2014 “Windy City” Invitational tournament preview!
"Windy City Invitational"
Nationwide Conference USSSA!
June 6-8
Tournament Preview
8 of the top 15 teams in the nation according to the SoftballCenter.com computer rankings will be in attendance at this weekend’s "Windy City" Invitational! There will be 35 teams overall and a whopping 22 of them are from the Nationwide Conference USSSA! Which means the winner will score (150 + (22 x 4))=232 points! The heavy favorite will be Laservision/H Auto/JJ's/Easton who has a 33 game win streak on the line and has won all 6 Nationwide Conference USSSA events they have entered. Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth will be the team that will try to knock them off at a tournament they have not won since 2011. Last year Laservision double dipped Resmondo and in 2012 Team 454 double dipped Laservision. Other contenders will be third ranked Baugh Ford Doerflinger National Pawn/Klutch Brand/Easton and fourth ranked Backman/Shoppe/Louisville Slugger. Traditionally Line Drive Sportz and also Red's Astros have played well in this tournament.
Team List Breakdown:
35 Teams Overall
22 Nationwide Conference USSSA Teams
3 Major Teams
4 'A' Teams (if Combatants is considered an 'A' team?)
11 'B' Teams
8 'C' Teams
9 'D' Teams
The Inwood Sports Park has 6 symmetrical 300 foot fields, the wind is usually a big factor, and the infields if dry do become a bit treacherous for infielders. There are a lot of teams looking to get their season turned around at this tournament starting with Resmondo, Line Drive, Reds Astro's, and even Backman/Shoppe. With 22 conference teams coming (less than expected), that means the winners score of 232 may be the only points total used by the top teams. Second place would get 192 and that may not be a usable score for a top 10 team when you consider each team gets to use their top 6 tournaments of the year for World Series seeding. The Maryland Dual next weekend, the Smoky, Cincinnati, and the Last Chance tournament all appear that they will have more points than Chicago.
Lets take a look at the bracket. There are a bunch of good 'B' vs 'B' and 'B' vs 'C' matchups on Friday night. Bad Draw vs Xtreme, B&B Drywall vs Precision, B&B Diamond&Ice vs Cooper, Cash House vs P&P 333, and TG Brand vs Street Kids. But the real action starts in the 2nd round through to the end of the tournament with most fields in the winners bracket featuring more than likely two conference teams in each game.
The chat room here at Softballcenter.com as well as the USSSALive ipod cameras will be up and running, so check in! I (DW) will most likely only be there on Saturday as I have a family event on Sunday so I'll be tuning in like the rest of you on Friday and Sunday.
I would like to thank all of those that tuned in last week at Seattle. A SoftballCenter record 6,994 unique devices connected to the livestream of field #3 on Friday at some point during that day!
Picks: 55% of the poll pickers selected Laservision. Definitely a big change over past years and its tough to go against them. JKeel is the pickem leader over on oldscout as far as picking the top 4 this year, so he is our guest picker this week.
JKeel's Chicago Picks:
1. Laservision
2. Resmondo
3. Baugh Ford
4. Shoppe
DW's Chicago Picks:
1. Laservision
2. Resmondo
3. Shoppe
4. Reds Astros
Inwood Sports Complex Field Dimensions
300 feet on all 6 fields
Weekend Weather
2013 Chicago Winner – Laservision/Desertfalls/Boombah/Easton
2013 Chicago tournament report link
2012 Chicago tournament report link
2011 Chicago tournament report link
2010 Chicago tournament report link
Past tournament results
2013 Results
1 NY-M Laservision/Desertfalls/Boombah/Easton
2 FL-M Resmondo – Specialty Tank / Worth
3 TN-A Shoppe / TYJA / Louisville Slugger
4 MI-A Line Drive Sportz/SSS/Miken
2012 Results
1 VA-A Team 454/Emerald/Worth
2 NY-M Laservision/anni/supr/d2/easton
3 MI-B Line drive sportz/sss softball
4 TN-A SHOPPE / TEAM TPS / ELITE
2011 Results
1 WA-M GTL Cartel/DeMarini
2 FL-M Resmondo-specialty tank / worth
3 WA-M Team combat/laservision/d2e/supreme
4 VA-A Team 454 Emerald/Worth
2010 Results
1 FL-M Resmondosport/specialty/phonemaster
2 WA-A GTL CARTEL/WORTH
3 CA-M Dan Smith/Menosse
4 IA-B Pipac/TCP/Easton
2009 Results
1 FL-M Resmondo-specialty tank-worth
2 CA-M Dan smith-menosse-benfield-combat
3 WA-A GTL cartel/stucco/worth/elite
4 OH-B PRI/MFAB/Insanity frozen
2008 Results
1 CA-M Dan smith/menosse/benfield/combat
2 FL-M Resmondo/specialty tank/worth
3 MN-M Long haul/phonemasters/miken
4 WA-A GTL/Creative Stucco/Worth
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