Combat Major – Seattle Dual tournament preview

 Combat Major

Tournament Preview!

The Seattle Dual has been moved to the first weekend in June.  It was normally scheduled to be on July 4th weekend.  The Dual is two Conference tournaments.  The first starts on Friday morning at 8:50 AM and ends on Saturday morning at 9 AM.  The second tournament starts on Saturday morning at 9 AM and ends on Sunday at 11:45 AM.  In the future they should just eliminate the "if" game for Dual events.  There is no reason for them.

The complex has a nice baseball field that is used as the 5th field with temp fences.  It would be great to see the big games played there with the stadium ZN's.

The Kent, Washington fields do also have 4 softball fields.  Google Earth shows them all to be around 300 foot and symmetrical.

It looks like rain and cool weather will prevail so I am expecting some huge scores determined by whether or not the wind is blowing in or out on a particular field.

Seattle Dual Tournament #1 Bracket Link

Seattle Dual Tournament #2 Bracket Link

There are 23 teams total with 9 of them from Conference USSSA.  Team Combat has been playing better of late but they do have their leading hitter Scott Brown banged up with a pulled hamstring.  I'll take Combat over Xtreme/Combat, a 'B' team, out of Minnesota to make the final 4.  Xtreme/Combat has Conference veterans like Derek Irving, Matt Kelsey, and Dustin Palm listed on their roster.   I know OC Swats has some new players but Xtreme has a veteran team and should be able to hold their own. 

In the second quarter of the bracket 4 The Fallen, who hasn't beaten and 'A' or 'B' team this year, doesn't have to face any early on, as they should beat Monster/Combat to go to the final 4.

In the 3rd quarter Sonny's who is the #3 ranked team in the country gets the toughest road.  They have to play a "play in" game, then have to beat SBS/Combat and West Coast/Doerflinger to make the final 4.  WOW.  Tough draw.  I say they'll do it.

In the final part of the bracket, Team Demarini gets a tough play in game against Arsenal then has to beat Classic Glass who beat them in Phoenix.  Then they play Nordkap to go to the final 4.  Nordkap has to get past Washingtons best non-conference team Combat/Rockstar that features Wes Archie, Danny Clemmons, Sean Bagley, Josh Fulton, Jon Oram, Brian Plenkovich, Danny Van Daele, and Scott Weaver.  A pretty good 'B' team.  This part of the bracket will see an upset, I'm just not sure who it will be so I'll go with Nordkap/Desert Falls over Demarini to go to the final 4.

My final picks for Dual #1
1) Nordkap/Desert Falls – I wonder if Mike Rhines will be with them?
2) Team Combat – easy road to the finals
3) Sonny's – Louisville Slugger
4) Team Demarini – does well in the loser's bracket

Traditionally in these "double" tournaments teams that don't do well in the first one do better in the second and vice versa.  So to talk about individual matchups is pointless.

My final picks for Dual #2 – don't even try to figure out how they seeded this one.  Looks like some of the top teams got the short end of the stick.
1) Sonny's – Louisville Slugger
2) West Coast Doerflinger
3) SBS/Combat
4) Nordkap/Desert Falls vs Combat winner

Sitting at a computer in Cleveland, Ohio its difficult to promise broadcasting times but I will try to have a fixed position camera on the backstop for the games on field #3 starting around 11 AM or noon on Friday through the end of the tournament.  I may have a second camera set up on field #4 at some point as well.  ALL TIMES ARE PACIFIC