and Resmondo led 20-16.  Resmondo added 2 on a base hit by Jimmy Salas in the top of the 6th and 5 more runs and a 28-17 lead in the top of the 7th when Laservsion couldn't come up with what would have been some great but makeable plays.  Laservision could muster just a 3 run homer by Sam Lopez in the bottom of the 7th and lost 28-20.

In the loser's bracket GTL/Doerflinger/R&M made a big run knocking off Team Combat 17-2 and then winning 3 consecutive one run games over Taylormade, Demarini, and Nordkap.  On Sunday morning their Cinderella run barely came to an end in the loser's bracket championship as they lost just 23-20 to Laservision.

The tournament was played in good but warm weather with beautiful evenings.  The wind at Champions stadium which normally blows across from left to right did just that for the first 3 days and right hand batters rarely hit homers to left field during day games.  But the wind shifted over from right to left and right handers took over on Saturday and Sunday.  Their was a full crew of the top 8 Nationwide Conference USSSA umpires who did a great job.  There were not a lot of great games, but enough to be entertaining.  There were some long homers led by Nordkaps Chris Greinert.  Jimmy Salas was the only player to go over the scoreboard in center field. Billy Maggard from Chaps who is not a real big guy, wowed the crowd in the HR Derby with a shot through the top of the flags in left field. Robert "Robo" Blackburn from Louisville Slugger won the prestigious Home Run Derby. BJ Fulk, Brett Helmer and others hit a couple over the yellow "Helmer Wall" in right field.  There were numerous shots off the scoreboard and a bunch of one run games especially involving GTL.  The tournament as is tradition used the Dudley ZN Stadium ball which is .47 core and 525 compression. 

The tournament average hitter batted just .539 which is typical for baseball fields with a .564 on base percentage and the average homers was just over 4 per team per game with the major teams inflating that average with Laservision hitting a team high 70 home runs.  Remember at the World Series errors are not counted as hits and sacrifice fly's are not counted as an at bat.  There are official score keepers in the booth that do a great job discussing each questionable error to keep the integrity of the World Series statistics over the years.

Resmondo is the champs…again, and it should be an entertaining offseason as the Nationwide Conference USSSA looks to grow again in 2014 with teams swapping players like wild fire.

It was a decent sized crowd for the winner's bracket championship game on Saturday night (above) and

the home run derby crowd on Friday night was about the same.

GTL takes on Demarini on Saturday afternoon

Friday night – Resmondo defends against Demarini

Albicocco's Phil White hits a line drive snared by Taylormade third baseman Rick Leith back on Field #5


 

Video Highlites brought to you by:

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Note: Video highlites will be posted soon!

 


 

Major Home Run Derby Final Standings!

Round 1
Steven Lloyd – DeMarini Dirty – 1
Jon Jammison – Pure Romance – 1
Lee Powers – Shoppe – 2
Christan Dowling – 0
Keith Laski – Precision – 1
Rusty Baumgardner – GTL – 1
Jason Magnum – Team Adiktiv – 1
Jackie Corn – TaylorMade – 2
Keith Anderson – Line Drive – 2
Scott Brown – Team Combat – 3
Chris Greinert – Nordkap – 1
Shaun Ballard – Albicocco – 4
Cory Boothe – Nordkap – 2
JD Genter – GTL – 0
Billy Maggard – Chaps Buzini – 4
Tim Bowser – Fence Brokers – 2
Tim Cocco – Shoppe – 6
Chad Mullins – Red's Astros – 2
Clay Smitherman – Baugh Ford – 5
Matt Austin – Team Drash – 1
 
Round 2
Scott Brown – Team Combat – 4
Shaun Ballard – Albicocco – 3
Billy Maggard – Chaps Buzini – 3
Clay Smitherman – Baugh Ford – 4
Tim Cocco – Shoppe – 3
Andy Purcell – Resmondo – 6
Christan Dowling – 0
Kevin Filby – Laservision – 5
Joey Formosa – Team Combat – 3
Jimmy Salas – Resmondo – 0
Brett McCollum – Shoppe – 4
Jeremy Isenhower – Resmondo – 2
Brett Helmer – Laservision – 7
Brian Wegman – Laservision – 1
Robert Blackburn – Shoppe – 5
Sam Lopez – Laservision – 3
Scott Kirby – Laservision – 10
Kevin Kennington – Laservision – 4
Bubba Mack – Resmondo – 2
Chad Durick – Laservision – 2
Dale Brumgardt – Dirty – 1
 
Round 3
Scott Brown – Team Combat – 2
Clay Smitherman – Baugh Ford – 3
Brett McCollum – Shoppe – 3
Kevin Kennington – Laservision – 4
Kevin Filby – Laservision – 4
Robert Blackburn – Shoppe – 4
Andy Purcell – Resmondo – 2
Brett Helmer – Laservision – 6
Scott Kirby – Laservision – 5
 
Round 4
Kevin Kennington – Laservision – 2
Kevin Filby – Laservision – 6
Robert Blackburn – Shoppe – 10
Scott Kirby – Laservision – 2
Brett Helmer – Laservision – 8

 

Major Awards and Final Standings

 

2013 USSSA Major World Series All Tournament Team

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Awards video

Greg Connell – MVP – .840, 8 HR, 20 RBI

Kevin Filby – Offensive MVP and HR Champ (12)

Nick Santana – Defensive MVP

John Rector – Manager

BJ Fulk

Andy Purcell

Don Dedonatis

Dennis Rulli

Howie Krause

Jeremy Yates

Brian Rainwater

Scott Kirby

Brian Wegman

Brett Helmer

Bryson Baker

Kevin Kennington

Kevin Bazat

Brad Reckart

Brandon Dillon

Chris Greinert

Andrew Collins

Steven Lloyd

Lee Powers

Jason Branch

The hardware

 


 

Team by team notes brought to you by:


 

1st Place – Resmondo – specialty tank / worth

Conf 'M' from Florida  5-0 Record

Lots of celebration rituals on that Resmondo team

Resmondo goes undefeated but not without challenge to win the main sponsor Travis Resmondo’s 8th Major Title.  Resmondo started with a 12 run lead on Precision and beat them 38-7 on Wednesday night.  On Thursday night Resmondo jumped out to an 18 run lead in the first inning on Red’s but had to fight for 6 innings to finally beat Red’s by the run rule 43-27 as Red’s had taken the momentum half way through the game.  The game was highlighted by a great home run robbing catch by left fielder and Nationwide Conference USSSA Defensive Player of the Year Jeremy Yates.  On Friday Resmondo won a low scoring game against Demarini 14-7 with great defense, especially from center fielder Nick Santana and pitcher Andy Purcell.  On Saturday night Resmondo and Laservision each homered 9 times but Resmondo out hit Laservision 33-22 on their way to a 28-20 victory.  And I wrote earlier how Resmondo won the championship game in the 9th inning with a walk off homer by Bubba Mack.  One thing that may go a little overlooked is the two line drive smashes Purcell caught at pitchers mound in the late innings against Travis Clark.  It almost looked like Purcell "baited" Clark and filled the hole on the second base side on the first and stayed home in the middle on the second.  Of course that first one was right at Purcell's face when he moved to cover the hole so it makes one wish Andy was wearing a helmet but he still does have the best reflexes at pitcher in all of softball.

Resmondo played hurt with Greg Connell (slight fracture in thumb), Don Dedonatis (elbow), and Jeremy Isenhower (leg) banged up and Howie Krause taking a bad bounce at first base to the head.  They sported a .617 team batting average and hit 47 homers in 5 games.

The team still possesses great leadership, they make the right roster moves, and they won games with defense, offense, and hustle.  Congratulations on a great season where this team goes down in softball history as one of the best ever winning 11 tournaments and going 57-5 on the season.

Salas at third, Dedonatis at SS, and Rulli at MI

 


 

2nd Place – Laservision/Desert Falls/Boombah/Easton

Conf 'M' from NY  4-2 Record

 

Laservision comes up short but it wasn’t for a lack of effort.  They showed a lot of heart to almost force an “if” game in that 9 inning championship game.  They had the chance to win the game with the bats and the gloves in both games against Resmondo. 

Laservision started with a closer than they thought win over BaughFord 30-24 on Wednesday.  They beat Taylormade easily on Thursday and fought past Shoppe on Friday with big innings in the 5th and 6th innings.  They just never had that one more big inning against Resmondo that they needed or that one outstanding game changing defensive play that could have pushed them over the hump.

Resmondo did lead the tournament in homers with 70 in 6 games and scored 150 runs.   Filby, Kirby, Wegman, and Rainwater had huge tournaments with batting average, homers, and RBI.  Bryson Bakers streak of winning the world series ends at 7?  Geno Buck pitched from in front of the rubber which was an important factor for Laservision.

Look for big changes coming for Laservision as they try to become a more defensive minded and younger team.

Scott Kirby at 2B, and Geno Buck at 1B

Laservision 3B Mike Umschied, SS Bryson Baker, and MI Kevin Kennington

 


 

3rd Place – GTL Doerflinger R&M/Easton

Conf 'A' from IA  5-2 Record

 

GTL's Brandon Dillon hit a 3 run homer in the 2nd inning and an inside the park homer for a 3-4, 2 HR, 7 RBI day and GTL run ruled PRI by 20 runs 27-7 in their opener on Thursday morning.  Then in their second game they got beat by Shoppe 20-7 as Sean McDonald and Brandon Dillon homers were their only highlights.

In the loser’s bracket GTL made a run reminiscent of Taylormade and FBI of the past as they beat Taylormade on a walk off 2 run homer by Vince Bisbee in the bottom of the 7th trailing by a run 14-13.  Brad Reckart was 4-4. Then they beat Demarini 19-18 even though they were outscored 7-0 in the last two innings.  Kyle Pearson and Branden Blake were each 3-4 with a homer.  This was followed by a 14-13 win over Nordkap late on Saturday night as they blanked Kap in the last two innings.  JD Genter was 2-2 with 2 homers.  All 3 one run games were on Saturday and this put them in the loser’s final on Sunday against Laservision.  In that game GTL answered Laservisions 10 run lead in the 2nd with a 10 run inning of their own and then batteled the rest of the way but only scored 3 in the bottom of the 7th to close to within 23-20 in the loss.  Dillon led the way with a 4-4 performance and his 5th homer of the tournament.  Reckart and Bazat chipped in with 3 hits each.  GTL hit 27 homers in the tournament and won 5 games.

GTL ends the season with 5 Sunday finishes and a great run at the Major.  They nearly made it to the championship game where you just never know what could have happened.  Congratulations to this team and manager Rob Humphrey as they faced much adversity throughout the season but still managed to have just about every player make every game for the whole season!

Sean McDonald at 1B and "Flaco" Salazar at 2B

Kyle Pearson had some big home runs and a big assist in their close games

 


 

4th Place – Nordkap/Suncoast Reebok

Conf 'A' from MN  4-2 Record

 

Greinert and Zirkle celebrate a scoreboard smashing homer

 


 

Tied 5th Place – Shoppe/TYJA/Louisville Slugger

Conf 'M' from TN  2-2 Record

1st Base Eric Thompson and 2B Brett McCollum

Kessler hits against GTL


 

Tied 5th Place – Demarini/Dirty/XtremeAthletics

Conf 'A' from FL  2-2 Record

Kevin Lucas turns a game winning DP vs Nordkap as he slips off the base

Demarini pitcher Losson White and middle infielder Orlando Castillo

 


The Rest of the MWS Teams!


7th VA – Taylormade/tm sports/mizuno  2-2  –


7th IN – Red's astros/slugger/stucco/dirty  2-2  –


 


9th NY – Albicocco/the scene/easton  1-2  –

Albicocco lost their opener to ‘A’ rival Red’s Astros when they opened the door with errors in the first and 6th innings and Reds scored 19 runs in those innings.  Dan Sanchez who is a great hitter for a pitcher was leading off?  Ballard was 3-4 with a homer and 4 RBI in the loss.

In the losers bracket Albicocco knocked off Precision 14-10 on the strength of 4 homers from 4 hitters (Sanchez, Ballard, Rockoff, and Tony Mack).  In their final game Taylormade sent them home 10-7.  Evan Gallmeier had a great diving catch as a big highlight for Albicocco but there were not many of them this weekend.  Albicocco is rumored to be trying to play major in 2014 which would be welcome news!


 


9th MS – Chaps/BWW/Worth/Buzini  1-2  –

Chaps got smoked in their opener against Shoppe on Wednesday night 18-1 as most ‘B’ World Champs do at the major.  They recovered momentarily by beating PRI 9-7 with homer’s by Billy Maggard and Chad Loudon back on Field #5.  Then they lost by the run rule to Nordkap 23-8 back in the stadium on Saturday.

Chaps had all of their players and had the big guns that were banged up at the ‘B’ World back in the lineup for the major.  But they only scored 18 runs in 3 games and that was the story.

Chaps Billy Maggard put on a show at the HR Derby with a LONG BOMB through the flags in LF



9th WA – Team Combat/lbg/derby boys  1-2  –

Team Combat had another rough tournament.  They were healthy and had all of their players for probably the first time all season but the results were the same.  They put themselves in a bad spot with the seeding having to play the #4 seed Nordkap in their first game but jumped out to a 9-2 lead on Kap with a 3 run homer by Scott Brown in the second inning.  But Greinert from Nordkap would homer 4 times in the game and Combat would muster just 2 more runs in a 15-11 loss on Wednesday.

In the loser’s bracket they outlasted FBI back on field #5 17-13.  Bryce Oliveira and Joey Formosa hitting homers.  In their final game against GTL, Combat was being no hit for 3 innings and managed just 4 hits in a 17-2 loss on Saturday morning.

Combat batted just .438 as a team with 4 homers.  Scott Brown in his final world series was 4-7 with a homer, triple, double, and single and 5 RBI.


 


9th MI – Line Drive Sportz/sss/miken  1-2  –

Line Drive was playing catch up most of their opening game against Taylormade and trailed 14-10 going into the 7th inning.  They got some clutch hitting by pinch hitter Geno Burdick and a game tying homer from Matt Rear to tie the game at 14-14 but lost on a walk off single by Brian Logan after two walks to start the inning.

In the losers bracket they won a tight game over BaughFord 13-11 as Jared Krasselt had 2 homers and Keith Anderson had 3 hits and a homer.  In their final game they trailed Red’s Astros the whole way in a 15-12 loss.

Line Drive never had their signature big inning the entire tournament and thus too low of scores to win at the world series.



13th IL – Precision/hang rite athletics  1-2  –

Precision went up 10-1 on a Frank Fracek grand slam in the top of the 4th inning and held their lead when Porter made a great catch with the bases loaded in the 5th.  Team Adiktive came back to close the score to 11-10 in the bottom of the 6th but Precision pulled away with a on a Jason Gilfillan homer.  Precision though scored 11 runs in the top of the 7th though to win 22-10.   In their second game Wednesday against Resmondo, Precision lost 38-7 as they watched Resmondo hit 13 homers.

In the losers bracket Precision trailed 11-9 going into the 6th against Albicocco and lost 14-10.  Precision hit .469 with 7 HR in 3 games.  Kyndrich Doggett was a perfect 4-4 and Bryan Porter was 7-10 with a homer and 7 RBI and a number of great plays in the outfield.


 


13th AL – Baugh ford/mojo/louisville slugger  1-2  –

Baugh Ford kicked off the Major World Series early Wednesday afternoon as they held off WC DRASH 14-13.  Baughs Clay Smitherman hit a monster 3 run homer in the bottom of the 5th to tie the game at 8 runs a piece.  Then in the bottom of the 6th Shawn Bridger, Clay Smitherman, and Brad Blankenship all had RBI hits to give Baugh a 5 run 6th and a 13-9 lead.  In the top of the 7th WC Drash scored 4 runs to tie the game at 13-13 but Baugh Ford scored on a hit down the right field line by Sean Greer to win 14-13. Sean also had a game winning hit for D2E a couple years ago in the World Series. Davis Bilardello also homered twice for Baugh. In their second game on Wednesday Baugh got off to a slow start against Laservision as they trailed 13-2 lead early on as Laser hit a slew of home runs. Baugh Ford came back in the bottom of the 3rd inning with homers by Clay Smitherman, Brad Blankenship, Dave Garcia, and Sean Greer to close the gap to 14-11.  Laservsion though would hit 15 home runs in the game and score 8 runs in the top of the 7th and held on to win 30-24 eventhough Baugh Ford scored 11 runs in the bottom of the 7th and Baugh also had 11 homers of their own in the game. Baugh never gave up in this one.

In their final game Baugh led 9-8 after 4 complete innings against Line Drive but LD scored the next 5 runs and held on 13-11.

Baugh played 3 close games and even hung with Laservision.  Baugh showed good power averaging 5.3 HR per game (Smitherman 4) and had a team batting average of .500.

P.s. Andy Urban had the worst at bat entry music.  Not sure what it was.  But the guy can hit, we’ll give him that.


 


13th AR – Fence Brokers/hubs pub/gts/worth  1-2  –

Fence Brokers opened with a terrible loss to Demarini/Dirty 18-2 as their only offense was provided by Tim Bowser who hit a 2 run homer.  In the loser’s bracket they knocked off WC Drash 22-10 as Greg Hartwick was 4-4 with a homer and 6 RBI.  FBI had one of the biggest innings of the tournament when they broke open their 4-2 lead in the top of the 4th inning with 15 runs! 

In their final game against Team Combat back on field #5 they trailed Combat just 10-9 after 5 innings but lost 7-4 the rest of the way and went home 17-13.  FBI’s Tim Bowser was 4-4 with a homer and batted .727 for the weekend.

FBI batted .449 for the weekend with 4 homers in 3 games.  Pitcher Jason Bridges was 6-7, Greg Hartwick batted .667 and the Hubbard brothers played the middle of the defense while going 10-17 in the tournament.

Kenny Leach of FBI tracks one down against Team Combat on F5

Fence Broker's player/sponsor Chris Walker has said this is his last year (again).  Unfortunately I think he means it this time.

Thank You Chris for all of your years of supporting upper level softball!

FBI pitcher Jason Bridges – "well you see, I am a really good free throw shooter"


13th OH – Pure Romance/chic's/insanity/easton  1-2  –

PRI watched a track meet of GTL runner's score as they allowed 23 hits including 5 homers in a mercy rule 27-7 loss.  A Jimmy Carter homer was the only highlite.

In the loser's bracket PRI jumped out to a 10 run lead on Adiktiv and never looked back in a 16-6 win.  Jimmy Carter added two more homers and leadoff hitter Brian Farrar and SS Brandon Bellamy were each 4-4 in the game.

In their final game back on Field #5 against Chaps they trailed the whole way 9-2 but did score 5 in the top of the 7th to come up 2 runs short.  Bellamy added 2 more hits and a homer.

PRI batted .469 with 4 HR’s in 3 games.


 


17th GA – Team Adiktiv/dynasty/d2e/ls/tyja  0-2  –

Team Adiktiv won the last chance Conference Qualifying tournament over Labor Day weekend in order to get into the MWS as the #17 against Precision.  Precision went up a quick 10-1 after a grand slam in the top of the 4th inning and the Precision outfield made a number of great catches to hold down the frustrated Adiktiv offense. Team Adiktiv came back to close the score to 11-10 in the bottom of the 6th but Precision pulled away with 10 runs in the top of the 7th to win 21-14.  Ron Pearce was 4-4 with a homer.

In their loser's bracket game against Pure Romance on Thursday Team Adiktiv trailed 10-0 before Josh Wiggs homered and Ron Pearce homered twice to close the gap to 10-4.  But the Adiktiv offense did not come through and they lost 16-6 with just 10 hits.

Adiktiv went 0-2, and they hit just .387 with 6 homers.


17th CA – Gov't Issue / west coast drash  0-2  – 

West Coast Drash was the military representative to the Major World Series as the #18 seed.  They led Baugh Ford in their opener early on 4-2 but trailed midway through the game and scored 4 big runs in the top of the 7th including a 2 run single to tie the game at 13-13.  Baugh Ford won on a walk off hit in the bottom of the 7th.  In their second game they were unable to keep pace with FBI in a 22-10 loss.  Drash walked a few too many.  Drash hit just 2 home runs and carried a .412 team batting average.  Look for this team to do better next year after getting the exprerience of an MWS under their belts.

WC Drash had some familiar names playing like Campbell, Myers, and Quarles from past ASA national military teams, and they had Brandon Gooding from 4 The Fallen also playing second base.  The WC Drash nearly had that upset of Baugh Ford and overall made a solid showing for the first time at the show.  As always we thank all of the military players for their service to our country!

 

 


More pictures below


 

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

USSSA MWS tournament link

Link to Softballcenter.com pictures of the Major World Series

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

 


 

Some more pictures for you:

Ballard was out, but it didn't end up making a difference

Cash House takes on Peak back in the 'C' division

Women's A, B, C, and D divisions

 

USSSA Regional Directors, Vice Presidents, and Presidents

ESPN and USSSALive did a great job on the livestreaming which brought in over 14,000 unique visitors per day!

My view from the score booth

Super fans!

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