Friday March 29th, 2024
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A look back at the —> 2017 USA Softball Super National tournament report

 

Again, send stat fixes to dw@softballcenter.com.  I can already see that they were using Danny Lopez instead of Steven Lopez in at least one game for WC Monsta.

 

 

2017 USA Softball

 

Super National

 

Oklahoma City, OK

 

Sept 28-29

 

H. Auto/Resmondo takes on West Coast Monsta in the winner's bracket finals.

 

Link to SoftballCenter picture album of Super 

 

2017 Super bracket and info link

 

The 2017 USA Softball Super Nationals kicked off Thursday evening with 2 games and then played out the final 6 games on Friday at the Hall of Fame stadium complex in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  There were only 5 teams in the tournament because this year teams had to play 2 qualifying tournaments to get into the Super.  Although it was a small field of teams the games were hard fought and for the most part evenly matched.  Below is a game by game run down of the Super Nationals followed by final Standings, Awards, and a quick team by team breakdown.

Thursday Games

Game #1

OC from Iowa in brown takes on ASP from Texas in the opener on Integris field.

All fields had 300 foot home run fences and the 52 core 300 compression ball flew well.

ASP got off to a 27-20 lead through 4 innings but hit most of their allotted 16 home runs and with the homer's low struggled to score the rest of the way.  This opened the door for OC in the 5th where they got homers from Spencer Black and Tanner Unkel mixed in between doubles from Grant Grimmett and Darren Nelson to close the gap to 27-25.  OC outscored ASP 5-3 in the 6th on a couple of sacrifice fly's and a big 3 run homer from Matt Schrage to tie the , Schrage's 4th of the game.  In the top of the 7th Jason White and Ben Dunn singled to score a run but OC got a leadoff single from Andrew Malone and a walk off homer from Gabe Bower to pull the upset 32-31.  Matt Schrage was 5-5 with 4 HR and 7 RBI in the game!

 


 

Game #2

H. Auto/Resmondo takes on T's 13 Thursday evening.

Game #2 was also played on Thursday evening at 7 PM in near perfect softball weather.  T's 13 a perennial giant killer took on the H.Auto/Resmondo group.  T's 13 came out strong with a 9-6 lead going into the bottom of the 2nd inning.  Then H. Auto batted for about 20 minutes enroute to scoring 21 runs on 20 hits and 7 home runs and T's 13 was just trying to avoid the run rule the rest of the way.  H. Auto's Kevin Bazat at shortstop playing about as deep as anyone has played all year just made great play after great play to preserve the 34-17 win.

 


 

Friday Games

Game #3

Chris Greinert of WC Monsta homer's during a comeback win against OC

West Coast Monsta got off to a 13-5 lead through 3 innings but Friday morning in their opener against OC who had that play into the bracket upset of ASP the night before.  OC answered with 12 big runs in the bottom of the 3rd inning and 7 more in the 5th to put a quiet WC Monsta team down 26-16.  In the top of the 6th Monsta pulled to within 3 when they "opened up" the swings and got homer's from Steven Lopez, Filip Washington, and Chris Greinert and then a pair of two out homer's from David Johnson and Losson White.  In the bottom of the 6th the defense held OC to zero on an unassisted doubleplay by first baseman Steven Lopez.  In the top of the 7th WC Monsta exploded around the order scoring 14 runs and burying OC and their upset bid 37-28.

Note that should be Steven Lopez not Danny Lopez in the leadoff spot.

 

 


 

Game #4

T's 13 shortstop Brett Rettenmeier throws out a runner

The loser's bracket started Friday morning with T's 13 and ASP.  The two teams traded leads until the 13 run top of the 6th for T's and they exploited a few ASP errors during the game enroute to a nice 38-33 win.  Rettenmeier was 5-5 in the win.  Shannon Smith and Brandon Dillon were 6-6 in the loss.

 

T's 13 outfielder Ben Vasquez hits a big homer off of ASP pitcher Faron Miller

 


 

Game #5

OC takes on T's 13

In the loser's bracket semifinals T's 13 and their veteran leader Chaun Demars were too much for OC as they scored double digit innings in the 2nd and 5th and cruised to a 32-16 victory as all of the games moved to the stadium field.

 


 

Game #6

 

WC Monsta's Ryan Dacko hits a walk off run rule homer to beat H. Auto/Resmondo

The winner's bracket finals was played at noon on Friday on the stadium field with the wind blowing straight in.  That wind didn't stop West Coast Monsta who piled on the runs early and often and then shut down H. Auto with their infield defense with great plays by Brungardt at 3rd, Whaley at shortstop, Mcclanahan at middle infield, and Chente Granados at 2nd base.  WC Monsta outhit H. Auto 26-7 and out homered them 13-3 on their way to the run rule victory.  Center fielder Filip Washington was 3-4 with 3 HR in the game.

 

 


 

 

Game #7

The loser's bracket finals was the highest scoring game of the tournament and went for over 2 hours.  Both teams as you see by the inning scores had at least 2 innings of double digits and T's 13 never did give in.  H. Auto's Kyle Pearson was 7-8 with 3 HR and 8 RBI in the game and Resmondo outlasted T's 13 to advance to the championship 49-42.

 

Mike Umschied hits a big homer for H. Auto

Rettenmeier answers for T's 13


 

Game #8 – Championship!

 

The championship game was a rematch of the winner's finals with H. Auto taking on a fresh WC Monsta team.  Monsta scored at least 5 runs in every inning including 11 runs in the 6th.  And they took advantage of a few misplays to hold leads of 11-6, 17-15, and 24-21.  H. Auto never could gain any significant advantage and although neither team played great defense, the WC Monsta 44 hit 13 HR attack prevailed for Monsta's first ever Super National Championship!  The big turning point was a grand slam by Mario Granados that H. Auto center fielder Mike Umschied went back to the fence and seemingly made a leaping catch on, but the top of the fence hit his arm and the ball fell out for a grand slam 4 base award.  Lead off man Steven Lopez and MVP Dale Brungardt each had 6 hits in the game.

Mario Granados hits a grand slam that Mike Umschied nearly robbed!

 

Benches cleared in the Championship after this play at 2nd where the runner was correctly called safe.

It may have had to do with a middle shot or some chirping after the call?

 


 

Video Highlites brought to you by:

 


 

Long Bombers of the Week

  

HR Champs – Chaun DeMars and Kyle Pearson.  They hit 9 HR to lead the tournament.

The longest homer's by a right hander seemed to be Chris Greinert and Travis Clark among others. 

Eye witnesses said Filip Washington hit the longest to Left Field.  

The lefty with the longest ball may have been Patrick Ellwanger in my opinion.

 


 

 Super Awards and Final Standings

Final Standings from the Super
1st Place Place WC Monsta 3-0
2nd Place Place H.Auto/Resmondo/OA Apparel/SPTank 2-0
3rd Place Place T's 13/Monsta 2-2
4th Place Place OC 1-2
5th Place Place ASP/KV Weld/A&A Utility/OA/LGE/Gillies 0-2

 

Super Slow Pitch First Team All-Americans


Batting Champ & Tournament MVP – Dale Brungardt

Chris Greinert – WC Monsta
Filip Washington – WC Monsta
Bubba Mack – H. Auto/Resmondo/OA Apparel/Specialty Tank
Kyle Pearson – H. Auto/Resmondo/OA Apparel/Specialty Tank
Don Bellerby Jr. – WC Monsta
Dale Brungardt – WC Monsta
Chaun DeMars – T's 13/Monsta
Mike Umscheid – H. Auto/Resmondo/OA Apparel/Specialty Tank
Brett Rettenmeier – T's 13/Monsta
Ryan McClanahan – WC Monsta
Mario Granados – WC Monsta
Brad Reckart – H. Auto/Resmondo/OA Apparel/Specialty Tank
David Johnson – WC Monsta
Steve Whaley – WC Monsta
Kevin Bazat – H. Auto/Resmondo/OA Apparel/Specialty Tank

 


 

Team by team notes brought to you by:

 

 

 

1st Place Place WC Monsta

 from CA  3-0 Record

Monsta came alive late in that first game against OC and the offense never let up after that.  The defense was solid, the pitching depth with Lopez and White was great, and the team batted .690 for the 3 games.

 

Chente Granados at 2nd and his brother basket catching in left field

Whaley at SS and Mcclanahan at MI

 

Filip Washington and MVP Dale Brungardt climbing the ladder at 3B

 

David Johnson homer's against OC.  Turns out Johnson is a singer who has been on TV.

 

Two of the best USA Softball pitcher Danny Lopez and Losson White

 

Mcclanahan and Steven Lopez.  Many thought this teams uniforms looked like the Smurfs.

 


 

 

2nd Place Place H.Auto/Resmondo/OA Apparel/SPTank

 from MN  2-2 Record

H. Auto Resmondo came up short again.  Didn't have the firepower to slug their way to the Super title and didn't have the defense to stop WC Monsta.  A long season comes to an end.  Hearing Haglund and Yates are with Resmondo for 2018.  Pearson batted .810 and Mack .778.

Bazat at SS was making plays from shallow left field all day.

Last years Super MVP BJ Fulk

Reckart made all tournament at 3rd base

 

 

 


 

 

3rd Place Place T's 13/Monsta

 2-2 Record

R

T's always seems to play well at the USA Softball events and this year was no exception.  They only lost to Resmondo and could just as easily won that loser's bracket finals to make it an all Monsta championship.  

Mickey Rowland is a big bat at the bottom of the T's lineup

 

 

 


 

 

4th Place Place OC

 from IA  1-2 Record

I keep forgetting OC is not a local team and are 8 hours away in Iowa.  They had that huge upset on Thursday night and gave WC Monsta all they could handle which if they could of held on would have put them in the winner's final!

 

OC middle man makes a great play

It is tough to get a hit without a homer in USA Softball with infielders playing so deep.

 

 


 

5th Place Place ASP/KV Weld/A&A Utility/OA/LGE/Gillies

 

 from TX  0-2 Record

ASP had their sites set on the Super title after winning two straight 'A' Nationals.  Ryan Harvey crushed one of the longest homer's of the tournament in the first inning of their first game but the team never got it going and went 2 and Q.  They will be well rested for the 'A' Nationals and should be one of the top 4 teams there.

Nice catch

 

Dunn and Dodds…wheres Maggard?

 

 


Plenty to do within a mile of the park.  Horse racing, gambling, 2 museums, a zoo, and a science center

4 inches of rain early in the week nearly did in the Stadium field but they worked hard to get it playable

Super umpire crew

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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