2015 “Sin City” Classic tournament preview!
5th Annual
"Sin City Classic"
Conference USSSA!
March 27-29
Tournament Preview
presented by
2015 Las Vegas men's bracket link
2015 Las Vegas women's bracket link
The 2015 Nationwide Conference USSSA season kicks off this weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada with the 5th Annual "Sin City Classic"! The tournament features 6 of the top 10 teams in the nation and 9 of the top 20. This is the biggest and highest quality field of teams at a west coast major in over 10 years. 5 of the 6 Major teams will be in Las Vegas battling it out including last years final 3 teams at the USSSA Major World Series, Resmondo-Specialty Tank Worth based out of Florida, Backman/Shoppe/Louisville Slugger based out of Indiana, and SmashItSports/Compound Athletics/H.Auto/Laservision/ASP/Easton based out of New York. There are 38 teams in all and 16 of them are from the Nationwide Conference USSSA league.
Teams will begin play on Friday, March 27th and the live internet feed on USSSALive.com should start around the time of the first game at 5:00 PM Pacific time. I will try to place the ipod cameras on Yankee, Fenway, and Angel fields. The chat room will also be up on SoftballCenter.com to keep people informed. Live streaming will continue through the championship game which is set for Sunday at 10:45 AM Pacific time. The tournament is being held at Big League Dreams park at 3151 East Washington street. The fields feature artificial turf infields and each are modeled after the look and feel of a major league baseball stadium.
The weather looks to be good, warmer than usual and the wind will start slow and pick up as the weekend progresses. This is a tournament where wind becomes a big factor at some point and home run management on the small fields comes into play.
If anyone needs a player, Dan Norquist is available and lives in Las Vegas. He can play outfield and 1st base. Good hitter and power. He has Conference experience.
USSSALive.com for live streaming games!
Las Vegas BLD Field Dimensions
Yankee (main field) 285-308-290-286-286
Fenway 274-303-308-297-256
Angels 285-289-305-272-270
Wrigley 287-295-300-291-286
Dodger 275-305-321-304-274
Crosley 274-283-301-280-275
Weekend Weather
My picks for the tournament: In the top half of the bracket I like SmashItSports over Xtreme and Backman to make it to the Saturday night showdown against Resmondo who will have beaten OC Swats and Combat. Some great matchups should be the 10 PM Friday game between OC Swats and Team Racks. Also the 3 PM game Saturday possibly between 4 The Fallen and Team Combat. And from 6 PM Saturday on there should be great games all over the park. Upsets? Sure, the 'A' teams Xtreme, Classic Glass, and Team Racks are more than capable, and 'B' teams like OC Swats and Encompass could pull off a big upset as well.
I have no idea who will win this tournament. I think Resmondo could get off to a slow start again this year but to pick against them seems crazy. Laservision now called SmashItSports last year won Vegas and won over 30 straight games to start the season but they had a little bit of "new team" syndrome where everyone came out of the gate on top of their game. This year I think the "newness" has worn off and they will have to each find motivation especially to win early. I'll go out on a limb just for the fun of it and say Backman will win. They had some success at the Major finishing 2nd, they might have some momentum from picking up some more great young players like infielder Orlando Castillo, power hitter Ryan Harvey, and Chitty Baggs. They have a great outfield defensively. I doubt they will be able to keep it in the yard but lets go with them for none other reason than I don't know who to take between Resmondo and SmashItSports. lol. Looks like the 6 PM game on Yankee which always has a nasty sun glare in the batter's eyes could be between Resmondo and either Combat or 4 The Fallen.
I am looking for someone to write a paragraph about their picks for each major and make the tournament preview picks. Email me if you are interested. dw@softballcenter.com
DW's Final Picks:
1) Backman / Shoppe / Louisville Slugger
2) Resmondo Specialty Tank/Worth
3) Smash It Sports/Compound Athletics/H.auto/Laservision/ASP/Easton
4) OC Swats Doerflinger/Miken
Tied 5) Team Combat/Baugh Ford/Softball.com
Tied 5) Team Racks/Easton
How is that for some bulletin board material? lol. I hate doing picks, no way to even know which players have even played yet this year and I know everyone just wants to get a tournament in before the Hall of Fame Classic. I am rooting for Xtreme and Encompass both from Minnesota. Kudos for making the trip! I would love to see Fallen of Combat make a run as well. Stir things up. The Old Scout poll shows SmashItSports with a slight 37% to 34% vote to win.
Past Winners
2014 Winner – Laservision/Desert Falls/Boombah/Easton
2014 Las Vegas Major Tournament Report
2013 Winner – Laservision/Desert Falls/Boombah/Easton
2013 Las Vegas Major Tournament Report
2012 Winner – Nordkap/Desert Falls/Easton
2012 Las Vegas tournament report link
2011 Las Vegas tournament report link
Past tournament results
2014 Results
1 NY-M Laservision/H Auto/JJ's/Easton
2 AL-A Baugh Ford/Doerflinger/National Pawn/Klutch/Easton
3 WA-M Team Combat/Softball.com
4 CA-B Classic Glass/Easton
2013 Results
1 NY-M Laservision/Desertfalls/Boombah/Easton
2 MN-A Nordkap/Suncoast Reebok
3 MI-A Line Drive Sportz/SSS/Miken
4 CA-B OC SWATS/LCP
2012 Results
1 UT-M Nordkap/desert falls/easton
2 WY-A Sonny's / louisville slugger
3 CA-A Famous / Premiere
4 GA-B Down2earthsports.com/sbc/worth
2011 Results
1 WA-M GTL Cartel/DeMarini
2 WA-M Team Combat/laservision/d2e/supreme
3 IL-A ews/shirtsandlogos/drgraphx/easton
4 TX-A Wood Law/mizuno/famous/easton
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