Thursday March 28th, 2024
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A look back at the 2018 USSSA Cincinnati Major tournament report!

 

 

 

2018 Nationwide Conference USSSA

 

19th Annual Cincinnati Major

 

Cincinnati, Ohio 

 

July 20-22

TG Brand hitting against Racks/Astros in the quarterfinals as the rain starts again

 

SoftballCenter Cincinnati Major picture album link

 

2018 Cincinnati Major bracket and results link

 

2018 Cincinnati Major stats link

 

2018 Cincinnati archived livestream link

 

Smash It Sports pitches to Dan Smith as the semifinals started but was postponed and then cancelled.

Rain eventually won out in Cincinnati but not before 40 of the 54 scheduled games were played.  The tournament was played at Mid America Ballyard in Cincinnati, Ohio on the 4 – 300ish foot fields using the Dudley Classic M ZN ball.  The tournament began at 5 PM Friday after storms muddied the fields.  22 of the 28 teams were from the Nationwide Conference USSSA and for the most part they dominated the tournament.  In the first round Rebel Sports upset Pauer Sports 26-10.  Rapid Fire continued their hot hitting beating Insane Sports 31-14.  Riot Sports beat non Conference 'A' team Fish Head 29-19.  And La Famiglia outslugged Sports Reach 40-35.  The rest of the games were rained out and moved to Saturday morning starting at 8 AM.  

Saturday for the most part was played in fairly good field conditions until about 8:30 PM when the semifinals of the winner's bracket was starting and a downpour never let up and cancelled the last 14 games of the tournament.

On Saturday in the first round there were no other real upsets as the rest of the higher ranked teams advanced.  In the round of 16 though Dan Smith barely got past Rebel Sports 36-27.  Rapid Fire upset Precision 27-26.  Nightmare got past fellow 'AA' team Riot Sports 32-29 for one of their bigger wins of the season.  Smash It Sports Major team survived a real scare but won 14-13 over LaFamiglia who left 5 home runs on the table.  That was probably the best game of the day if you want to check it out on the archives.  In the lower half of the bracket in the 2nd round, Pure Sports run ruled Wileys, Bay Area Legends upset TDB 23-22, Racks run ruled fellow 'AA' team Xtreme, and TG Brand pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament with a 34-32 win over #1 Resmondo!  At the end of the game Resmondo was down 4 and the game ended with a base runner that slipped rounding third in the mud and was tagged out.

In the "round of 8" the two remaining Major teams were both at the top of the bracket and both Dan Smith and Smash It Sports won by the run rule.  In the lower half of the bracket Pure Sports put it on Bay Area Legends 47-22 and Racks' outlasted TG Brand in the rain 29-18.  This left arguably the 4 best "300 foot" field teams to battle it out in the final 4.  But it wasn't meant to be as rains washed out the Pure Sports vs Racks game before it started and Dan Smith was leading Smash It Sports by the run rule midway through their game but the rain got harder and the games were called.

A real thank you goes to the field crew led by Dave Maury who tirelessly prepared the fields after every rain storm and a lot of games were played.  There were two infielders injured by slips or bad bounces – TG Brand 3rd basemen John Franklin and Rebel 3rd baseman Matt Michaels.  Ironically they were injured within about a 2 minute period on two different fields late in the day.  Hopefully both will recover and their faces are no worse for the wear.  🙂  I now Michaels had 16 stitches.

Nationwide Conference USSSA points will be divided up appropriately based on where each team finished in the bracket.  (Website is currently down)

 

 

Fields on Sunday morning were unplayable

This is the way the radar seemed to look most of the weekend

Team Breakdown:
28 Teams Overall
22 Nationwide Conference USSSA Teams
3 Major Teams
7 'AA' Teams
11 'A' Teams
 7 'B' Teams

Bay Area Legends takes on Pure Sports in the quarterfinals

We did get some sunshine Saturday.  Mid America Ballyard is one of the best places to watch a Major tournament.

Remember the GSL 'A' Worlds will be at Mid America August 18-19.  Enter your team now!


 

Smash It Sports nearly got upended by LaFamiglia in the 2nd round.  LaFamiglia lost 14-13 but left 5 HR on the table

 

Briggs upended at 2nd base

LaFamiglia pitcher Bouch hit but stays with it for the out

 

La Famiglia's John Robinson hits a 7th inning homer

 


Tropics hit a walk off homer to beat Smash It Sports 'A' team on field #4

 

Brian Wegman of Resmondo batting in his own park

Lots of failed bats at testing

Mike Williams of Bay Area Legends singles against Smash It 'A' team.  They had a new hom run fence on fields #3 and #4.  It made #3 a lot bigger for sure.

 

 

 


 

Oldscout pollers had Resmondo who lost their second game 

 


 

Video Highlites brought to you by:

 


 

Long Bombers of the Week

The long bomber of the week was Ryan Harvey who hit one estimated at 438 on field #2 but I don't have a picture of Ryan. 

I also think Billy Maggard hit one of the longest on field #2.  And Bubba Mack was hitting some nasty hard base hits.
  

 


 

  Cincinnati Major Final Standings and Awards

Awards still need to be divied up and the teams will have to send them in.

 


 

Team by team notes brought to you by:

 

Tied 1st Place Dan Smith/Menosse/Steven Smith

Conf Major from CA  2-0 Record

Dan Smith plays well on the 300 foot fields.  They had a big lead on Smash It Sports in the semifinals when the tournament got rained out and would have been the favorite to win Cincy had we been able to play.  Bennett played some shortstop.  Spaulding played some middle infield.  Dunn was showing great range in center field.  Nino and White were pitching.

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MI Jordan Spaulding and CF Ben Dunn

Mike Nino pitching and Davis Bilardello at 1B

 


 

Tied 1st Place Smash It/Thunder/Backman/TDB/Miken

Conf Major from NY  2-0 Record

 

Smash It was flat without Purcell and Santana playing.  They struggled and barely won against La Famiglia in their opening game.  Then made it to the semifinals where Dan Smith was handling them pretty good before the rains came.  Most likely if the tournament would have not been rained out, they would of had to win 5 in a row which probably wouldn't of happened.

Trending Even

  

Andrew Vitcak started every game and brought an .800+ onbase percentage into the tournament

Brian McBryde made this sliding catch in center field.  He also was the backup pitcher

 

 


 

Tied 1st Place Rack's/Worth Astros/Klutch/Troupe

Conf 'AA' from IN  3-0 Record

2B Lizcano, SS Troy Krider, 3B Chris Russell 

Racks Astros continue to play better since Pinkham returned from injury and being from the midwest they have always been one of the best "mudder" teams in the game.  It would have been fun to see if they could have held down Pure Sports enough to make it to the championship.  They mixed up the infield but seemed to have all of their players.

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Tied 1st Place Pure Sports/Monsta

Conf 'AA' from SC  2-0 Record

 

Pure Sports was rolling.  Mooch and Shaw did not make the trip.  And Pure Sports defense on dirt and their momentum offense had them winning easily.  It would have been interesting to see them against the Major teams on these fields.  Pure Sports is locking up the #1 seed for the 'AA' Worlds.  

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Messer homers

Carlsen triples


Jared Hunt has been swinging the hotstick and moved up the order. 

That is an interesting paint scheme on that bat!

 


 

Tied 5th Place Nightmare/Miken

Conf 'AA' from MO  2-1 Record

Nightmare has struggled all year but gutted out a win over Riot Sports.  

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Colby Hughes has been having a big year for Nightmare

 


 

Tied 5th Place Bay Area Legends/Miken

Conf 'A' from CA  2-1 Record

The Mexican connection…and Campbell

The Legends weren't going to come, but they did, and it was their best tournament of the year and could solidify them in the Major World Series.

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Matt Fox

 

Gary Perez does his best Phelps impression.  Actually Gary slipped in the mud, check out the video clips.

 


 

Tied 5th Place – Rapid Fire athletics/Sports Lounge

Conf 'A' from VA  2-1 Record

Riot beat Precision to end up with another huge points weekend!

Trending Up!

 

Nann hits a clutch homer to help put away Precision

Byars pitching and Chavis at SS

 


 

Tied 5th Place – TG Brand

Conf 'A' from MI  2-1 Record

TG Brand beat #1 Resmondo and continues to lead the 'A' division.

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Franklin was hit by a ground ball in the face late in the tournament.  Hope he is alright.

Justin Evans

 


 

Hot Links section brought to you by:

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

Send corrections to dw@softballcenter.com

Link to the SoftballCenter.com Youtube channel

Link to all 2009 to 2018 Tournament Reports and Previews

Nationwide Conference USSSA Points and information link

 


 

Some more pictures for you:

With the rain etc I did not get a pic of Sports Reach apparently

Tied for 9th – Sports Reach (KY-B) 1-1 – They beat Wileys and lost a good shootout with La Famiglia.  We are still pulling for manager Robby Speer who is recovering from a stroke and is expected to return to the field soon!

 

Tied for 9th – Rebel Sports/DirtySportswear/Miken (MI-B) 2-1 – Upset Pauer and beat Primetime and even came within 9 runs of Dan Smith.  Their best tournament of 2018.

Tied for 9th – Xtreme/Miken/ASP/Athlon (MN-AA) 2-1 – beat some local teams but got smoked by Racks 25-9

 

Tied for 9th – Riot Sports/Broughton/Beckham/Worth (FL-AA) 2-1 – Beat 'A' teams Fishhead and Smash It Sports but lost a good game 32-29 to Nightmare that they let slip away.

 

Tied for 9th – Resmondo/RDD/H.Auto/All In/Sprizzi/Easton (FL-M) 1-1 – Resmondo lost to TG Brand in their first game 34-32 in a game that was finished on a wet field and Connell slipped running the bases for the 3rd out.  In the loser's bracket they barely beat Pauer Sports.  300 foot fields is not this teams strong suit.  They are now 11-7 on 300 foot fields since Las Vegas.

 

Tied for 9th – Precision/3rd Street/Bulldawg (IL-AA) 1-1 – Precision beat Old Bag but came up a run short against Rapid Fire in a 27-26 loss.  In the loser's bracket I believe they were still on the field when the tournament was called so I'm not sure if they finished tied for 9th or not?

 

Tied for 9th – TDB/FAI/Klutch/Miken (NC-AA) 2-1 – TDB beat two local teams but lost to Bay Area Legends by a run.

 

Tied for 9th – Premier/Easton/HDLNS (OH-A) 1-1

Dave Durso hits a big homer for LaFamiglia vs Smash It Sports Saturday morning.

LaFamiglia went 1-2 but beat Sports Reach in a slugfest and nearly pulled off the upset of Smash It but lost 14-13

Pauer went 0-2 but only lost to Resmondo in the loser's bracket 38-35

Wiley's went 1-2 but beat Premier 31-27

 

Primetime and Insane Sports were Conference 'A' teams that didn't have much success in Cincinnati

 

Titans 3B Isaiah Worlow who helped the Cleveland All Stars beat the USA Future Stars a few years ago.

Titans played some tough games against Pauer and Premier

Fishhead has a nice team but went 2 and Q

I'm guessing Stro is explaining classification to T&W…

Conference umpires allover the place!

The router CincySoftball.com let us use worked out great for the livestream!  Thank you!

The Miami river was the highest I have seen in July

Wegs brought in 3 more pallets of diamond dry on Saturday morning

This may have just been a parked car but don't text/drink and drive…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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