Tuesday March 26th, 2024
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2013 Nationwide Conference USSSA “Texas Legends” tournament report!

 

 

 

 

2013 Nationwide Conference USSSA

 

13th Annual

 

"Texas Legends"

 

Euless, TX

 

May 3-5

 

 

USSSA Texas Legends tournament info and bracket link

 

Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth the #1 ranked team in the nation maintained their undefeated record as they go 5-0 at the 13th Annual "Texas Legends" tournament. They knocked off GTL/Doerflinger/R&M/Easton 29-14 in the finals after GTL lost in the quarterfinals unexpectedly to Team Adiktiv/Dynasty/D2E/LS/TYJA 26-25. GTL then won 5 straight to make it to the championship game.

The tournament was played in cool and windy conditions but the sun shined throughout. Starting on Friday night, there were very few upsets as most of the higher seeded teams won as expected until the quarter finals early on Saturday afternoon. One team that played two outstanding games on Friday night was Old School/Elite a 'C' team from Texas who knocked off a very good Golds Gym team 26-25 and then fought hard against Buzini in a 40-37 loss which was one of the highest scoring game of the tournament.

All 8 of the quarter final teams were from the Nationwide Conference USSSA. Demarini/Dirty run ruled FBI 23-5, Buzini run ruled their rival Baugh Ford 30-15, and Resmondo was taken a full 7 innings by ASPNation. With Resmondo winning 30-24. In the final quarter final game GTL struggled to keep pace with an offensive minded Adiktiv team and trailed them 26-21 going into the bottom of the 7th. GTL quickly scored 4 runs and loaded the bases with nobody out but Adiktiv pitcher Cam Byars got a popout and a 5-10-3 double play to end the game and the win for Adiktiv 26-25.

In the final 4 of the winner's bracket Adiktiv gave Demarini all they could handle in a 26-22 Demarini win.  The game ended on a controversial overturned call at third base when Adiktive was rallying from behind with two outs. In the other semi final Resmondo trounced Buzini 23-6 before Buzini could really get going. Then In the winner's bracket championship game which was a much anticipated matchup between Demarini/Dirty and Resmondo late on Saturday night, Dirty put up 26 runs on the strength of third baseman Dale Brungardts 4-5 with 3 homers and Adam Rockoffs 4-5 with 2 homers. But Resmondo got an assist and a nice play on the fence from their young outfielders and batted around their lineup in the bottom of the 6th with 5 home runs to get a big lead and held off Demarini's top of the 7th rally to win 28-26.

In the loser's bracket GTL ran the table with 4 wins in a row over Nationwide Conference opponents including the loser's bracket final over Demarini/Dirty when pitcher Brendt Newbill shut down Demarini the last 3 consecutive innings. GTL then went to the finals where their 14 runs over 5 innings was not a terrible output which included two home runs from Kyle Pearson, but was no match for Resmondo who batted around their lineup in each of the last 4 innings to win the tournament championship 29-24.

Congratulations to Resmondo who played every facet of the game better than their opponents all weekend long.

I (DW) did not make it to Dallas on Saturday morning as expected. When I got to my gate at the airport in Cleveland they said the flight was cancelled due to "the pilots not having the required amount of sleep". Ouch. Anyways by the time I would have arrived at the park it would have been 5:30 PM Saturday evening and I would have missed the first 40 of the 55 games of the tournament. So this report is based on the Saturday evening and Sunday games I watched on the live feed. Sorry.

I am looking for someone to take some pictures of the Kansas City and Atlanta tournaments as I won't be attending those two tournaments because of big family events at home. My next tournament will be Nashville which currently has 29 Nationwide Conference teams signed up!

 

GTL takes on Demarini

 

Sunday morning GTL takes on ASPNation 

Resmondo and Demarini in the winner's final

DW was trying to chat and watch 4 games at once!

For the first time in Major softball history all of the games on every field were successfully livestreamed on USSSALive.com.  A thank you to Bernie, Andy Purcell, and Texas director Chris Thames for their hard work getting the cameras setup.  A true feat of technology and a great success for what is to come at future events!  The video and audio quality was very good.  Unfortunately only a few scores were kept up to date.  Thank you to Doc and the first umpiring crew on Sunday morning for their score updates.  In the future Bernie hopes to give the teams and the fans watching with smart phones the application and password to be able to update the scores in real time!

Remember anyone can give a score update by simply talking in a normal voice near where the ipod touch is hanging on the fence.  Heck you can even try your hand at play by play!

 


 

Game Videos brought to you by:

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Some of the final game between Resmondo and GTL

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Recorded video of the Resmondo vs Demarini/DIrty game from Saturday night.

 


 

 Texas Legends Final Standings & Awards

Also added late to the All Tournament team was:

Offensive MVP – JD Genter – GTL/R&M

Brandon Dillon – GTL/R&M

Kevin Bazat – GTL/R&M

Sean McDonald – GTL/R&M

Vince Bisbee – GTL/R&M

Orlando Castillo – Demarini

Dale Brungardt – Demarini

Terry Baggs – Demarini

Andrew Collins – Demarini

Player Tournament Awards

Players Name Plays For
Tournament MVP Andrew Purcell Resmondo – Specialty Tank / Worth
Defensive Tournament MVP Ronald Mack III Resmondo – Specialty Tank / Worth
All Tournament Team Dennis Rulli Resmondo – Specialty Tank / Worth
All Tournament Team Cooper Vittitow ASPNation.com/Easton
All Tournament Team Greg Connell Resmondo – Specialty Tank / Worth
All Tournament Team JEREMY YATES Resmondo – Specialty Tank / Worth
All Tournament Team Lyf Nimmo ASPNation.com/Easton
All Tournament Team Jimmy Salas Resmondo – Specialty Tank / Worth
All Tournament Team Billy Fulk Resmondo – Specialty Tank / Worth
All Tournament Team Jeremiah Isenhower Resmondo – Specialty Tank / Worth
Place State Team Team
Class
Wins Loses Ties Runs
Scored
Runs
Allow
Avg
Runs
Avg
Allow
Avg
Diff
Max
Runs
USSSA
Points
1 FL resmondo – specialty tank / worth SPMensMajor 5 0 0 146 84 29.2 16.8 12.4 36 300
2 IA gtl doerflinger r&m/easton SPMensA 6 2 0 220 151 27.5 18.8 8.62 38 225
3 FL demarini/dirty/xtremeathletics SPMensA 3 2 0 125 93 25 18.6 6.4 32 200
4 TXN ASPNation.com/Easton SPMensConfTBD 5 2 0 190 159 27.1 22.7 4.42 33 175
5 GA team adiktiv/dynasty/d2e/ls/ytja SPMensConfTBD 3 2 0 139 108 27.8 21.6 6.2 34 155
5 MS buzini/buffalowildwings/worth SPMensConfTBD 2 2 0 102 113 25.5 28.2 -2.7 40 155
7 TXN vivid / softballmix.com / tyja SPMensConfTBD 4 2 0 152 100 25.3 16.6 8.66 34 130
7 AL baugh ford/mojo/louisville slugger SPMensConfTBD 3 2 0 136 102 27.2 20.4 6.8 35 130
9 TXS Old School/Elite SPMensC 3 2 0 111 135 22.2 27 -4.8 37 110
9 AR ryno ent/monster/dt sports.net SPMensConfTBD 3 2 0 89 106 17.8 21.2 -3.4 31 110
9 AR fence brokers/hubs pub/gts/worth SPMensConfTBD 2 2 0 83 99 20.7 24.7 -4 33 110
9 TXN Gold's Gym SPMensC 2 2 0 102 99 25.5 24.7 0.75 41 110
13 OK nacsf inc/stanley law/fallout SPMensC 2 2 0 78 86 19.5 21.5 -2 34 70
13 AR Arkansas Mayhem SPMensC 2 2 0 81 77 20.2 19.2 1 23 70
13 MO nightmare/louisville slugger SPMensConfTBD 2 2 0 119 93 29.7 23.2 6.5 37 70
13 LA la classic / easton / buzini SPMensC 1 2 0 54 54 18 18 0 24 70
17 TXN Big Apple/NYPD SPMensC 1 2 0 22 46 7.33 15.3 -8 12 40
17 OK o.k. shockers/alldaysports.com SPMensD 1 2 0 45 54 15 18 -3 24 40
17 TXN dirty ballers/diamond sports SPMensC 1 2 0 41 70 13.6 23.3 -9.6 17 40
17 TXN Jokers SPMensC 1 2 0 42 69 14 23 -9 19 40
17 TXN Keystone SPMensC 1 2 0 40 66 13.3 22 -8.6 23 0
17 TXN Softball World SPMensC 1 2 0 46 59 15.3 19.6 -4.3 30 0
17 TXS Dabomb Sports SPMensB 0 2 0 0 14 0 7 -7 0 0
17 TXN Team Demarini/BG Apparel SPMensC 0 2 0 30 36 15 18 -3 15 40
25 TXN NTX One SPMensC 0 2 0 16 47 8 23.5 -15. 14 0
25 TXN Lumber Kings SPMensD 0 2 0 25 50 12.5 25 -12. 15 0
25 TXN torres empire/ lethal assault SPMensD 0 2 0 16 39 8 19.5 -11. 11 40
25 TXN Lone Star Sportswear/L3S SPMensC 0 2 0 23 64 11.5 32 -20. 19 0

 

Team by team notes brought to you by:

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1st Place – Resmondo – Specialty Tank / Worth

Conf 'M' from   5-0 Record

Resmondos 17-0 start makes one begin to think of winning streaks. Of course Steeles Sports had the longest ever winning streak at 142 games back in 1990.  It was the era of unlimited home runs and their win streak included many exhibition games against city all star teams but also included many weekend Major tournament titles as well and still stands as the greatest win streak of all time.  Check out the news clippings about Steele's 1990 winning streak at the bottom of this report.

Resmondo batted around their lineup multiple times and usually multiple times within the same game. The key to this of course is to have a pitcher that bats 3rd in a very good lineup. There offense has been infectious and each of their big innings seems to gain momentum as players take it upon themselves to not make the first or last out of these big innings.

In the championship game Dennis Rulli, Greg Connell, Jimmy Salas, and Jeremy Yates all hit without making an out, with Salas hitting 3 homers. In the winner's final Saturday night Purcell was on 5-5 with two – 3 run homers.

Resmondo played without SS Don Dedonatis Jr who is out with an obleak muscle strain. They continue to rule the winner's bracket, giving themselves plenty of rest between games. No longer can critics say Resmondo "is getting old". They have picked up 4 of the best young players in the game (Salas, Mack, Santana, Yates) over the last two years.  And BJ Fulk, Jeremy Isenhower, and Greg Connell are far from old in Major softball terms. And Andy Purcell, Don Dedonatis Jr, Howie Krause, and Bobby Hughes just need to stay healthy and we know they can be very effective. What we have to ask ourselves is, as good as the entire Resmondo team is, would they be dominating without Purcell? If Purcell played for Laservision, Shoppe, or Nordkap, one could argue that while Resmondo might still win the most tournaments, the other top teams would be right there competing more often than they are today.

Resmondo travels to Kansas City next weekend and Nashville the following weekend, look for their streak to be tested in Nashville on the baseball fields after playing for the third weekend in a row.  Then in June they play Columbus Ohio, Chicago, and the Dudley 3 out of 4 weekends as well.  Some tough stretches.

MI Dennis Rulli

2B Greg Connell

P Andy Purcell

3B Jimmy Salas

SS Bubba Mack

C BJ Fulk

RF Jeremy Isenhower

1B Howie Krause and Loyd Watson

LF Jeremy Yates

CF Nick Santana

 

 


 

2nd Place – GTL/Doerflinger/R&M/Easton

Conf 'A' from   6-2 Record

 

GTL was a bit of a surprise finishing 2nd after being tripped up by Adiktiv in their 2nd game when they failed to complete a 5 run comeback in the bottom of the 7th by popping out and grounding into a DP with the tying run on third and the bases loaded.

In the loser's bracket they sent home four Nationwide Conference teams by a combined score of 117-82. They used a huge top of the 7th inning to knock off Buzini late on Saturday night. On Sunday they trailed ASPNation 12-1 before coming back in the 3rd inning to take the lead on a Richard Salazar 3 run homer 14-12. Then a Kevin Bazat bases loaded double in the 4th gave GTL some separation and eventually a 33-18 win when they sent 14 batters to the plate in the final inning and left ASPNation on the field with a run rule.

In the loser's finals SS Branden Blake hit a pair of big home runs and Rusty Bumgardner capped a double digit comeback over Demarini/Dirty 29-14 as GTL held Demarini scoreless the last 3 innings!

Then in the finals GTL, playing their 8th game of the weekend was scoring runs and playing reasonably well, but was just outmatched by Resmondo 29-14.

The team never gives up, you have to give them that. And as pointed out in the SoftballCenter chat room, GTL is undefeated (4-0) vs the 'A' division.

3B JD Genter

1B Sean McDonald

CF Brandon Dillon

EH Vince Bisbee

C Rusty Bumgardner

OF Kyle Pearson

OF Brad Reckart

MI Kevin Bazat

SS Branden Blake

2B Richard Salazar

P Brendt Newbill or Justin Mucciarelli

 


 

3rd Place – Demarini/Dirty/XtremeAthletics

Conf 'A' from   3-2 Record

Demarini/Dirty used a nice seed to slip into the winner's bracket finals against Resmondo late on Saturday night. They were only challenged to that point by Adiktiv 26-22. In the winner's finals they played Resmondo tough. Trailing most of the game by just a few runs, they got home runs from Dale Brungardt, Terry Baggs, and Adam Rockoff in the top of the 3rd inning. Then in the bottom half they got great defensive plays from Rockoff (I think it was Rock?) in CF running down a ball in the gap, a diving stop from SS (Kevin Lucas?) in the hole, and a nice play by 3rd baseman Dale Brungardt to hold Resmondo to 6 runs. But Resmondo batted around in the bottom of the 6th and put Demarini in too big a whole to come back as Resmondo won 28-26.

On Sunday I think Demarini took GTL for grant it a little bit as they jumped out to a double digit lead early on but failed to close out GTL and went scoreless the last 3 innings and lost 22-18.

Demarini played without their other pitcher Brandon Jonas who is injured and it definitely hurt them not having a second pitcher, simply because you need two pitchers in todays Nationwide Conference. Jones did do a great job and showed some real toughness after getting drilled by Resmondo on a linedrive.

LF Chris Wilson

2B Joe Gordon

C Donvan Pokraka

3B Dale Brungardt

RF Andrew Collins

EH Chris Larsen

1B Terry Baggs

CF Adam Rockoff

SS Kevin Lucas

MI Orlando Castillo

P Shawn Jones

 


 

4th Place – ASPNation.com/Easton

Conf 'C' from   5-2 Record

ASPNation had a nice run rule win over fellow Texas Conference team Vivid 29-14 early on Saturday. Then at high noon, they had the sticks in their hands in the bottom of the 7th inning against Resmondo in a 30-24 loss. Very impressive. In the loser's bracket they run ruled Gold's Gym 29-14 who had given a few teams a fit. Then they came from way down against Baugh Ford and scored 14 runs in the 6th inning to win 29-26. They had to turn around right away and beat Adiktiv 33-32 on a walk off base hit, help me out, I think it was Zane Trammell? Remember I am writing this report having not actually been at the tournament but I did watch the key games on USSSALive.com. This pushed ASPNation to their second Sunday finish of the year.

On Sunday morning they looked like they were going to send GTL home after jumping out to a 12-1 lead on the power of multiple home runs from catcher Stuart Snell. But the wheels came off in the middle innings and ASPNation actually lost by the run rule 33-18.

Another great weekend for ASPNation as they played without two of their big hitters Matt Kainer and Matt Vern. They hung with Resmondo and they sent home Baugh and Adiktiv. You have to say ASPNation is one of the best stories of the young 2013 season.

 

Mike Cervantes

Jason Trammell

Stuart Snell

Nick Mitschke

Cooper Vittitow

Ben Dunn

Dee Hornesburger

Zane Trammell

Marcus Thornton

Lyf Nimmo

Rodney Fail

 

 

 

Tied 5th Place – Team Adiktiv/Dynasty/D2E/LS/TYJA

Conf 'B' from   3-2 Record

Adiktiv won their first 3 games including a run rule over Ryno 34-19 and they got out of a bases loaded no outs jam against GTL to win 26-25 by getting a popout and a double play to end the game. Credit left handed pitcher Cam Byars for getting some bigtime GTL hitters off balance at the end of the game. Adiktiv then was making a miracle comeback against Demarini in the bottom of the 7th when a sweep tag safe call was overturned at third base to end the game. The play was off screen on USSSALive so I am not sure what exactly happened.

In the loser's bracket Adiktiv lost on a walk off single to ASPNation 33-32 late on Saturday night.

Adiktiv continues to score big runs and seem to get pretty good pitching. It is just that the infield defense needs to look the ball all the way into their gloves and field the hard shots which is easier said than done. If they do this, Adiktiv could be a top 5 'B' team and continue to put the pressure on the 'A' teams they play. Josh Wiggs and Tommie Melton power the offense which is tough throughout the lineup with Matt Rando leading off and Jason Gillfillan and Ron Pearce in the middle.

 


 

Tied 5th Place – Buzini/BuffaloWildWings/Worth

Conf 'B' from   3-2 Record

Buzini outlasted upstart Old School 40-37 on Friday night in one of the best games of the tournament. Then they knocked off rival Baugh Ford 30-15. In the winner's quarterfinals against Resmondo they actually didn't play that poorly but somehow found themselves flip flopped and run ruled 23-6. One of those games where you are just getting started and you look up and Resmondo is finishing you off. In the loser's bracket they ran into GTL but lost by 12 in a pretty good game.

 


 

The rest of the Nationwide Conference teams

Vivid/SoftballMix.com/TYJA played a lot of softball after losing in the second round to ASPNation 29-14. It seemed they were on the field the rest of Saturday as they knocked off two local teams, run ruled FBI 34-17 and played GTL well, losing 24-20. Vivid is still in search of that elusive "signature" win, but on Saturday it wasn't for lack of effort.

 

"BAUGH FORD"/MOJO/Louisville Slugger played fairly well early on but end up just 1-2 on the weekend against 'B' peers. This team may need a weekend off and then a 'B' NIT or something to get them kickstarted for the second half of the season.

Ryno Ent/Monster/DTSports.net squeaked one out against a very good LA Classic team 17-16. By the way LA Classic would make a nice Nationwide Conference team. Ryno lost to both of the Conference teams they played though by the run rule. Look for Ryno to get a couple of wins next week closer to home in Kansas City.

 

Fence Brokers/Hubs Pub/GTS/Worth run ruled Nightmare 33-18 then dropped two straight by the run rule to Demarini and Vivid? FBI has a little Jeckyl and Hyde thing going on here with their ups and downs this season.

Nightmare/Louisville Slugger lost to Fence Brokers early and then was ousted by Gold's Gym in an entertaining 41-37 game. I think these guys will start competing in Kansas City next week as long as they avoid the Major teams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

News clippings on Steele's 1990 winning streak!

 

 


 

Hot Links section brought to you by:

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

USSSA Texas Legends tournament link

Send corrections to dw@softballcenter.com

Link to the SoftballCenter.com Youtube channel

Link to the 2013 Tournament Reports

Link to the 2012 Tournament Reports


 

 

 

3 responses to “2013 Nationwide Conference USSSA “Texas Legends” tournament report!”

  1. K says:

    How do we watch the games if we couldn’t on USSSA Live? Any archived games?

  2. DW says:

    USSSA is working on adding archive functionality but there is none at this time.

    I did upload two of the games to youtube which are also included in the report.

  3. K says:

    Ok, I was wanting to watch other games besides Ressy and Dirty heard there were some good ones. Thanks man.

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