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2016 Nationwide Conference Championship tournament preview!

 

 

 

2016 Conference Championships!

 

Nationwide Conference USSSA!

 

September 2-4

 

Tournament Preview

 

 

 

2016 Conference Championship Bracket Link

 

2016 Conference Qualifier Bracket Link

 

The 2016 Nationwide Conference USSSA Championships take place this coming weekend, September 2-4 in Kissimmee, Florida at the USSSA headquarters at Osceola County Stadium with the Conference Qualifier tournament being held around the corner at Fortune Road.  Both tournaments are 3 game guarantee format with the Major bracket featuring the top 8 teams in the country.  There are big points to be earned although most of the top 8 is set for seeding at the Major as #1 Backman/Louisville Slugger cannot be passed in the points and most of the teams if they just win one game should maintain their points position.  However Backman looks to continue their success on the baseball fields, #2 Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth looks to gain momentum going into the Major in a month where they normally turn it up a notch, #3 Scene/Albicocco/Worth/Miken/Monsta the hottest team in the 2nd half of the season looks to break through and win a tournament on a baseball sized field, and #4 Smash It Sports/ASP/H Auto/Mr. Wiggles/Easton looks to put a fully healthy team on the field for the first time since Las Vegas which was the first tournament of the season which was also their last tournament victory.  The rest of the top 8 – Team Combat, TG/Reds Astros, Newbreed, and Team Racks look to play spoiler and either upset some of the favorites or at least find a way to slip into the championship game which will be live on CBS Sports Network on Sunday morning.  Remember last year Precision actually won the winners bracket at this event and was double dipped by Resmondo on Sunday on CBS.   Action kicks off on USSSALive.com on the Stadium field at 5 PM eastern time this Friday evening weather permitting!

The other tournament being played is what has come to be called the "Conference Qualifier".  Teams 9-32 in the point standings are invited to this tournament and although teams 9-16 already have their berth to the Major sown up they can still battle each other for their final seeding spot by earning points at the Qualifier.  So 6 of the 8 teams that already have a berth decided to play in this event and they will take on 8 other non qualified teams in a 3 game guarantee tournament over at the Fortune Road Athletic Complex.  The highest finishing non qualified team will earn the #17 seed to the USSSA Major World Series September 21-24 in Kissimmee, Florida at the ESPN Wide World of Sports!  The favorite in the Qualifier to win is 3rd Street Financial/Louisville Slugger out of Ohio and they will be chased by last years winner Xtreme/Miken out of Minnesota.  The favorites to earn the berth to the major are the 'A' World runner up Thunder out of New York and Eurotech out of Minnesota but the Qualifier bracket is wide open and should be a great tournament if the rain holds off.

The two tournaments both start Friday at 5 PM eastern time and teams play into the night Friday as many as 3 games, then resume early Saturday morning into Saturday afternoon, then the tournament pauses for the Annual Nationwide Conference Awards banquet and finishes up on Sunday.

A note on the livestream, we have not been able to find anyone to work the livestream cameras at Fortune Road on Friday so I will probably set them up but won't be around to fix any streams that go down or have trouble.  If anyone is interested in working Friday from 4:00 PM til midnight let me know.  We will pay you and its easy work, mostly just watching great softball and keeping an eye on the livestreams.  dale.weiser@usssa.com if you are interested.

The chat room here at SoftballCenter.com will also be up all weekend. 

And don't forget the Saturday night Nationwide Conference USSSA awards banquet will be livestreamed as well on USSSALive.com

 

Also the Championship game on Sunday at 11:30 AM eastern time will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network!

 

 

 


 

DW's Picks!

I hate to pick these tournaments because you never know who is coming to play and bringing all of their players.  I will go with Backman to get back on track and win this event, obviously Resmondo and Backman are about 50/50 to win this and Purcells pitching on Sunday is usually the difference although Vitcak did get Precision to the finals last year.  I've been wrong most of the year on picking winners between the big two and I wouldn't be betting money against either team.  Scene can definitely win games in this and it wouldn't even be an upset anymore for them to go far.  Smash It will try to get back on track and have a lot to prove.  Newbreed will leave it all out there and TG/Reds has been steady all year.  Racks will be missing a lot of their regular players I am hearing so I don't expect a lot out of them especially being the #8 seed although they have had great success against the Major teams this year.

The conference qualifier tournament on the other hand is wide open.  #2 seeded Precision gets a bye but is missing a lot of their players for this.  3rd Street and Xtreme are probably the favorites but not by a lot.  I will take Xtreme to win although I think it would be a big boost to any AA team to win this with AA worlds just a few weeks away and it would truly be a great story if the team that qualifies for the Major won it. 

Poll – Resmondo and Backman getting most of the votes with Scene getting 13%

 

 

Poll – 3rd Street and Xtreme getting a total of 51% of the votes to win the Conference Qualifier.

And Thunder getting 38% of the vote to win the Berth to the Major.

 

 


 

Osceola County Stadium Field Dimensions

Osceola County Stadium and surrounding fields F1-F5

Field Dimensions (using google earth)

Osceola County Stadium 336-390-410-390-330
Osceola Field #2 – 320-385-400-380-325
Osceola Field #3 – 305-370-390-373-313
Osceola Field #4 – 330-390-406-390-330
Osceola Field #5 – 315-364-372-364-315

Fortune Road Field Dimensions
310-325-325-325-310

 


 

Weekend Weather – Weather is a big topic of conversation with Tropical Storm Hermine in the area. 

Hopefully it moves through north of Orlando and doesn't dump too much rain on the fields.


 

Past Winners

 

2015 Winner – Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth

2015 Nationwide Conference Championship tournament report link

 

1st Place 'A' Division – Xtreme/Miken

Also GSL 'A' Champions!

 


2014 Winner – Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth

2014 Nationwide Conference Championship tournament report link


2013 Winner – Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth

2013 Nationwide Conference Championship tournament report link


2012 Winner – TYJA/Suncoast Reebok

2012 Nationwide Conference Championship tournament report link

2011 Nationwide Conference Championship tournament report link

2010 Nationwide Conference Championship tournament report link

 


 

Past tournament results

2015 Major Conference Championships
1 FL-M Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth
2 IL-A Precision/Easton/DO
3 NY-M SmashItSports/Compound/HAuto/ASP/Easton
4 NY-A Albicocco/The Scene/Easton

2015 Conference Qualifier Champions
1 MN-A Xtreme/Miken
2 NC-B Broughton Pharmacy/Bad Draw/Worth
3 IL-B Compound Athletics/Easton
4 AR-A Fence Brokers Inc/Buzini/Worth

2014 Major Conference Championships
1 FL-M Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth
2 NY-M Laservision/H Auto/JJ's/Easton
3 NY-A Team Albicocco/The Scene/Easton
4 AL-A Baugh Ford Doerflinger National Pawn/Easton

2014 Open Conference Championships
1 WA-M Team Combat/Softball.com
2 IN-A Red's Astros/Louisville Slugger
3 IL-B Precision/Easton
4 CA-B Classic Glass/Easton

2014 Conference Qualifier Champions
1 NJ-B Above All Landscaping/GWS
2 MN-B Xtreme/Miken
3 CA-B OC Swats/Miken/Premier Athletics
4 TX-C ASPNation/JOCO/Reset/Easton

2013 Major Conference Championships
1 FL-M Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth
2 NY-M Laservision/Desert Falls/Boombah/Easton
3 TN-M Shoppe/TYJA/Louisville Slugger
4 OH-B Pure Romance/Chic's/Insanity/Easton

2013 Open Conference Championships
1 FL-A Demarini/Dirty/Xtreme
2 IA-A GTL/Doerflinger/R&M Metals/Easton
3 MI-A Line Drive Sportz/SSS/Miken
4 IN-A Red's Astros/Slugger/Stucco/Dirty

2013 Conference Qualifier Champions
1 GA-B Team Adiktiv/Dynasty/D2E/LS/TYJA
2 OH-B 3rd Street/Louisville Slugger
3 NC-B B&B/Sears/BMW Insulation/Easton
4 MN-B Xtreme/Miken

2012 Major Conference Championships
1 NY-A TYJA – Suncoast Reebok
2 IA-A R&M metals/troupe/pipac/s&r/easton
3 UT-M Nordkap/desert falls/easton
4 TN-A SHOPPE / TEAM TPS / ELITE

2012 Open Conference Championships
1 MI-B Line Drive Sportz/sss softball
2 IN-B Reds Astros/tps/sports den
3 CA-A West Coast Doerflinger – easton
4 GA-B Down2earthsports.com/sbc/worth

2012 'B' Conference Championships
1 MA-B Magic/S&S/TYJA/Easton
2 NC-B B&B/Sears/N&N Finishing
3 AL-B Baughford.com/advantagesports/worth
4 FL-B Westshore pizza/tps

2011 Major Conference Championships
1 FL-M Resmondo-specialty tank / worth
2 WA-M Team Combat/laservision/d2e/supreme
3 FL-A Suncoast Reebok
4 WA-M GTL Cartel/DeMarini 

2011 Open Conference Championships
1 IA-A R&M Metals/troupe/tcp/easton
2 VA-A Taylormade/tm sports/mizuno
3 WA-B Doerflinger/tsc/pro-coat/combat
4 MI-A Sinister/Pritchard/Miken

2010 Major Conference Championships (Best of 5)
1 CA-M Dan Smith/Menosse
2 FL-M Resmondosport/specialty/phonemaster

2010 Open Conference Championships
1 IL-B EWS/SHIRTS and LOGOS
2 FL-B AJS/easton/supreme/mike foulks/mojo
3 TX-A Wood Law/Miken
4 TN-A Jean Shoppe-easton-down2earthsports

2010 'B' Conference Championships
1 CT-B Darkside/TYJA
2 CA-B Elite sports u.s.a./combat
3 OH-B Blitz/watanabe/weller/minges/easton
4 FL-B Art Explosion/drash

2009 Major Conference Championships
1 FL-M Resmondo-Specialty Tank-Worth
2 MN-M Long Haul/Miken/Phonemasters
3 CA-M Dan Smith-Menosse-Benfield-Combat
4 FL-A T&R Stucco/Worth

2009 Open Conference Championships
1 VA-A Taylormade/Titan/PAS/Mizuno
2 WA-A GTL Cartel/Stucco/Worth/Elite
3 CA-A Johnny Blaze/Combat/Elite
4 WA-A Combat USA/Elite

2009 'B' Conference Championships
1 FL-B AJS/Easton/3N2/DSSBats
2 CA-B WCS/LCV
3 AR-B Fence Brokers/Illustrated Sportswear
4 OH-B PRI/MFAB/Insanity

2008 Major Conference Championships
1 FL-M Resmondo/specialty tank/worth
2 CA-M Dan Smith/menosse/benfield/combat
3 WA-A GTL/Creative Stucco/Worth
4 IL-A Ropeclub/hennessys/onqclub/easton

2008 'B' Conference Championships
1 MI-B Team Bud Light/Easton
2 OH-B Blitz/Watanabe/Bull/Minges Drywall

2007 Major Conference Championships
1 FL-M Resmondo Softball
2 FL-M Bellcorp/belcher/tai/backman
3 WA-A GTL/COMBAT
4 CA-A KME/CHANEY'S/EASTON

2006 Major Conference Championships
1 FL-M Bell Corp/taylor/belcher/easton
2 OH-M Specialtytank/ stucco/k&g /worth
3 VA-M Benfield/reece/shade/am las vegas
3 FL-M Resmondo – KME Softball 

 

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