Friday March 29th, 2024
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Added All Tournament and Standings —> 2017 USSSA Last Chance Qualifier tournament report!

 

Note: I only made it over to the baseball quad for a few innings of a few games. 

So I grabbed some of this content off of the livestream or facebook.

 

 

2017 Nationwide Conference USSSA

 

Championships!

 

Viera, FL

 

September 1-3

 

TDB's Kyler Kirkland hits against Precision in the Championship game!

 

Link to the Conference Championships picture album

 

2017 Conference Championships bracket/Info links

 

The last chance qualifier at the Nationwide Conference championships is for any team that finished 9th to 32nd in the point standings from the regular season but it is not mandatory to show up.  Any of those teams that don't already have a berth to the USSSA Major World Series and finish as the highest non qualified team gets the berth to the Series.  The other teams are there to validate their berth and give the non qualified teams good competition and also earn points for final seeding at the major.  

The qualifier started on Friday at 3 pm with 9 teams in very warm heat and humidity.  The tournament was played on the baseball "quad" at the Space Coast Stadium Complex in Viera, Florida.  The field dimensions mirrored the stadium at 325-365-385-365-325 feet.  There were plenty of close games in the 3 game guarantee bracket where if you lose your first game you drop to a loser's bracket where you advance whether you win or lose in your second game.  It makes for some strange matchups but is the only way you can do a 9 team – 3 game guarantee bracket.

Precision was the class of the field as they dropped TDB, OA Apparel, and Xtreme to the loser's bracket and won the championship on Sunday over a TDB/TMSports team they had beaten in the first game…

Out of the 3 teams fighting for the berth, TDB knocked out Classic Glass in the loser's bracket 26-22.  And OA Apparel finished Wiley's hopes 15-14.  So TDB ended up with the berth.

Congratulations to Precision and TDB on their successes this past weekend.  I apologize for the brevity of the report but I could only be in one place at a time.  The baseball quad is a quarter mile from the stadium although it is in the same complex.

 

Team Breakdown:
 9 Teams Overall
9 Nationwide Conference USSSA Teams
 5 'AA' Teams
3 'A' Teams
1 'B' Teams

 

 

TDB's JoJo Bennett homer's in the clutch against berth rival Classic Glass.

USSSA sideline reporter Lindsey talks to TDB (Tarheel Drilling and Blasting) owner/sponsor Tim Franks after they earned their berth to the Major

 

TDB/TMSports takes on Xtreme on Wilson field in the baseball quad

Wiley's and Classic Glass both looking for a World Series berth fight it out Friday night.

Notice the state of the art Musco lighting these fields use.  No light "halo" around the light towers.

Another shot of the lights.  You can barely tell they are baseball field lights.

Easton field with TDB taking on Precision

Rawlings field

 


 

 

 

Xtreme was picked to win the Qualifier and TDB/TMSports to qualify for the major

 


 

Video Highlites brought to you by:

There are some clips from the last chance qualifier mixed into this video

 


 

Long Bombers of the Week

I will give this to Kyler Kirkland who hit that big homer against Classic Glass in the loser's bracket which propelled TDB to a big inning late in the game and subsequent win and ultimately the Major berth.  Also to I believe it was Rick Cornu who hit a walk off homer to beat Bad Draw in their first game.

 


 

Last Chance Qualifier Conference Awards and Final Standings

Player Tournament Awards Players Name Plays For
Tournament MVP Kyle Cowart Precision/3rd St./GBrand/Easton
Offensive Tournament CO-MVP Brett McCollum Precision/3rd St./GBrand/Easton
Offensive Tournament CO-MVP Dan Bean Precision/3rd St./GBrand/Easton
All Tournament Team Brad Tabler Precision/3rd St./GBrand/Easton
All Tournament Team David Kessler Precision/3rd St./GBrand/Easton
All Tournament Team Jeff Keske Precision/3rd St./GBrand/Easton
All Tournament Team Toby Letak Xtreme/Miken/ASP/Athlon
All Tournament Team Travis Houseman Precision/3rd St./GBrand/Easton
All Tournament Team Curtis stewart OA APPAREL/BROUGHTON/KBI/EASTON
All Tournament Team Patrick Ellwanger Xtreme/Miken/ASP/Athlon
All Tournament Team Keith Anderson Precision/3rd St./GBrand/Easton
All Tournament Team Cam Byars OA APPAREL/BROUGHTON/KBI/EASTON
All Tournament Team Shannon Smith Xtreme/Miken/ASP/Athlon
Place State Team Team Class Wins Losses Ties Runs
Scored
Runs
Allow
Avg
Runs
Avg Runs
Allow
Avg Run
Diff
Max
Runs
Ranking
Points
1 IL – Chicago Precision/3rd St./GBrand/Easton  USSSA-Mens-AA 4 0 0 83 36 20.8 9.0 11.8 25 300
2 NC – Charlotte TDB/TMSports/MidWestWhiteTailAdv/Mi  USSSA-Mens-AA 6 2 0 113 111 14.1 13.9 0.3 26 225
3 MN – Medina Xtreme/Miken/ASP/Athlon  USSSA-Mens-AA 2 2 0 66 54 16.5 13.5 3.0 29 200
4 TXN – Gladewater OA APPAREL/BROUGHTON/KBI/EASTON  USSSA-Mens-AA 2 2 0 53 55 13.3 13.8 -0.5 15 175
5 CAN – Castro Valley Bay Area Legends/Miken  USSSA-Mens-A 1 2 0 54 58 18.0 19.3 -1.3 35 155
5 FLS – Haines City Wileys Supreme/Miken/Worth  USSSA-Mens-B 1 4 0 48 68 9.6 13.6 -4.0 14 155
7 CAN – San Jose Classic Glass / Easton  USSSA-Mens-AA 2 2 0 67 75 16.8 18.8 -2.0 22 130
7 GA – Peachtree City Baugh Ford/Adiktiv/Worth/Miken  USSSA-Mens-A 1 2 0 36 53 12.0 17.7 -5.7 29 130
9 NC – Greenville Bad Draw/B&B/Broughton/BAF/Worth  USSSA-Mens-A 0 3 0 75 85 25.0 28.3 -3.3 33 110

 


 

Team by team notes brought to you by:

 

1st Place Precision/3rd Street/GBrand/Easton 

Conf 'AA' from IL  4-0 Record

Precision undefeated and beating 4 straight 'AA' teams.  Precision also won the Last Chance qualifier last year, right before winning 'AA' Worlds… 

Trending Up!

Kessler playing some two bag

Easton wins!

Bean!

 


 

2nd Place TDB/TMSports/MidwestWhitetailAdventure/Miken

Conf 'AA' from NC  6-2 Record

 

TDB/TMSports got the berth to the Major after beating Wiley's, Bad Draw, Classic Glass, and Bay Area Legends in the loser's bracket.  Then with the pressure off they beat OA Apparel and Xtreme to get to the championship.  Quite a weekend of team softball and truly earning the berth with 3 'AA' wins and 3 'A/B' wins in the tournament.  Welcome to the show. 

I wanted to note that right fielder Jeff Bloomer made one of the more incredible catches of the year on the fence in the big game against Classic Glass to end the game with a close win.

Trending Up!

Pitcher Brian Titus

 

SS Roxby, 2B Langford, 1B Martel

 

Baggs and Jennings

 


 

3rd Place Xtreme/Miken/ASP/Athlon

Conf 'AA' from MN  2-2 Record

 

Xtreme played good enough to be in the last game Saturday as they always do…Still looking for a cure.  🙂

Trending Even

 

 


 

4th Place OA Apparel/Broughton/KBI/Easton

Conf 'AA' from IL  2-2 Record

 

OA beat Baugh by 10, lost to Precision by 12, then beat Wiley's 15-14 before TDB beat them 15-14.  I really didn't see any of their games.

 

 


 

Tied 5th Place Bay Area Legends/Miken

Conf 'A' from CA  1-2 Record

Bay Area beat Bad Draw in a shootout with big run scoring swings then faded against Xtreme and TDB as they only scored 19 runs in their last two games.

 

 

Ramirez and Cornu

Renno

 


 

Tied 5th Place Wileys/Supreme/Miken

Conf 'B' from FL  1-4 Record

 

Wiley's lost their first 3 games but the crazy way the 3 game guarantee bracket works for 9 teams it turned out they were still in it on Saturday.

Wileys playing TDB was the only Wileys pic I got from livestream, sorry.

 


 

 


 

Hot Links section brought to you by:

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

Send corrections to dw@softballcenter.com

Link to the SoftballCenter.com Youtube channel

Link to all 2009 to 2017 Tournament Reports and Previews

Nationwide Conference USSSA Points Link

 


 

Some more pictures for you:

Tyson Steel pitching now for Classic Glass

Brambilla

Bad Draw went ofer.  I'm not allowed to say how many…

 

 

 

 

 

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