2017 USSSA Windy City Major tournament report!

June 5, 2017 by DW —No Comments ↓

2017 Nationwide Conference USSSA

Windy City Classic

Carol Stream, IL

June 2-4

SIS/Thunders Joe Gordon hits a pinch hit homer in the championship to give his team a run rule victory!

Link to SoftballCenter picture album of the Windy City

2017 Windy City bracket and info link

The Chicago "Windy City" Major was a heavyweight event with most of the top 20 teams in the nation battling it out in a 36-team field. They played most of the games at the McCaslin Park in Carol Stream, Illinois and its 4 all turf infields and 300 foot fences. And they played a few Friday games and some Saturday morning games around the corner at the Glasshagel fields. There were no real upsets in the first round. Bay Area Legends (CA-A) came from behind to beat the upset minded Big Ten (CO-C) team 28-27. Resmondo (FL-M) came from a 21-4 deficit against Eurotech (MN-B) to win 43-33. TG/HDLNS (OH-AA) beat fellow 'AA' team JBL/Tailgaters (OH) impressively 31-11 and the rest of the Conference favorites won fairly easily.

In the second round, some of which was played Friday night and some played Saturday morning, SIS/Thunder (NY-M) beat Xtreme (MN-AA) in a close one at Glasshagel park 31-29. Smash It Albicocco (NY-M) beat local favorite Precision (IL-AA) 37-31 in a game where Precision pitcher Losson White was drilled by a line drive in the side of his pitching mask. Dan Smith (CA-M) 20 run ruled Premier (OH-B). Racks (WY-M) knocked off Newbreed (WA-M) 38-31 in a matchup of Major teams which occurred so early on because of the early season point seedings that put 5 Major teams in the lower half of the bracket. In the top of the bracket Pure Sports (SC-A) beat Classic Glass (CA-AA) 31-29 on a walk off homer by outfielder Ryan Czyz after Glass had forced extra innings over at Glass Hagel field late Friday night. TG/HDLNS beat Worth Astros (IN-AA) 44-39 after Astros jumped out to a double-digit lead. Resmondo who held a 20+ run lead on Bay Area Legends until the Legends scored 24 runs in one inning to make it close. But with no homers left late in the bottom of the 7th Bay Area came up short 43-41. And TDB/TMSports (NC-AA) run ruled OA Apparel (IL-AA) 31-15.

In the "final 8" of the winner's bracket Resmondo and TDB/TMSports were tied at 15 all early on and Resmondo came from behind to grab a 35-33 lead in the 6th on a BJ Fulk homer. But TDB had a big top of the 7th even after the homers were out and held off Resmondo 41-37 for their first "signature" win of the season and a trip to the final 4. In other action TG/HDLNS continued their winning ways with a 27-10 shellacking of Pure Sports including an early 13-1 lead. Dan Smith pulled off a huge 34-21 win over fellow Major team Racks to advance. And in what was probably the best game of the tournament SIS/Albicocco went up 4-1 on SIS/Thunder in the first inning and the game was tied at 18-18 after 5 innings. Then SIS/Albicocco scored 9 runs in the top of the 6th and led 27-22 going into the 7th inning. Albicocco would score 4 more runs to make it 31-22 and when Thunder came to bat in the bottom of the 7th they were down 9 runs with 6 homers' still left to hit. (Both teams had 16 HR to hit since it was a Major vs Major game). Thunder used 4 of those homers to close it to within 1 run and then got 4 straight base hits with two outs including base hits from Chris Costantino and Kyle Olsen to set up the game winning 2 run gapper by Ryan Stovall as Olsen scored all the way from first on a head first slide just ahead of the throw and SIS/Thunder won 32-31!

In the semifinals TG/HDLNS beat TDB/TMSports in a marathon game 45-31 as TG led most all the way. And SIS/Thunder went up 17-2 on Dan Smith early on and cruised to a 37-25 win. In the winner's bracket championship following immediately at 10 PM SIS/Thunder again got off to a fast start 10-4 against TG/HDLNS and cruised to a 39-24 run rule victory.

In the loser's bracket OA Apparel, Classic Glass, TG Brand, Precision, and Xtreme all tried to make runs that were stopped cold by the 4 Major teams that were spread throughout the loser's bracket. Then late Saturday Resmondo eliminated Newbreed and Dan Smith to advance to Sunday. Dan Smith tying the game at 42-42 before Resmondo won 47-42. And SIS/Albicocco came from way behind to beat Racks scoring the last 26 runs of the game and then they knocked off TDB late to advance to Sunday.

So, Sunday at 8 AM it was SIS/Albicocco and Resmondo two of the favorites playing to get to TG/HDLNS and SIS/Thunder. It was all SIS/Albicocco in that first game as they had double digit leads all game long and got off to a 28-3 lead and won 48-32. Then SIS/Albicocco grabbed leads of 12-0 and 22-7 on TG/HDLNS before an undermanned and beat up HDLNS team forced it to go 7 innings and had the bats in their hands at the end in a 32-25 loss.

In the championship SIS/Thunder was just a little more sharp and fresh and they grabbed a 15-11 lead on an Adam Ussery 3 run homer in the bottom of the 2nd, and then they led 27-19 on a 12-run bottom of the 3rd. Then SIS/Albicocco closed the gap to 27-24 in the 4th but in the top of the 5th SIS/Thunder got a double play and a diving out from Ryan Stovall at shortstop to hold Albicocco to zero and came in and scored 12 runs to leave SIS/Albicocco on the field 39-24.

The level of play was great and the quality of the teams was the best ever in the history of this tournament. There were plenty of conference experienced umpires and the weather was perfect. SIS/Thunder wins their first tournament of the year and they do so beating SIS/Albicocco twice who had just beaten them twice in Texas two weeks ago.

These kids won like 9 of the last 10 coin tosses for Thunder!

SIS/Thunders Ryan Stovall caps a 10 run comeback in the bottom of the 7th inning semifinal over SIS/Albicocco.

Kyle Olsen scored that game winning run just ahead of the throw and the celebration was on!

Team Breakdown:
36 Teams Overall
20 Nationwide Conference USSSA Teams
6 Major Teams
8 'AA' Teams
3 'A' Teams
8 'B' Teams
11 'C' Teams

Benches cleared in the Resmondo vs Newbreed game but nothing came of it.

Xtreme and Precision met later Saturday afternoon with Precision winning 39-27

Racks beat Newbreed in their second game 38-31 but then lost here to Dan Smith in the quarterfinals 34-21

Because Precision hasn't played a lot of tournaments this year their poor seed got them a matchup with SIS/Albicocco on Friday night. SIS/Albicocco won 37-31. This picture is of Dan Bean pitching for Precision but in this game their other pitcher Lossen White was hit in the side of the mask with a line drive injuring his jaw.

TG Brand had won 3 straight in the loser's bracket before dropping this game 27-26 to Classic Glass.

Classic shortstop AJ Montano tries to make another great diving play here.

Grudge Match game number 5 of the year between TG/HDLNS and Worth Astros Friday night was won by TG/HDLNS in a comeback victory 44-39. HDLNS has now won the last two and two out of the 5 matchups overall. I jokingly call it a grudge match because 6 of the main players on both teams came from the TG/Red's Astros 'AA' team from 2016 which was the highest ranked 'AA' team in the nation.

Resmondo taking on SIS Albicocco first thing Sunday morning. SIS Albicocco won 48-32 with huge offensive innings.

The crowd was good on Friday evening for the locals games

Outfields were grass at the main complex but the infields were artificial turf.

This is Glasshagel field #3 that was used for a few games and had a 352 foot center field.

Conference Dudley Classic M – ZN was used. It slowed down some during the heat of the day.

Just 6% of Oldscout pollers had SIS Thunder to win

Video Highlites brought to you by:

Long Bombers of the Week

SIS Albicoccos Ryan Harvey gets the Long Bomber of the week as he continues to hit crowd pleasing homer's.

I also thought from the left side Resmondos BJ Fulk hit some creatures

and for SIS Thunder the lefty Kyle Olsen pegged a car in the 3rd row of the parking lot easily measurable at 400 feet.

Windy City Major Awards and Final Standings

Note: All Tournament Awards have not been entered by the teams yet.

Place	State	Team	Team Class	Wins	Losses	Runs Scored	Runs Allow	Avg Runs	Avg Runs Allow	Avg Run Diff	Max Runs	Ranking Points
1	NY – Wading River	SIS/THUNDER/MIKEN/WORTH/LOUISVILLE	USSSA-SPMensMajor	6	0	207	143	34.5	23.8	10.7	39	300
2	NY – Rochester	Smash It/Albicocco/Miken/Worth	USSSA-SPMensMajor	7	2	323	223	35.9	24.8	11.1	48	225
3	OH – Hamilton	TG/HDLNS/BHR/EASTON	USSSA-Mens-AA	4	2	191	157	31.8	26.2	5.7	45	200
4	FLS – Winter Haven	Resmondo/O.A.Apparel/H.Auto/Special	USSSA-SPMensMajor	5	2	266	233	38.0	33.3	4.7	47	175
5	NC – Charlotte	TDB/TMSports/MidWestWhiteTailAdv/Mi	USSSA-Mens-AA	3	2	158	160	31.6	32.0	-0.4	41	155
5	CAN – San Jose	Dan Smith/Menosse	USSSA-SPMensMajor	3	2	164	133	32.8	26.6	6.2	42	155
7	WA – Tukwila	NEWBREED/GTS/DEMARINI	USSSA-SPMensMajor	4	2	189	132	31.5	22.0	9.5	38	130
7	WY – Casper	Racks/Sonny's/Athlon/Easton/Cutter	USSSA-SPMensMajor	3	2	147	136	29.4	27.2	2.2	38	130
9	IL – Chicago	Precision/3rd St./GBrand/Easton	USSSA-Mens-AA	3	2	139	122	27.8	24.4	3.4	39	110
9	CAN – Castro Valley	Bay Area Legends/Miken	USSSA-Mens-A	3	2	122	118	24.4	23.6	0.8	41	110
9	CAN – San Jose	Classic Glass / Easton	USSSA-Mens-AA	3	2	131	124	26.2	24.8	1.4	30	110
9	SC – Charleston	Pure Sports/HB	USSSA-Mens-A	2	2	88	119	22.0	29.8	-7.8	33	110
13	MI – Flint	TG Brand.Easton	USSSA-Mens-B	3	2	131	103	26.2	20.6	5.6	30	170
13	OH – Morrow	Premier/Easton	USSSA-Mens-B	2	2	75	88	18.8	22.0	-3.3	32	170
13	MN – Medina	Xtreme/Miken/ASP/Athlon	USSSA-Mens-AA	2	2	115	86	28.8	21.5	7.3	31	70
13	TXN – Gladewater	OA APPAREL/BROUGHTON/KBI/EASTON	USSSA-Mens-AA	2	2	96	85	24.0	21.3	2.8	39	70
17	MI – Dearborn	Rebel Sports/Game On/Dirty/hangrite	USSSA-Mens-B	2	2	83	73	20.8	18.3	2.5	32	140
17	IL – Carol Stream	D&P	USSSA-Mens-C	2	2	76	88	19.0	22.0	-3.0	23	40
17	WI – Oak Creek	MJ/Krieger Barrels/SpiderZ	USSSA-Mens-C	2	2	48	80	12.0	20.0	-8.0	28	40
17	WI – Oconomowoc	MCR/EWALD/ZA	USSSA-Mens-C	1	2	60	78	20.0	26.0	-6.0	41	65
17	MN – CHAMPLIN	CHANTICLEAR PIZZA/P5/MIKEN/WORTH	USSSA-Mens-A	1	2	79	68	26.3	22.7	3.7	37	65
17	IN – Indianapolis	WORTH ASTROS / K&G / KLUTCH	USSSA-Mens-AA	1	2	88	74	29.3	24.7	4.7	39	40
17	WI – Beloit	Comatose / S2N / Subway	USSSA-Mens-B	1	2	61	82	20.3	27.3	-7.0	30	40
17	MN – Champlin	Eurotech/First Source/Riot	USSSA-Mens-B	1	2	60	94	20.0	31.3	-11.3	33	65
25	MI – Lansing	CMT/Clutch/Koval	USSSA-Mens-C	1	2	46	79	15.3	26.3	-11.0	24	65
25	IL – Chicagoland	WinCity/DynaMac SportsGear	USSSA-Mens-C	1	2	53	86	17.7	28.7	-11.0	31	65
25	OH – Kent	JBL/Tailgaters/All In/B&E/Worth	USSSA-Mens-AA	1	2	74	79	24.7	26.3	-1.7	44	40
25	MI – Kalamazoo	HB/SoftballFans/Miken/Evil	USSSA-Mens-B	1	2	66	75	22.0	25.0	-3.0	24	140
25	KS – Overland Park	Community 1st / The Egg & I	USSSA-Mens-C	0	2	15	68	7.5	34.0	-26.5	11	65
25	IL – JOLIET	KBI (KEN'S BEVERAGE INC.)	USSSA-Mens-B	0	2	40	79	20.0	39.5	-19.5	27	65
25	CO – Denver	Big Ten / Deluxe Athletic Brand	USSSA-Mens-C	0	2	45	48	22.5	24.0	-1.5	27	65
25	WI – Milwaukee	Team Elite/Spiderz/Ho-Chunk Gaming	USSSA-Mens-B	0	2	32	59	16.0	29.5	-13.5	21	65
33	IL – Hoffman Estates	DEMOLITION	USSSA-Mens-C	0	2	29	46	14.5	23.0	-8.5	20	65
33	MN – Ham Lake	All Season / DSTI / P5	USSSA-Mens-C	0	2	30	39	15.0	19.5	-4.5	22	40
33	IL – Oswego	Polekatz/Forest Packaging	USSSA-Mens-C	0	2	21	52	10.5	26.0	-15.5	15	40
33	IL – MOKENA	RAMPAGE SOFTBALL	USSSA-Mens-C	0	2	28	67	14.0	33.5	-19.5	20	40

Team by team notes brought to you by:

1st Place SIS/Thunder/Miken/Worth/Louisville

Conf Major from NY 6-0 Record

SIS/Thunder was near perfect on the weekend but was definitely saved by the 10 run come back in the bottom of the 7th against SIS/Albicocco. Home run management was good. The defense was very solid with good pitching and some great plays from center fielder Brian Logan, middle man Brian McBryde and some nice diving stops by SS Ryan Stovall among others. The key in most of their wins was early leads. They also had some nice pinch hits from Joe Gordon and Mike Snyder off the bench.

Trending Up!

Thunder Sunday
3B Driskell
LF Yates
RF Haglund
1B Kennington
C Costantino
EH Olsen
SS Stovall
MI McBryde
2B Ussery
CF Logan
P Vitcak

Leadoff Tyler Driskell was back in extra base hit mode and setting the table for 2 hitter Jeremy Yates.

Haglund and Kennington

Chris Costantino and middle infielder Brian McBryde

2B Adam Ussery and pitcher Andrew Vitcak

What a difference 2 weeks make. SIS Thunder was 0-2 vs SIS Albicocco in Texas two weeks ago.

2-0 this week in Chicago.

2nd Place Smash It/Albicocco/Miken/Worth/DirtySportswear

Conf Major from NY 7-2 Record

I like the purple on purple, great job DirtySportsWear.com on the uniforms!

SIS/Albicocco was the favorite to run that loaded bottom half of the winner's bracket but their plans were upended by that 10 run bottom of the 7th against SIS/Thunder in the quarterfinals. They took a long road back through the loser's bracket but ran out of gas against Thunder after that scary injury to Luis Reyna. Right now SIS/Albicocco is still the top team in the nation and this is only a temporary setback as they work through some sponsorhip issues and regroup for the Seattle Dual in 3 weeks. Dedonatis at shortstop made a number of highlite reel divers and leaping stabs and will probably be in the running for defensive mvp. Reyna was making a lot of those side saddle on the ground stabs and throws, and even Erik Kanaby got into the defense with a leaping stab at first base on Friday night. I'm not sure when the stats come out but Purcell may have been working on another MVP weekend had they won as he didn't seem to be making many outs, and mostly getting base hits and setting up Dillon for the homer.

Trending Up!

Common Lineup
C Branch
P Purcell
LF Dillon
2B Rulli
RF Collins
MI Reyna
1B Kanaby
EH Harvey
CF Santana
SS Dedonatis
3B Briggs

Luis Reyna was running the bases at 1st base and was hit by a nasty curving line drive behind his left ear in the back of the head. He appeared to be unconscious for a short time then eventually got up, walked around and put some ice on the back of his head. He was taken to a local hospital where they ran tests and determined there was no bleeding and they released and cleared him to fly home. So we hope for a full recovery for Luis.

A pair of great plays by Jr off of the livestream

3rd Place TG/HDLNS/BHR/Easton

Conf 'AA' from OH 4-2 Record

TG/HDLNS is highest in class again as they follow up their 2nd place at the Hoosier Classic with this big 3rd place at the Windy City. They have two quality pitchers and ride the hot bats each weekend. The defense is probably a bit underrated and they have a number of consistent contact hitters like Gallmeier and Disbennet that get the job done and the power hitters like Boothe and Kaminski drive in a lot of runs. The grudge match win early against Worth Astros propelled this team through a soft spot in the bracket and they took advantage of it with a great weekend. They played without big Jon Jamison who is out with a knee injury suffered in an off week tournament.

Trending Up!

TG/HDLNS lineup I think:
3B Gallmeier
3B Corn
1B Kaminski
C Boothe
RF Disbennet
CF Newman
LF Large
2B Noe
SS Bellamy
MI Staton
P Drake and Miller

Evan Gallmeier at 3rd base and leadoff, Brandon Bellamy at shortstop

RF Ryan Disbennett and MI Rocky Staton

CF Cory Newman and 2B Ryan Noe

4th Place Resmondo/O.A. Apparel/H Auto/SP Tank/Easton

Conf Major from FL 5-2 Record

Resmondo played without their leader Helmer (daughters birthday), Scott Kirby (work), and Chris Hansen (maternity leave) and they struggled some in most of their games but did come away with a Sunday finish.

Trending Even

Resmondo was experimenting with infields. Reckart at 3rd, Mack at SS, Bazat MI

Umschied is a former MVP of the Chicago Major playing near home (from Wisconsin)

BJ still using the construction gloves.

Connell blasting another linedrive with a big tail on it. Check the video clips.

Tied 5th Place TDB/TMSports/MidwestWhiteTailAdv/Miken

Conf 'AA' from NC 3-2 Record

TDB/TMSports had a break out weekend with wins over OA Apparel and Resmondo! The new look team has Chitty Baggs and MI Orlando Castillo formerly of Backman, P Brian Titus and Kyler Kirkland from Albicocco, SS Jesse Campanelli from Above All, JB Jennings from Primetime, and Tyler Wilson from Bad Draw. The rest played with Taylormade last year. This team finally came together and showed us what they are capable of. They played without Brad Sheffield.

Trending Up!

Random TDB/TMSports lineup:
2B Scotty Langford
C Chitty Baggs
1B Jason Martel
3B Tyler Wilson
MI Orlando Castillo
LF JB Jennings
EH Kyler Kirkland
SS Jesse Campanelli
OF Seth Ricketson
OF Jeff Bloomer
P Brian Titus

JB Jennings played some LF and tried to rob this homer

Campanelli is at SS and Tyler Wilson 3B

Terry Baggs hits against OA Apparel

Tied 5th Place Dan Smith/Menosse

Conf Major from CA 3-2 Record

Dan Smith beat Racks then lost to Thunder and came back to tie Resmondo 42-42 before losing by 5. They were in a tough spot in the bracket but got to get a good measuring stick of where they are on the 300 foot fields.

Trending Even

Greinert smokes a linedrive homer in the semi finals

Steven Lloyd and Brian Zirkle make a track meet out of some of their games

2B Lloyd, MI Pearson, SS Bynum

Other top finishing Conference teams

Tied 7th Place – Racks/Sonnys/Athlon/Easton/Cutter

Conf Major from WY 3-2 Record

Racks finally beat Newbreed and had a nice win over Classic Glass but dropped double digit losses to Dan Smith and Albicocco.

Trending Even

Mcclanahan did a lot of the pitching it seemed

Tied 7th Place – Newbreed/GTS/Demarini

Conf Major from WA 4-2 Record

Newbreed also was in the rough part of the bracket and Mooch at pitcher was dealing with an injured hand which seemed to affect the whole team. It wasn't their weekend. Look for big things in Seattle out of Newbreed where they will try to break out.

Trending Even

Bilardello above and Brungardt below get the annual sunset pic

Mooch's hand was still injured from the Texas Legends tournament two weeks ago

Newbreed has settled on the infield of Brungardt 3B, Whaley SS, Flood MI, Granados 2B.

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:

Conference veteran Jayson "Red" Scott was back in action for TG Brand.Easton

TG Brand went 3-2, tied for 13th. They gave Precision and Classic Glass a run for their money and beat Worth Astros.

Pure Sports/HB tied for 9th at 2-2. They beat Classic Glass on a walk off homer by Ryan Czyz (pictured to the left above) and then the offense disappeared on Saturday.

Chanticlear Pizza/P5/Miken/Worth a non conference 'A' team that had such a great Windy City tournament in 2016 went 1-2 but came close against Classic Glass.

I'm not sure whats going on here with Worth Astros/K&G/Klutch but they are still having fun.

They tied for 17th at 1-2

Worth Astros Rob Roop hits a grand slam!

OA Apparel was just 2-2 and tied for 13th. 0-2 vs Conference teams though.

One OA lineup:
SS Messer
Washington
Mangannaro
Stewart
Lunda
Williams
Bo
Bowser
Potts
?
Byars

Bay Area Legends tied for 9th at 3-2. They just barely got past Big Ten in their opener. Then they came back on Resmondo scoring 24 runs in one inning and losing 43-41. Then they sent home OA Apparel 24-14 before Albicocco finished them 29-9. That is Brad Carlsen pictured on the right (above), one of the best leadoff hitters around.

These guys are Golden State fans but I still like them…

One of the Bay Area lineups:
LF Carlsen
2B Smith
RFCornu
CF Renno
MI Vasquez
C Gonzalez
2B 22
Huffman
Richardson
P Brown
SS Newton

Precision/3rd Street/GBrand/Easton went 3-2 and tied for 9th. It was good to see Frank Fracek (below) back at the fields.

They did beat Xtreme and gave Albicocco a decent game.

Premier/Easton 2-2 Tied for 13th. Never got that big upset though this weekend.

JBL/Tailgaters/All In/B&E/Worth opened up against TG/HDLNS with a 31-11 loss and got knocked out by a non conference team MJ 28-19.

I think that was the only Conference team to lose to a non-conference opponent in Chicago.

Xtreme went 2-2 and tied for 13th after a close early loss to SIS/Thunder 31-29 Friday night

Comatose/S2N/Subway was a good Wisconsin 'B' team

MJ Krieger Barrels/SpierZ was one of the last non conference teams still playing.

Mike Beardsley was back with a scrappy Eurotech/First Source/Riot team that gave Resmondo a run actually leading Resmondo 21-4 I believe at one point but Eurotech lost 43-33.