Thursday March 28th, 2024
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A look back at the 2018 USSSA Pure Sports “Peach State” Atlanta Major tournament report!

 

 

 

 

 

2018 Nationwide Conference USSSA

 

Pure Sports "Peach State" Major

 

Atlanta, GA 

 

May 25-27

Pure Sports MVP Justin Mucciarelli hits a 2 run single against Precision in the championship!

 

SoftballCenter Atlanta picture album link

 

2018 Atlanta Major bracket and results link

 

2018 Atlanta Major stats link

 

Playlist of archived games

 

Mucciarelli and Pat Price from Pure Sports and interim Precision manager/3rd Street sponsor Robert Mahaffey

The "Peach State" Atlanta Major sponsored by "Pure Sports" began on Friday night with 32 teams on the 5 – 300-foot softball fields in threatening weather.  There were a couple of big upsets in the first round as Bayou/TNT/GTM/EA a 'D' team from Georgia shocked Baugh Ford/Pure Sports/Kincaid (AL-TBD) 33-27.  Also, Georgia 'C' team K-Pow knocked off Conference TBD team SNI/Easton/SDA/Dynasty 31-10.  Meanwhile Premier/Easton/HDLNS (OH-A) won by forfeit to a team that thought the tournament would get rained out.  By the way there were no weather delays on the weekend and Saturday and Sunday there was no rain at all.  A small miracle!  Also, in the first round CTC beat Empire 34-23 in a battle of non-Conference but talented 'B' teams.  Nightmare/Miken (MO-AA) beat First Priority 36-1!  Precision/3rd Street/Bull Dawg (IL-AA) went 7 innings to beat TCS Softball 'D' team 46-34.  Wiley’s Supreme Alpha (FL-B) beat Georgia's own Southern Mayhem 22-20.  Pure Sports Monsta (SC-AA) won 30-0 and only allowed one base runner on and error against GOMB (GA-E).  Rebel Sports/Dirty (MI-A) beat a good Briggs team 28-24.  OI Livingston a Georgia all-star team crushed Ohio B team Titans 30-9.  Primetime/Easton/Evolution (GA-A) run ruled Southland, Rapid Fire Athletics (VA-A) run ruled that Eagle Paint team that almost beat Dan Smith in Chattanooga a few weeks ago, and Riot Sports/Broughton/Beckham/Worth (FL-AA) run ruled JDG Logistics.  Two other Conference teams had "scares" as Smash It Sports/Thunder (NY-B) had to hit a walk off grand slam to beat local Georgia team Crunchtime 27-23, and Sports Reach (KY-B) beat a very good Kut4 Sports/FBC/Worth team 28-26 to advance to the round of 16.

In the round of 16 there were 4 non-conference teams and 12 conference teams.  Sports Reach scored 43 to beat Bayou, the 'D' team that beat Baugh Ford the night before.  Riot Sports then beat the SmashIt 'B' team 27-7 and then Sports Reach 31-11 to advance to the final 4.  Primetime 20 run ruled fellow 'A' team Rapid Fire 31-11.  Pure Sports struggled against OI Livingston in one of the best games of the tournament.  Pure Sports slowly came from behind against OI to force extra innings where Ryan Mcclanahan painted the left field line with 2 outs for a 2 run double in the top of the 8th.  In the bottom of the inning Pure Sports got a great diving stop by shortstop Zack Messer on a hard grounder and then Heath Barnes at second base and Chente Granados in the middle turned a double play to win the game by a run.  Pure Sports then smashed Primetime in a very quick game 33-8 to advance to the final 4.  In the bottom half of the bracket All Out jumped out early and beat Rebel Sports 25-15 before losing by 20 to Precision who had also just run ruled Wiley's.  And Nightmare knocked off non-conference 'B' team CTC 39-24 before struggling past Premier 35-31 after leading by 16 runs to advance to the final 4!

So the top 4 'AA' teams in the tournament made it to the semifinals which started at 7:30 PM Saturday evening as a warm day gave way to a beautiful evening for softball.  Precision made short work of Nightmare 24-7 as Brad Lunda went 3-4 with 3 HR and 8 RBI.  And Pure Sports jumped all over Riot Sports in the other semifinal early on and led 29-19 going into the 6th.  But Riot Sports never gave up and closed the score to 5 but couldn't get any closer and lost 33-28.  Heath Barnes had two big home runs and 6 RBI in the game for Pure Sports and Brad Carlsen was on 5 out of 6 with 7 RBI.

In the winner's bracket finals which began at 10 PM Saturday night Precision scored 14 runs on 6 homers including a Matt Rear grand slam through the first 2 innings and led 14-3 going into the top of the 3rd.  They also flashed some defense as Precision shortstop Kyle Kanneberg barehanded a high bouncer and threw Chente out at 1st base.  In the bottom of the 5th Precisions Brad Tabler hit a 3 run homer to put Precision up 9 but Pure Sports scored 10 runs to tie the game going into the bottom of the 7th where Precision, out of homers, got a nice right center gapper from Chad Durick to win the game 35-34!

The loser's bracket played out from 8 AM Saturday morning until 2 AM Sunday morning with some long games.  Briggs won 2 in a row in the losers bracket only to be sent home by Southern Mayhem who won their 3rd in a row.  SNI started a little run of their own before Rapid Fire beat them 35-33 in a hotly contested game over on field AB3.  Then Rapid Fire beat the Georgia All Stars – OI Livingston team 35-27 before Sports Reach upset them 35-33.  And Sports Reach continued their run with a late night win over Primetime 39-34 before Nightmare sent them packing 37-35.  In the bottom of the loser's bracket Kut 4 Sports won 3 in a row before Premier dropped down and beat them 30-17 and Titans Trucking from Ohio won 3 in a row before All Out dropped down and beat them 39-16.  Then Premier knocked off AllOut 30-28 when AllOut grounded out with the winning runs on base and a homer left to hit.  Premier though only scored 18 in their next game against Riot Sports late Saturday night and lost 27-18.  That set up the 4th place game between 'AA' powers Nightmare and Riot Sports which started after midnight.  Nightmare would end up winning 37-35 even though Riot Sports had the bats in their hands in the bottom of the 7th.

On Sunday they brought back 3 teams.  In the 8 AM loser's bracket finals Nightmare had an early lead against Pure Sports but Pure batted around in the 4th scoring 9 runs and Justin Mackey totaled 9 RBI for the game as Pure advanced to the championship 39-30.  In the first game of the championship Pure Sports came out of the gate on fire as Jason Branch, Chente Granados, Pat Price, and Justin Mackey all hit 3 run homers in the top of the first inning!  Pure Sports scored 16 total on just 4 home runs.  Precision was rattled and came up in the bottom of the first and put up a zero as MVP pitcher Justin Mucciarelli got a strike out looking and got into the heads of some of his ex-teammates on Precision.  Precision was visibly flustered in that first game and Pure kept the pressure on the entire game.  Precision could have folded by the 20-run rule in the 3rd but did not and they extended the game and avoided the run rule once but eventually lost 42-20.  Carlsen at leadoff for Pure Sports was 5-6 and Zach Messer in the two hole was 6-6 with 7 RBI.  The "if" game started a little different as Precision was the visitors and scored 11 runs in the first inning and led 11-2 going into the bottom of the 2nd.  But Pure Sports got 8 runs in the bottom of the 2nd and 14 in the bottom of the 5th to take control of the game.  Pure Sports then outscored Precision 21-5 down the stretch and were led by Georgia’s own Justin Mackey who was on base 6 out of 6 with 3 homers and 12 RBI in the final game, and Pure Sports won 42-30 to take their 2nd Conference tournament of the year!

The tournament used the classic M ball on the 300-foot fields.  The infields were rough, and many bad hops were had even though they did drag the fields a couple of times each.  It never did rain and that goes to show you that you cannot cancel tournaments early in the week because of a foreboding forecast.  Last week in Texas there was no rain in the forecast and Sunday got washed out.  This week there was nothing but rain in the forecast and it never rained…

 

Precision's Chad Durick hits a walk off single to beat Pure Sports in the bottom of the 7th of the winner's final

Team Breakdown:
32 Teams Overall
14 Nationwide Conference USSSA Teams
5 'AA' Teams
 7 'A' Teams
8 'B' Teams
 5 'C' Teams
 7 'D/E' Teams

Pure Sports shortstop Zach Messer makes a diving stop to save the game against OI Livingston

Pure Sports Brad Carlsen hits a 3 run homer against Riot Sports in the semifinals

Precisions Travis Houseman just does beat the Pure Sports 1st baseman to the bag

Late Saturday night it was Sports Reach taking on Nightmare

Rapid Fire outlasts Primetime in a battle of southeastern 'A' teams

Well after midnight Nightmare beat Riot Sports to make it to the Sunday final 3

Winner's bracket finals Saturday night, Precision vs Pure Sports

Fireworks

 

 


 

Oldscout pollers had Precision, Riot Sports, and Pure Sports all about equally. 

 


 

Video Highlites brought to you by:

 


 

Long Bombers of the Week

 

Pure Sports Jason Branch and Nightmares Billy Maggard are the long bombers of the week.

Friday night Branch hit one over the building on field AP#3

and Maggard hit one over the fencing on field AP#4.

Using google earth those were each around 460 feet!

 


 

 Atlanta Major Awards and Final Standings

MVP was Pure Sports pitcher Justin Mucciarelli

Defensive MVP was Pure Sports MI/Pitcher Ryan Mcclanahan

 

Offensive co-MVP's were Precisions Jeff Keske and Brett McCollum

 

 


 

Team by team notes brought to you by:

 

1st Place Pure Sports/Monsta

Conf 'AA' from SC  7-1 Record

Pure Sports Monsta had a near perfect tournament weekend.  The infield defense in particular and the pitching in the clutch won the tournament for them.  Price and Mackey in the 4 and 5 spots knocked in Carlsen, Messer, and Branch who set the table for them.  Mcclanahan was clutch with the bat and the glove up the middle.  Messer made that game saving diving play against OI Livingston in the 2nd round to lead to a win.  Granados had a couple of big home runs and defensive plays in the infield, and the role players like Barnes, Scott, and Jared Hunt did a great job on both sides of the ball.  Pure Sports won their 2nd Conference event of the year and both were "double dips" of top 'AA' teams.  Impressive!

Steven Lopez hurt a shoulder on a swing on Saturday and did not play after that.  The new guys Branch and Payne seemed to fit in just fine.  This team calls themselves the "misfits" and they are hard on each other with the quips during the game like making fun of players that hit solo homer's or any player that makes a mistake but the sarcasm seems to be taken in stride and adds to the team chemistry.  This is another one of those teams that has an advantage playing on bad infields as their infield defense outplays most everyone they face.  Pure Sports also got into the heads of the Precision team who used to be teammates with Mooch.

The winning team at regular season Conference events get MVP and the Defensive MVP selections otherwise Brad Carlsen definitely would have been Offensive MVP had they been given that award as he was 41-47 with only 7 HR at lead off.  Price, Mackey, and Branch were all .800 or better onbase percentage, and Messer scored 30 runs.

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Pure Sports Sunday Lineup
LF Carlsen
SS Messer
1B/3B Branch
EH Price
1B/C Mackey
2B Granados
MI/P Mcclanahan
CF Scott
RF/CF Payne
3B/2B Barnes
P Mucciarelli/Hunt

Barnes at 3B, Messer SS, Granados MI, Jared Hunt 2B, was one infield lineup they used when Mcclanahan relieved

 

Justin Mackey .821, 13 HR, 37 RBI and Pat Price .821, 9 HR, 27 RBI did a lot of the heavy lifting

Lee Payne joined Pure and played CF and RF

 

Steven Lopez hurt his shoulder on his swing, and Jared Hunt .758, 5 HR, 18 RBI filled in nicely at OF and 2B

 

 


 

2nd Place Precision/3rd Street/Bull Dawg

Conf 'AA' from IL  5-2 Record

  

Precision went 7 innings Friday night with a 'D' team called TCS, winning 46-34.  Then on Saturday they rolled through Wiley's, All Out, and Nightmare by a combined score of 90-28!  In the winner's bracket finals Precision increased their winning streak to 10 in a row with a 35-34 win over Pure Sports on a walk off hit by veteran Chad Durick.  On Sunday when it appeared they would win their second Conference tournament in a row, they ran up against a Pure Sports team that put up 16 runs in the first inning and forced the "if" game.  Precision came out strong in the "if" game but Pure Sports would not go away and beat them.

Precision played without 2B Jeff Flood and managers Todd Ankney and Bill Wax.  They played well over all and Bean was lacing line drives all over in the lead off spot, Matt Rear 7-8  with 5 HR and 11 RBI in the championship games, Durick made some nice plays at 2nd base, Kanneberg made some great plays in those final 3 games, and the team could easily have won this tournament.  Also Dave Kessler in left field made a number of nice plays on the fence to take away extra base hits.

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Precision Lineup:
C/P Bean
LF Kessler
CF Houseman
RF Lunda
2B Durick
1B McCollum
3B Rear
MI Keske
SS Kannenberg
Magnum/Hoynowski
P Drake

 

Drake started most of the games while Bean relieved and did a nice job hitting leadoff

Kessler homers to center

 

SS Kannenberg makes a lot of great plays and could have been defensive mvp (at least when I was watching)

 


 

 


 

3rd Place Nightmare/Miken

Conf 'AA' from MO  5-2 Record

 

Nightmare had their best weekend of what has been a tough year as they won 5 games.  They won their first 3 games including a 35-31 win over Premier, and then lost to Precision in the semifinals 24-7?  Ouch.  They did recover to beat Sports Reach 42-33 and Riot Sports 37-35 to make it to Sunday morning where they led Pure Sports in the loser's bracket finals before fading away to a 39-30 loss.  Tommy Melton at middle infield was hit in the head by a bad bounce late Saturday night and had to get concussion protocol clearance from a doctor in order to play Sunday, which he was able to do.

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Nightmare Lineup:
2B Fogle
1B Gallmeier
C/P Maggard
3B Hinojosa
MI Melton
EH/P Brown
SS Burton
P Newell
CF Logan
RF Daniel
LF Bloomer

 

P Wes Newell, SS Pat Burton, LF Jeff Bloomer

  

3B Hinojosa, SS Burton, MI Melton, CF Logan, 2B Fogle

 


 

4th Place Riot Sports/Broughton/Beckham/Worth

Conf 'AA' from FL  4-2 Record

 

Riot Sports won their first 3 games by a total score of 89-24 and looked to be rolling through another tournament before Pure Sports jumped all over them in the semifinals.  But Riot who could have easily lost by the 15 run mercy rule battled for 7 long innings with injured pitcher Dan Sanchez and almost came back and won, losing by just 5 runs.  Late Saturday they beat Premier by 9 but Nightmare sent them home at 2 AM in the morning Sunday when Riot had the bats in their hands trailing 37-35.

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Taylor Nichols who made his Conference debut in Chattanooga moved to leadoff in Atlanta

 

SS Donahue and MI Roxby

Pitcher Dan Sanchez played most of the tournament with injuries that prevented him from running

 


 

Tied 5th Place Sports Reach

Conf 'B' from KY  4-2 Record

Sports Reach won high scoring, long, and close games over Kut4, Rapid Fire, and Primetime.  They got blown out early Saturday by Riot Sports 'AA' team but battled Nightmare late Saturday night to try and break into the top 4.  This team showed a lot of heart and played very well whether they were up or down against higher level teams.  Sports Reach was the highest finishing B team.

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Sports Reach picture collage, I still don't know this team well but they played great!

 

 


 

Tied 5th Place Premier/Easton/HDLNS

Conf 'A' from OH  4-2 Record

Premier handled the local teams and had that big 30-28 win over All Out when it looked like they might lose on a walk off.  They also battle Nightmare for 7 innings.  Premiers two big Conference point scores at the Hall of Fame Classic give them an outside shot at qualifying for the Major World Series.  Premier was the highest finishing 'A' team.

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Disbennett

 

 


 

Other top finishing Conference teams

 


 

Tied 7th Place – All Out/A&A/Steel Sports/ASP/Miken

Conf 'AA' from TX  3-2 Record

AllOut had solid wins over Rebel Sports and Titans but lost to Precision by 20 (only scoring 8?) and had a homer to hit to win it against Premier to make the top 5 but came up short.  

Not trending – can't get a read on this team at the moment

All Out lineup:
3B Terry
CF Schrage
1B Wes Campbell
C Ferguson
2B Anninos
MI Thornton
2B Potts
OF Bullock
C Doggett
SS Bellamy
P Graus

 

Graus and Thornton

Ferguson paints the line

Allout had their chances against Precision late on Saturday night

 


 

Tied 7th Place – Primetime/Easton/Evolution

Conf 'A' from GA  3-2 Record

Primtime outscored their first two opponents 55-20 in wins over Southland and Rapid Fire.  Then Pure Sports beat them by 25 and they dropped to the losers bracket and beat Southern Mayhem before losing a long and close game to Sports Reach 39-34.  Military softball star Jedon Matthews joined the team for the first time and the team seemed poised for an Atlanta run after that offensive surge against Rapid Fire, but it never materialized.

Trending Even

Riggins was a doubles hitting machine

 


 

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Send corrections to dw@softballcenter.com

Link to the SoftballCenter.com Youtube channel

Link to all 2009 to 2018 Tournament Reports and Previews

Nationwide Conference USSSA Points and information link

 


 

Some more pictures for you:

Tied for 9th – Rapid Fire Athletics/Sports Lounge (VA-A) 3-2 – nice wins over Eagle Paint, SNI, and OI Livingston in between losses to Primetime and Sports Reach.  Rapid Fire played some long high scoring games and I think this was a good weekend for them although they might be disappointed.

 

Tied for 17th – Wiley's Supreme Alpha Prime Sports (FL-B) 1-2 – beat Southern Mayhem but lost to Precision and Crunchtime

 

Tied for 17th – Rebel Sports/Dirty Sports/Miken (MI-A) 1-2 – lost to All Out by 10 and Kut4 by 4

 

Tied for 17th – Smashitsports-Thunder-Dominos Easton (NY-A) 1-2 – Smash Its B team made some roster moves but didn't perform scoring just 10 runs in their two losses.

 

Tied for 17th – SNI/Easton/SDA/Dynasty (FL-TBD) 1-2 – SNI had a slow start and then lost a 35-33 decision to Rapid Fire that could have gone either way.

 

Tied for 25th – Baugh Ford/Pure Sports/Kincaid (AL-TBD) 0-2

I did get them playing on the livestream Friday night but they were gone before I could get a picture on Saturday.  🙂

 

OI Livingston almost had Pure Sports beat early in the tournament. 

Empire went 1-2 and didn't have the magic they had in Houston

KPow knocked off SNI 31-10 and finished 2-2

Jedi master passing on his knowledge to young skywalker…err maybe they are just resting…

CTC had a nice win over Empire before dropping two in a row

Titans/CashHouse from Ohio went 3-2 as they shut down GOMB and CTC and run ruled K-Pow

Thornton gets the annual farris wheel picture

Kut 4 was bumped to 'B'.  Well deserved!  They beat Baugh Ford by 20 and Rebel Sports.

They are 3-1 vs 'A' this year and 2-1 vs 'B'.  They also walked off Crunchtime with a homer 22-21

Kevin Johnson and Donald Buckshot Plaisance have been pitching for 30 years…

Conference umpires with UIC Rob Mantlow

 

 

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