Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Take a look back at the 2016 USSSA “Circle City” Classic Indy Major tournament report!

 

 

 

2016 Nationwide Conference USSSA

 

Miken/Worth "Circle City" Classic

 

Indianapolis, IN

 

April 23-24

 

Resmondos Andrew Collins hitting against Justin Mucciarelli in the Championship game!

2016 Indy Major picture album link

Link to the Indy Major tournament information

The "Circle City" Classic which was originally scheduled for the end of June had to be rescheduled for the week after the Hall of Fame Classic in April due to a lack of field availability.  This change forced a number of teams to drop out of the event but one team Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth actually added the tournament after they missed the Hall of Fame dual tournament the previous weekend because of the untimely passing of longtime manager Frank Webb.  Resmondo was in Indianapolis for one reason and one reason only, to win and grab the 192 Nationwide Conference USSSA points they desperately need to climb the points ladder and get a better seed for the remainder of the year.

The tournament began at 9 AM Saturday morning with 18 teams including 9 teams from the Conference and had perfect but cool weather the entire weekend.  #6 seeded Resmondo had their hands full early on with Premier/Easton/Silvertowne/Headlines a 'B' team out of Ohio but as would be the case in most of Resmondos games they would grab a lead mid game and then hold down their opponents late and they ended up run ruling Premier 32-12.  TG Brand a new 'B' Conference team out of Michigan playing in their first event of the season knocked off rival 'B' team Columbus Pipe 33-20.  In a bit of a first round grudge match between two of the lower Conference teams STL/Mizuno/Sportsmanshop and SOL Softball/Castle Sports, STL used a 14 run second inning to pull out a 23-22 victory.  Local Indiana team Street Kids/MSC started off with a big win over Conference 'B' team Rebel Sports/HangRite/Miken 35-31 in a game where Street Kids scored 23 runs in the top of the 4th after opening the inning with a double play!  And Precision, TG/Red's, Slayer, and ASP/Venom were all Conference teams that won their first game by the mercy rule.

In the round of 8 in the winner's bracket Resmondo got off to another slow start against Conference 'A' team Slayer who was playing in their home state.  Resmondo in the bottom of the 4th however got grand slams from Andrew Collins and Bubba Mack to take a 22-12 lead and won 33-14.  Precision (AA) Walked through TG Brand 34-3 in a very short contest.  TG/Red's Astros (AA) likewise cruised through STL/Mizuno 37-7 in a game that was over before it started it seemed.  And Street Kids handled ASP/Venom 29-20.

In the final 4 of the winner's bracket Resmondo soundly defeated Precision 33-14 after another slow start to make the finals and TG/Red's Astros knocked off home state rival Street Kids 37-22.  In the winner's bracket finals on Saturday at 7:30 PM TG/Red's Astros jumped out to leads of 5-0 after one inning and 15-0 after an inning and a half.  But Resmondo caught fire as the night cooled off temperature wise and scored 23 runs in the bottom of the second inning and although TG/Red's never gave up, they couldn't keep up with Resmondo who went on to win 49-35 in the highest scoring game of the tournament.

The loser's bracket pretty much played out for the most part with the higher classified teams winning except for an early exit by Slayer who was beaten by Rebel Sports 36-34 and TG Brand who was beaten by SOL Softball 37-26.  Premier after getting that bad draw vs Resmondo in the first round got to play most of the rest of the day as they knocked off Westpoint, Honey Badgers, ASP/Venom, and STL/Mizuno to finish 5th.  SOL had high scoring wins over South Side, TG Brand, and Rebel to tie for 5th.  And Street Kids knocked off SOL Softball 33-17 then watched Precision take batting practice on them for a 48-24 late Saturday loss to finish an impressive 4th.

On Sunday morning at 9 AM in the loser's bracket finals TG/Red's Astros and Precision who had met in the finals of this tournament the past two years had a fun hard hitting game.  Reds jumped out to an 11-0 lead in the top of the first inning.  Precision came back in the 3rd and 4th innings to take a nice 26-18 lead and grabbed the momentum.  In the top of the 6th Red's used homers by Steve Edwards, Travis Dale, and Jon Jamison to tie the game at 26-26.  In the bottom of the 6th Precision got a solo homer from Seth Burgmeier, and hits from Keske, Gallmeier, Llanas, and Porter, and a big 3 run homer from Brett McCollum to take a 33-26 lead.  In the top of the 7th Precision middle infielder Jeff Keske made a great ranging play towards second on a grounder for the first out and shortstop Brett McCollum fielded a hot shot and they shut Reds out in the 7th for the win 33-26.

In the first game of the championship Precision turned two impressive double plays in the first two innings to hold down Resmondo.  The first was a backhand by third baseman Matt Rear and throw to middle man Keske who turned and threw it to Llanas at first just in time.  Precision added homers by McCollum and Holstein to make it 5-5 after two complete innings.  But Resmondo wasn't afraid to use solo homers to gain a lead and got line drive homers out of Andy Purcell and Bubba Mack as well as an rbi triple out of Lee Payne to grab a 12-8 lead and used 3 more solos to gain an 18-10 lead after 4 innings when they shutout Precision in the bottom of the 4th.  Fans could here BJ Fulk from the Resmondo dugout joking on Lee Paynes triple that little Luis Reyna scoring from first must have taken 45 more steps than the long legged Lee Payne to go the same distance.  🙂   Resmondos defense and persistent offense though was too much for Precision who never gave up.  Purcell stretched a single into a sliding double and Nic Santana hit a big 3 run homer to push the run rule in the 5th inning 25-10.  But Precision forced it the full 7 innings in a 36-24 loss.

Resmondo won the tournament, their first of the year and gained the 192 points they were after.  They will be the #18 seed for the Columbus Major which should put them in the same "quad" as Smash It Sports so expect some early fireworks at that tournament in two weeks.  The tournament featured 4 conference umpires and used the Classic M ball which was a little too hard for the cool conditions.  Fences were 300 feet and there was full bat bucket bat testing and all 8 conference team bats that failed were cut open including a couple of Resmondos and all of the top three teams.

Championship Sunday

The winner got this customized Championship plaque.

 

Team Breakdown:
18 Teams Overall
9 Conference USSSA Teams
  1 'M' Team
  2 'AA' Teams
  1 'A' Teams
  6 'B' Teams
  5 'C' Teams
  3 'D' Teams

Precisions Jeff Keske hits against TG/Red's Astros pitcher Brandon Jonas in the loser's final Sunday morning.

  

TG/Red's Astros left fielder Steve Edwards learned there is no warning track on Indy Sports Park fields.

TG/Red's Brandon Bellamy hits against Resmondo co-MVP Andy Purcell in a very high scoring winner's final.

The show field F3 had a nice observation deck.

Resmondo came back from early deficits in most all of their games

Indy Sports Park was pretty nice.  300 foot fields and the infields were pretty soft.

Weather was perfect and maybe the only negative was the infields were cut pretty short.

But there were not many bad hops, the outfield was plush, but no warning tracks?

8 Conference bats failed and 2 non-conference bats failed compression out of 18 teams.

8 bats were cut open including Resmondo bats.

 

 


 

Oldscout pollers were correct on first place but not second 

 


 

Video Clips brought to you by:

 

 


 

Long Bombers of the Week

I gave the Long Bomber of the week to Andy Purcell who wasn't necessarily hitting bombs as much as just ridiculous line drive homers.

If the fence was a little higher he would have been peppering the fence instead of hitting homers.  They were missiles.

Also hitting some long ones was Bubba Mack and Precisions Frank Fracek among others.

One Resmondo player hit a van in the parking lot I approximated using Google Earth at 404 feet. 

 


 

 Major Awards and Final Standings

Player Tournament Awards Players Name Plays For
Tournament CO-MVP Andy Purcell Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth
Tournament CO-MVP Lee Payne Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth
Offensive Tournament MVP Brett McCollum Precision
Defensive Tournament MVP Don DeDonatis III Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth
All Tournament Team Daniel Sanchez Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth
All Tournament Team Greg Connell Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth
All Tournament Team Steve Edwards TG/Red's Astros/Headlines/K&G/Worth
All Tournament Team Cory Boothe TG/Red's Astros/Headlines/K&G/Worth
All Tournament Team BO ANDREWS Precision
All Tournament Team Jeff Keske Precision
All Tournament Team Andrew Collins Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth
All Tournament Team Seth Burgmeier Precision
All Tournament Team Rocky Staton TG/Red's Astros/Headlines/K&G/Worth
All Tournament Team Luis Reyna Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth
All Tournament Team Billy Fulk Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth
All Tournament Team Matthew Rear Precision
All Tournament Team Mike Bailey Streetkids/MSC
All Tournament Team Nick Bishop Streetkids/MSC
All Tournament Team Ronald Mack III Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth
Place State Team Team
Class
Wins Losses Ties Runs
Scored
Runs
Allow
Avg
Runs
Avg
Allow
Avg
Diff
Max
Runs
USSSA
Points
1 FLS – Winter Haven resmondo specialty tank worth USSSA-SPMensMajor 5 0 0 199 113 39.8 22.6 17.2 49 300
2 IL – Chicago Precision USSSA-Mens-AA 5 2 0 231 170 33 24.2 8.71 48 225
3 OH – Cincinnati OH & /Indianapolis IN tg/red's astros/headlines/k&g/worth USSSA-Mens-AA 3 2 0 162 118 32.4 23.6 8.8 37 200
4 IN – South Bend Streetkids/MSC USSSA-Mens-C 3 2 0 143 153 28.6 30.6 -2 35 175
5 OH – Cincinnati premier/easton/silvertowne/hdlns USSSA-Mens-B 4 2 0 158 158 26.3 26.3 0 36 180
5 MO – Saint Peters SOL Softball/CastleSports USSSA-Mens-C 3 2 0 142 137 28.4 27.4 1 37 255
7 MI – Dearborn rebel sports/ hang rite / miken USSSA-Mens-B 2 2 0 124 130 31 32.5 -1.5 36 230
7 IN – Indianapolis STL/Mizuno/Sportsmanshop USSSA-Mens-B 2 2 0 92 119 23 29.7 -6.7 34 230
9 IN – Fort Wayne seamless/ poormans/ veterans USSSA-Mens-C 2 2 0 93 82 23.2 20.5 2.75 29 110
9 MI – Flint TG Brand USSSA-Mens-B 1 2 0 62 91 20.6 30.3 -9.6 33 210
9 IN – Depauw Slayer USSSA-Mens-A 1 2 0 84 91 28 30.3 -2.3 34 110
9 WI – Janesville ASP/Venom USSSA-Mens-B 1 2 0 71 67 23.6 22.3 1.33 31 210
13 IN – Columbus raisor sharp/ burts pest control USSSA-Mens-D 1 2 0 49 75 16.3 25 -8.6 25 70
13 IN – Indianapolis SOUTHSIDE USSSA-Mens-D 1 2 0 59 70 19.6 23.3 -3.6 29 70
13 MI – Portage honey badgers/advanced auto and tru USSSA-Mens-C 0 2 0 26 43 13 21.5 -8.5 20 70
13 OH – Columbus columbus pipe/cotner/mts nutrition USSSA-Mens-B 0 2 0 35 53 17.5 26.5 -9 20 95
17 IN – Indianapolis line drive/riot2k/yats/worth USSSA-Mens-C 0 2 0 34 56 17 28 -11 24 40
17 IN – Indianapolis Westpoint Softball USSSA-Mens-D 0 2 0 27 65 13.5 32.5 -19 14 40

 

 

Resmondo pitcher Andy Purcell and left fielder Lee Payne were co-MVP's

 


 

Team by team notes brought to you by:

 

1st Place Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth

Conf 'Major' from FL  5-0 Record

Resmondo played short handed with just 10 players as Jeremy Isenhower, Jimmy Salas, and Howie Krause could not make the tournament on short notice.  They took care of business as they took each opponents best shots early and the game and regrouped and let the game come to them and went undefeated in the event.  Doubles and Homers were plentiful as the hard hitting Resmondo also fielded the hard shots as good as anyone and separated mid game with offensive outbursts and defensive stops.  Resmondo scored 39.8 runs per game…wow

Trending Up!

Resmondo lineup:
SS Don Dedonatis
CF Nic Santana
2B Greg Connell
P Andy Purcell
C BJ Fulk
3B Bubba Mack
MI Luis Reyna
LF Lee Payne
RF Andrew Collins
P Dan Sanchez

 

SS Don Dedonatis was Defensive MVP and RF Nic Santana

 

2B Greg Connell and C BJ Fulk

 

3B Bubba Mack

 

MI Luis Reyna and RF Andrew Collins

Dany Sanchez played 1st base

Jobu

 


 

2nd Place Precision

Conf 'AA' from IL  5-2 Record

 

Precision got a lot of batting practice as they scored a tournament high 231 runs (33 per game).  They used the same 11 players the whole weekend.  Precision had the "Precision feel" to the team this week as they got that big Sunday morning win over TG/Red's and finished 2nd.  Bryan Porter in center field had the catch of the tournament as he went flying up against the center field fence to rob an extra base hit.  Keske was on it with the defense up the middle, Mooch got a couple extra outs with his pitching, and everyone joined in with the hitting.  In the Saturday night game against Street Kids their first 5 batters were on base 30 out of 30 and scored 27 runs.  The Precision team is coming together as they wait for their shortstop Tom Baird to recover from a broken leg.  McCollum did a nice job at short on most of the routine stuff, even had a ranging play back by second base and a whirling throw to first for an out.  As always with Precision its a "next man up" mentality and they always find ways to win.  

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Precision lineup:
3B Matt Rear
SS Brett McCollum
LF Bo Andrews
C Frank Fracek
2B Seth Burgmeier
EH Mark Holstein
MI Jeff Keske
RF Evan Gallmeier
1B Jordan Llanas
CF Brian Porter
P Justin Mucciarelli

 

Some of the new faces on Precision.  1B Jordan Llanas and outfielder Evan Gallmier

Below is left fielder Bo Andrews

Precision middle man Jeff Keske was my pick for Defensive MVP

I do realize MVP and Defensive MVP are selected by the winning team though.

Seth Burgmeier hits a homer

Left side the "bus driver" Matt Rear and shortstop Brett McCollum

 


 

3rd Place TG/Red's Astros/Headlines/K&G/Worth

Conf 'AA' from OH/IN  5-2 Record

 

Red's played without outfielders Ryan Curl and Ryan Disbennett and then Jimmy Carter got hurt (strained forearm).  So they were moving players around and doing the best they could with what they had.  TG and OC Swats were probably the top two 'AA' teams after the Hall of Fame Classic and Reds  was holding their own against both Resmondo and Precision before losing.  

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one TG/Red's Astros lineup:
LF Steve Edwards
MI Troy Krider
1B Chad Mullins
C Cory Boothe
CF Travis Dale
EH Jon Jamison
3B Rob Roop and Ryan Noe
RF Ben Cosgrove
P Brandon Jonas
SS Brandon Bellamy
Rocky Staton was utility

Cory Boothe with Jon Jamison and Travis Dale looking on

 

Middle man Troy Krider gets to most of them but not this one.

Noe, Bellamy, and Krider in the infield.  Roop also played 3B

 


 

4th Place Street Kids/MSC

'C' from IN  3-2 Record

 

Street Kids played great as expected.  They were just outgunned against Precision late Saturday night in their last game.  They had that 23 run inning vs Rebel all of them coming after two outs…wow.  We will list more Street Kids players names when they join the 'B' division.  🙂

Former Red's utility man Justin Aldora has found a good home with Street Kids

 

The veteran Joe Horvath homers again

 

 


 

Tied 5th Place Premier/Easton/Silvertowne/Headlines

'B' from OH  4-2 Record

Premier got the tough 11 seed draw with Resmondo being 6th.  But they made the most of it as they played Resmondo to an 11-11 tie early in the game.  In the loser's bracket they showed a lot of heart winning 4 straight games.  Some good new talent, speed, and pitching on this team.

 


 

Tied 5th Place SOL Softball/Castle Sports

Conf 'C' from MO  3-2 Record

 

SOL got to play a lot of softball and score a lot of runs in their first conference event of the season.  28.4 runs per game scored and two good wins for them over TG Brand and Rebel Sports.

Trending Up

Jackson homers early in the tournament

 


 

Other top finishing Conference teams

 


 

Tied 7th Place – Rebel Sports/Hangrite/Miken

Conf 'B' from MI  2-2 Record

Rebel pitcher Chris Lopez is from Texas and middle man Kenny Geiersbach

Rebel lost that tough game to Street Kids early but never gave up in that one as they weathered that 23 run inning.  Later in the tournament they send Slayer home 36-34.

Trending Even

 

 

Puckett and Geiersbach above and Blay and Green below have a lot of conference experience

 

 


 

Tied 7th Place – STL/Mizuno/Sportsmanshop

Conf 'B' from IN  2-2 Record

STL got a nice win over SOL 23-22 and scored a lot of runs except for the loss to TG/Red's.

Trending Even

 

 STL infielders

Bryan Goins was pitching for STL

 


 

Tied 9th Place – TG Brand

Conf 'B' from MI  1-2 Record

A fun team with some talent, trying to measure themselves against teams similar in strength and see if they can upset any big teams.

Trending Even

Tough start for the new TG Brand team but they have a lot of good pieces

 


 

Tied 9th Place – Slayer

Conf 'A' from IN  1-2 Record

 

Slayer hung with Resmondo for awhile in the second round.  Need to make plays on the hard shots more often.

Trending Even

Trey Gilliland guned Resmondos Sanchez trying to go first to third

 

SS Sandoval made some nice plays and pitcher Sutherland had some great pitches.

 


 

Tied 9th Place – ASP/Venom

Conf 'B' from WI  1-2 Record

 

ASP started out hot but cooled off quickly.  Still looking for that signature Conference win.

Trending Even

 

Czyz and Huebner get the press until they win enough games I can learn more about the other players.  🙂

Uh oh, the leaving early pic

 


 

Hot Links section brought to you by:

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

And a thank you to tournament director Richard Foltz for the hospitality.

Send corrections to dw@softballcenter.com

Link to the SoftballCenter.com Youtube channel

Link to all 2009 to 2016 Tournament Reports and Previews

Nationwide Conference USSSA Points Link

 


 

Some more pictures for you:

 

Columbus Pipe gets the best uniforms of the week

Resmondo stood in line to get their bat tested just like everyone else.

Raisor Sharp Images played but no pics from them this time.  🙁    🙂

 

HangriteAthletics.com had a nice tent set up with some great product

Chris Walker and Mike Wilson have joined Resmondo to help coach bases and keep stats.

They won 'A' Worlds with Fence Brokers in 2015 and moved to Major like you are supposed to.   🙂

Conference umpiring crew.

The softball world mourns the loss of Conference umpire Duane Posavetz

This young man died on the field in 2002 after getting hit in the jaw by a line drive.

Always good to play hard and remember tomorrow isn't guaranteed.

 

Softball Guy pic of the week was a tossup between Jon Jamison and Red Moore.  🙂

These young baseball players weren't sure what to make of the slowpitch.

Somehow we need to get these kids on the field playing some slowpitch to show them how fun it is.

Linedrive pitcher goes between the legs

 

 

 

 

 

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