Tuesday March 26th, 2024
TEXT_SIZE

2014 “Space City Classic” – Houston tournament preview!

 

 

8th Annual 

 

"Space City Classic"

 

Nationwide Conference USSSA!

 

Houston – Texas

 

April 11-13

 

Tournament Preview

 

presented by

 

2014 Houston bracket link

 

2014 Houston team list link

 

 

The 2014 Nationwide Conference USSSA season continues in Houston, Texas this weekend at the 8th Annual Space City Classic!  The traditional huge field of 64 teams will participate with teams from 10 different states.  Also 10 of the teams are from Conference USSSA.  The games are played at the Big League Dreams park where the fields are softball sized replicas of major league stadiums and the infields are all artificial turf.  

Teams will begin play on Friday, April 11th at 6 PM central time and will play late into the night both Friday and Saturday to get the 127 games in on schedule. 

The favorites that will try to "survive and advance" to compete in Sunday's final 4 are:
#5 Team Albicocco/The Scene/Easton/Elite (NY) (A)
#7 Line Drive Sportz/R&M Metals/Easton (MI) (A)
#11 Slattery Logistics/BWW/Buzini Sports/Miken (MO) (A)
#14 ASP Nation/Dynasty/Reset/Easton (TX) (B)

My picks for the tournament:  There are 24 'C' teams in this years event led by the 4th place finisher from last year Sportscenter and many others that are more than capable of winning a game against the 'A' and 'B' teams and can even win 2 in a row against them.  But to win this event you eventually have to win at least 3 games in a row against the 'B' and higher teams and the 'C' teams just won't do that. 

In the top part of the bracket look for a good matchup at 11:00 AM on Saturday between Old School who just won the Hooters tournament and is 14-9 vs 'C' teams and Above All Landscape who just won the Wilmington 'Open' Bash for Cash.   TG Brand is also in that set of 8 teams and they have been known to get on a roll against lower teams.  One of those 3 teams will come out of the first part of the bracket to face Slattery Logistics who recently moved up to the 'A' division.  Of course Slattery is 8 of the Chaps/Buzini team that won 'B' worlds last year plus Tim Bowser, Kenny Leach, and Bob Hankins from FBI.  They also have the up and coming Colby Hughes.  But you have to say a team the quality of Slattery will defeat either Old School, Above All Landscape, or TG Brand in the quarterfinals at 3:30 PM on Saturday.

In the second part of the bracket Vivid/Worth, Sportscenter, Lonestar Sports, and Texas Threat will try to knock off Albicocco/The Scene/Easton who is the favorite to win this tournament.  Texas Threat this year is 25-5 vs 'C' teams and Lonestar Sports is 3-2 vs 'B' teams. It would be tough to bet against Albicocco to make the final 4 from this part of the bracket.  

In the third part of the bracket Line Drive Sportz/R&M Metals/Easton should cruise to the round of 16 where they should meet ASPNation.com which would be the best matchup of the tournament to that point at 3:30 PM on Saturday.  This looks to be a bracketing mistake as APSNation should have been the #4 seed and should have been in the bottom 4th of the bracket.  Of course ASPNation is the team that won this tournament a year ago and merged with Dynasty from North Carolina, a team that won the Conference qualifier to slip into the Major World Series last year.  They may have too much power for these small fields.  Maybe the old school staggered lineup is in order with an onbase guy batting before each power hitter?  This is a great game if it happens, but I will go with ASPNation to win although its a 60/40 matchup in favor of Linedrive.  I see Doc's from Florida also made the trip to this one.  They may not be an easy out.

In the 4th part of the bracket it is a crap shoot.  Maybe the best 1st round game of the whole tournament is Saturday morning at 9:00 AM where Steel/SuncoastSportz.com a good 'C' team plays the top 'D' team Cage Bombs.  Cage Bombs is 20-4 vs the 'D' division and 5-0 vs the 'C' division this year.  The winner more than likely gets JOCO and the winner of that will have a shot at winning the lower 4th of the bracket when they take on LA Classic, Nightmare, or maybe Olmito Heat.  This part of the bracket is a total toss up and someone unknown could quickly become the story of the tournament.

The weather looks to be good in the upper 70's mostly until Sunday when there is a chance of rain.  I see a number of teams like TG Brand from Michigan, Docs from Florida, Above All Landscape from New Jersey, and Stars from Colorado among others have taken my advice to come to this tournament which for the most part is a lower level major where there is a chance to play a lot of teams from your own classification or lower on a big stage.  It would be great to get this tournament to where it is 32 Conference 'A' and 'B' teams and 32 'C' teams.

My final picks:  Lets go with the major upset for the fun of it:
1) ASP Nation/Dynasty/Reset/Easton (TX) – some home cooking for some of these players pays off but if they don't beat Linedrive in the final 8 they cannot win from there.
2) Slattery Logistics/BWW/Buzini Sports/Miken (MO) – BLD's are this teams strength.  Maggard will be offensive MVP.
3) Team Albicocco/The Scene/Easton/Elite (NY) – Will probably win it but first time out this season.
4) Line Drive Sportz/R&M Metals/Easton (MI) – Also could easily win this.

To be honest when these teams get out on the field, Albicocco and Line Drive could run the table and dominate everyone else, but I have a feeling ASPNation is ready for anything and will turn it up a notch, and Slattery like I said is built for the BLD's and have players that always play well there.  But as we watched last week in Las Vegas, for the most part the "pecking" order is in full affect in the conference so far this year as higher class teams for the most are winning at a high rate against teams of lower class than them.

Note, the Dudley 52/275 ball will be used rather than the conference ball.  Small fields.

 

This was key play last year that lost the game for Buzini and allowed ASPNation to take the winner's final.!

 

Broadcast schedule:  USSSALive.com is streaming all 6 fields all weekend (Link)

 

The chat room will be up on SoftballCenter.com as well

 

 

Houston BLD Field Dimensions
Fenway Park 274-303-303-291-256
Yankee Stadium 281-285-289-285-273
Wrigley Field 289-287-301-288-289
Ebbets Field 281-278-301-281-266
Crosley Field 273-286-298-275-268
Sportsman's Park 266-294-277-277-273

 


 

Weekend Weather

 


 

 


 

2013 Winner – ASPNation.com/Easton

2013 Houston tournament report


2012 Winner – Resmondo-Specialty Tank Worth

2012 Houston tournament report link

2011 Houston tournament report link

2011 Houston tournament pictures link

2010 Houston tournament report link

2010 Houston tournament pictures link

 

Past tournament results

2013 Results
1 TX-B ASPNation.com/Easton
2 AL-A Baugh ford/mojo/louisville slugger
3 MS-B Chaps/BWW/Worth/Buzini
4 MS-C Sportscenter/ms storm/worth

2012 Results
1 FL-M Resmondo-Specialty Tank Worth
2 MI-B Buzini/BWW/Worth
3 TX-C Miken Mafia/ASPNation.com
4 GA-B Headhunters/Cancooker/SHSSports.com


2011 Results
1 FL-M Resmondo-specialty tank / worth
2 TX-B Gold's Gym
3 CT-A Darkside/TYJA/Easton
4 MS-B BWW/team baden/buzini sports

2010 Results
1 NY-A Albicocco's/the scene/worth
2 TX-A Wood Law/Miken
3 TX-B Front Row Sports
4 AR-B Fence brokers/gametime supply/worth

2009 Results
1 FL-A T&R Stucco/Worth
2 TX-A Wood Law/Combat
3 AR-B Fence brokers/illustrated sportswea
4 TX-C Fleetwood/Tap Out

2008 Results
1 FL-M Resmondo/specialty tank/worth
2 TN-A Jean Shoppe/Easton
3 FL-A T&R Stucco
4 MS-C Street Stars

2007 Results
1 FL-M Resmondo Softball
2 AR-A Fence Brokers Inc/Worth
3 AR-A Wood law/quick roofing/worth
4 FL-A Suncoast/RBK

FOR THE NATION!

BY THE NATION!

 

 

 

7 responses to “2014 “Space City Classic” – Houston tournament preview!”

  1. Dynasty says:

    The Dynasty team that merged with ASP was based out GA and ran by the late Greg Millsaps. RIP GM22

  2. lonestar says:

    I think the Texas Heat team you are talking about is actually Texas Threat 25-5 verse “C” teams. Thanks

  3. TC says:

    No wall ball this year?

  4. DW says:

    No wall ball

  5. Jazzy says:

    Streamed???

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.