Thursday March 28th, 2024
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A look back at the 2019 USSSA Pure Sports Myrtle Beach Major tournament report!

 

 

 

 

2019 Nationwide Conference USSSA

 

Pure Sports Battle at the Beach

 

Myrtle Beach, SC

 

May 10-12

 

Myrtle Beach Major Friday night sunset – Thanks for the picture!

 

SoftballCenter Myrtle Beach Major picture album link

 

2019 Myrtle Beach bracket and results link

 

2019 Myrtle Beach Major stats link once available

 

2019 Myrtle Beach archived games link

 

The 7 fields were all 325 all the way around and the Classic M ball was used

Winner's bracket finals Resmondo defending Greinert and SIS/Thunder

The first ever Pure Sports Myrtle Beach Major was a very interesting event.  It was played on 7 almost all turf fields with their bigger than normal 325 foot home run fences at Grand Park just a few miles from the beach and the Conference used the Dudley Classic M ball which combined with 8 to 18 mile per hour winds kept the scores very low.  There were 28 teams total and 19 of them were from the Nationwide Conference USSSA!  The action started at 5:30 PM on Friday and had perfect weather until Sunday morning.  The tournament was seeded by 2019 Conference points and 3 of the Major teams (Pure Sports, Resmondo, Dan Smith) plus Nightmare drew a bye from the 1st round.  In that 1st round Headlines/Titans (OH-A) beat Tru/Selling Virginia (VA-B) 16-12, Non Conference 'B' team CCP/Terry's/Cookies from North Carolina upset Primetime (GA-A) 18-11, MPT Rentals (NJ-A) knocked off New Jersey rival Above All/B.O.T./TNT 8-4, Dan Smith (CA-Major) beat Lewis Lawn Services (SC-B) just 20-15 after trailing 12-9 at one point, B&B/Demarini just got past 'A' rival SNI 23-20, and Sports Reach (KY-A) used a Jacob Clifton walk off hit to beat T&W/BCG/Cornerstone (OH-A) 23-22.  Meanwhile Baugh Ford (GA-A), Beckham Brothers (SC-A), Bay Area Legends (CA-AA), SIS/Thunder (NY-AA), and Newbreed (WA-AA) were all Conference teams that run ruled non-conference teams in the 1st round.

In the "round of 16" which was also played on Friday night, it became clear that games on the big fields with the wind blowing in or across the diamond were going to be low scoring.  Very few teams were using or even coming close to their home run limits.  Nightmare and Xtreme advanced past Headlines and CCP, Xtreme getting 3 HR and a 5-7 performance out of lead off man Matt Schrage.  Dan Smith out homered Newbreed 9-3 as Andrew Collins went 5-5 with 3 HR and 8 RBI.  Resmondo made short work of B&B 28-5, SIS/Thunder pulled off a nice win over Bay Area 15-9, Beckham Brothers came from behind to beat Baugh Ford 21-13, and Pure Sports run ruled Sports Reach 34-17.  In the big Friday upset of the tournament MPT Rentals got a 3 run homer from Mike Mallory in the top of the 7th to go up on Major team TDB/Racks 27-22.  In the bottom of the 7th TDB closed to within 2 runs on an Everett Williams 3 run homer but could get no closer and lost 27-25!

On Saturday in the "round of 8" it was all Conference teams remaining and all of the semifinal games were played at 12:30 PM in beautiful 79 degree weather.  Resmondo jumped on Dan Smith scoring 11 runs on 8 homer's – hitting 4 solo's in a row at one point.  So Resmondo was off to an 11-3 lead and would score 5 more in the 4th, 8 in the 5th, and 12 in the 6th to finish off Dan Smith 36-17.  Jeremy Yates was 6-6 with 3 HR and 7 RBI and a grand slam, and Brian Wegman was 5-5 with 2 HR, 8 RBI and a grand slam in the win.  Meanwhile Pure Sports run ruled fellow Pure team Beckham Brothers 23-8, SIS/Thunder won a pillow fight over on field #5 6-3 over MPT Rentals, and Xtreme used a clutch homer by newly aquired Seth Brown and another key extra base hit by Brown to take a 1 run lead into the bottom of the 7th against Nightmare.  Nightmare got a couple of runners on but was unable to score and lost 19-18.

The "Final 4" of the winner's bracket and winner's final played out at 5 PM and 6:30 PM Saturday evening.  Resmondo beat Xtreme 27-18 in a game where Xtreme just never gave up eventhough Resmondo out homered them 12-5.  And SIS/Thunder kept up a relentless offensive attack against Pure Sports and held on to win 25-22 over Major team Pure Sports when Filip Washington in center field robbed a home run to end the game!  In the winner's bracket finals Resmondo continued to show superior offense to that of any other team in the tournament, outscoring SIS/Thunder 13-9 early on and 27-14 mid game and winning 36-21.  Because of the rain on Sunday that ended up being the championship game.

In the loser's bracket Bay Area Legends won 3 straight including a nice upset win over TDB/Racks when Jeff Renno hit a walk off grand slam with the score tied at 18.  The ball actually hit the top of the fence and bounced over.  And Baugh Ford won 2 straight before Dan Smith dropped down and beat Baugh 25-14 and then Bay Area 28-27 on a walk off by Steven Lloyd.  Then Dan Smith beat Pure Sports scoring 10 runs on a home run barrage in the top of the 7th to win 35-31 and then late Saturday beat Xtreme 29-13 when Argen Dodds went 5-5 with 4 homers and had 10 RBI.  In the lower part of the loser's bracket Briggs won 5 in a row including upsets of Newbreed and Beckham Brothers to finish tied for 5th.

Sunday's 8 AM game started between SIS/Thunder and Dan Smith to see who would go to the championship against Resmondo and Thunder grabbed a 10-0 lead and was leading 14-11 when the rain came and washed out the rest of the event which probably could have been completed except for players having to leave for early flights home.

The tournament was well played.  It was definitely much harder to hit home runs on the big fields.  There was a big crew of Conference umpires that came in for the event.

The best plays I was witness too was a diver by Steve ? from T&W vs CCP in the 10-6 hole.  Bazats diver vs Dan Smith, and Tommy Meltons diver in the 5-6 hole vs Dan Smith.  Some great plays!   

 

Wind was blowing out on F7, across on F6 and F4, and in on F5 most of the time

Team Breakdown:
 28 Teams Overall
19 Nationwide Conference USSSA Teams
4 Major Teams
5 'AA' Teams
10 'A' Teams
5 'B' Teams
4 'C' Teams

 


 

Key Winner's Bracket Games

SIS/Thunder middle man Brian McBryde turns two

Semifinal between SIS/Thunder and Pure Sports was won by SIS/Thunder 25-22

Matt McGowan hits against Resmondo in a semifinal won by Resmondo 27-18.

Xtreme was the only team to take Resmondo 7 innings

SIS/Thunder won their quarterfinal game over MPT Rentals 6-3 with the wind gusting straight in on Field #5

Xtreme has had Nightmares number this year beating them twice at the Cajun and now pulling one out 19-18 in Myrtle Beach

The Dan Smith shade tent blew over the fence and onto the field

A view from center fields Sports Reach vs B&B.  That box over the umpires head is the livestream camera.

 

The battle of New Jersey teams MPT and Above All was won by MPT 8-4 (wind gusting in Friday)

The battle of Georgia was won by Baugh Ford over Primetime 10-7


 

TDB/Racks pset!

 

 

MPT finishes their upset win Friday night over TDB/Racks 27-25!

 

Bay Area's Chad Mullins and Tyler Marshburn set the table against TDB/Racks in the bottom of the 7th.  Then after an intentional walk, Jeff Renno hit a walk off grand slam with two outs to win the game! 

Renno homer and celebration

 

The game winning homer actually hit the top of the fence and went over!


  

The Pure Sports Major team beat fellow Pure team Beckham Brothers 23-8

New Breeds Lee Payne uses all of his 6'5 frame to make a great catch

 


 

Oldscout pollers were not right as TDB finished 1-2 and finished tied for 13th

 


 

Video Highlites brought to you by:

Youtube video clips of the Myrtle Beach Major

Be sure to join the Youtube page so you get alerted when a new video hits!

 


 

Long Bombers of the Week

 

Pure Sports Donnie Hammonds and Dan Smiths Jason Matusik hit the Classic M into field #1 from field #7 which is about a minimum of 425 feet.

Argen Dodds is also the Long Bomber of the week for his nasty line drive homer vs Xtreme Saturday night.

 


 

 Myrtle Beach Major Final Standings and Awards

MVP was Resmondo pitcher Travis Clark

SS Cory Briggs was Defensive MVP for Resmondo

 

3B John Williams from SIS/Thunder and 2B Steven Lloyd from Dan Smith were co-Offensive MVP's

 


 

Team by team notes brought to you by:

 

 

1st Place – Resmondo/SIS/Thunder/RDD/H.Auto/Sprizzi/S&S

Conf Major from FL  5-0 Record

Resmondo won with superior offense on the big fields.  They often just hit the homers without worry about running out.  The free swinging early often gave way to better base hitting late and Resmondo cruised to their 2nd tournament win in a row.  Wolf missed Friday because of work and Bubba Mack has a sick daughter he had to tend too and we all hope she gets well soon!

Trending Up!  Winning on non baseball fields has been hard for Resmondo over the past year and now they won two weekends in a row on softball fields.

Resmondo Lineup vs Dan Smith:
1B Pearson
LF Yates
C Wegman
2B Connell
P Clark
CF Lewis
RF Elwanger
SS Briggs
C Haglund/Wolf
3B Reckart
MI Bazat

 

Jeremy Yates and Brian Wegman

 

Greg Connell and Steele Lewis

Pat Ellwanger hits against Dan Smith in the quarterfinals

 

Cory Briggs and Neil Haglund

 

Kyle Pearson and Brad Reckart

 


 

Tied for 2nd Place – SIS/Thunder/Miken/Worth/Anarchy/OA

Conf 'AA' from NY  5-1 Record

 

SIS/Thunder played their first tournament with the new team since Washington, Williams, Greinert, and Messer came over from Pure Sports.  The team had a phenomenal weekend.  They won low scoring games, high scoring games, they did it with defense, they did it with offense, and they won even though they made mistakes.  The lineup has some real depth to it now and Danny Evans has won 'AA' and 'A' Worlds on the mound so this team is an instant threat in the 'AA' division and should make a run at the Euless, Texas Major next weekend as well.

Trending Up!

SIS/Thunder lineup:
CF Filip Washington
LF Kyle Olsen
3B John Williams
2B Josh Fyffe
RF Dave Durso
C Chris Greinert
EH Chris Potts
MI Brian McBryde
SS Zach Messer
1B Zach Ross
P Danny Evans

SIS/Thunder celebrates a Greinert homer

 

   

Chris Potts and Zach Ross

 

SIS/Thunder wore Mother's Day uniforms

'

 


 

Tied for 2nd Place – Dan Smith/Menosse/Steven Smith/FAI

Conf Major from CA  6-1 Record

 

Dan Smith struggled offensively at times but still managed to finish tied for 2nd.  Lloyd set the table getting on base 28 times and winning co-offensive MVP.  Collins, Matusik, and Dodds provided double digit home run power.  And Rafael Hidalgo who played one year with Wileys before joining Dan Smith in a utility role this year earned some playing time at middle infield and shortstop for a few games with the departure of Jordan Spaulding and he hit some clutch home runs and I am told was a member of the Cuban National baseball team a few years ago.

Trending Up!

Dan Smiths Sunday Lineup:
Lloyd
Collins
Brungardt
Dodds
Santana
Matusik
Bennett
Dunn
Hidalgo
White

 

P Losson White.  Collins playing air guitar

  

Collins launching a homer

 

One of the few pictures I was able to take Sunday before the rain

 


 

4th Place – Xtreme/Miken/ASP/Athlon

Conf 'AA' from MN  3-2 Record

 

Xtreme played without Toby Letak but once again found a way to win a couple of close games especially the victory over Nightmare 19-18.  They also played Resmondo and Dan Smith tough and come away from another weekend having only lost to Major teams.  Updike and Green on the mound make for a good duo, and after their first 3 batters the rest of the lineup is predicated on who gets hot moving up.

Trending Up!

Xtreme's Last Lineup:
Schrage
S. Smith
Stewart
Whaley
Skyles
Anninos
McGowan
Newman
Bremer
Updike

 

All tournament outfielders Matt McGowen and Chris Anninos

Dirk Updike "Mr. Bruise" has some big wins this year

 

The "Beard" Shannon Smith with no beard.  Yes, info and content you can only get on softballcenter.com!

 


 

Tied 5th Place – Briggs

'B' from NC  5-2 Record

I don't know much about the Briggs team other than what I learned from some people in the crowd.  I heard that they are not the same team that finished 2nd at the 'B' Worlds last year and were bumped to 'A'.  This is a different team.  They beat Newbreed and then won a couple of big games on the low scoring field #5 with the wind blowing in.  To win 5 games at a Conference event on big fields with 19 Conference teams and 4 major teams in the bracket is an incredible feat!  This team is 10-4 vs 'A' and higher opponents this year but I heard 4 of their players are leaving the team after Myrtle Beach.

 

 

 


 

Tied 5th Place – Pure Sports

Conf Major from SC  2-2 Record

Pure Sports is playing really shorthanded with injuries to Rich Racobaldo and now pitcher Justin Mucciarelli who was hit in the foot and all of this is after the departure of Washington, Williams, Messer, and Greinert.  And Carlsen, Parfitt, and Dillon have still not made it to a tournament.  But they have scored a ton of points and have that next man up mentality.

Trending Up!

 

Ryan Ramirez hits a key grand slam vs Dan Smith

Brett McCollum is amongst the league leaders in most every category

 

Melton was playing some great SS.  3B Mitschke, SS Melton, MI Brown.

 


 

Other top finishing Conference teams

 


 

Tied 7th Place – Bay Area/Rapid Fire/Bad Draw/Easton 

Conf 'AA' from CA  4-2 Record

 

Bay Area played the Major teams well and finished when it counted in their win over TDB/Racks when Renno hit that amazing walk off grand slam.  The team may have be lacking a little power on the 325 foot fields but with Chente at shortstop, Mcclanahan up the middle, and Freddie Bynum at 2nd their defense with Pinkham pitching could be the best in 'AA'.

Trending Up!

 

Tyler Wilson led off for Bay Area

 


 

Tied 7th Place – MPT Rentals/EVO9X/Miken/Worth

Conf 'A' from NJ  3-2 Record

Ryan Roppel is now with MPT

MPT plays really well against higher level opponents.  They really get up for those games against upper teams and they upset TDB/Racks on Friday night.  It is a game worth watching on the archives.  But they struggled some with the wind in low scoring games and lost to Briggs a 'B' team.

Trending Up!

 

Mike Mallory returned and was lacing line drives.  Pitcher John Dombrowski and MI Pedro Sanchez are a big part of the defense when they pull off these big upsets.

 


 

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Send corrections to dw@softballcenter.com

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Link to all 2009 to 2019 Tournament Reports and Previews

Nationwide Conference USSSA Points and information link

 


 

Some more pictures for you:

 

Tied for 9th – Baugh Ford/Kut4/OI/Miken/Worth (GA-TBD) 3-2 – T

Tied for 9th – T&W/BCG/Cornerstone/Pauer/Exclusive (OH-TBD) 2-2 – T&W lost their opener to Sports Reach on a walk off hit, then won the battle of Ohio 13-7 over Headlines, annhilated CCP 32-2, and then lost to MPT Rentals 10-5 with the wind blowing straight in.  The new guy Kyle Johnson seemed to be doing a lot of the pitching.

 

Mackey homers and Kyle Cowart was added to the team.

Tied for 9th – Beckham Brothers/Pure/Exclusive (SC-TBD) 2-2 – Beckham Brothers crushed State Wide, then knocked off Baugh Ford 21-13 before dropping two straight to fellow Pure team Pure Sports 23-8 and the red hot Briggs team 10-7.

 

Erik "traps" Kanaby

Tied for 9th – Nightmare/Miken (MO-AA) 1-2 – Nightmare played close games in all 3 games.  Beat Headlines 17-10, gave one away against their nemesis Xtreme 19-18 with the bats in their hands, and then lost to a hot Bay Area Legends team 22-18.

Newbreed was just 1-2, lost to non conference team Briggs 18-12 with the wind blowing out and struggled to score.

 

Headlines was 1-2 but had trouble scoring and lost the battle of Ohio to T&W 13-7

Primetime didn't beat any Conference teams and lost to in state Georgia rival Baugh Ford 10-7

CCP had a nice win over Primetime but got smoked by T&W

Bat Companies (Demarini, Slugger, Miken/Worth) all represented except for Easton

Super Fans from Michigan…Resmondo fans I should say.  🙂

Sports Reach beat T&W 23-22 on a walk off hit by Jacob Clifton, then lost to Pure Sports by the run rule, beat Tru 12-9, and lost to Baugh 18-9.

Tru went 0-2 losing to Headlines and Sports Reach.  Just didn't score on the big fields.

 

SNI lost to B&B by 3 then had the bad luck of falling into the loser's bracket and meeting TDB who they played very well against before losing 34-19

TDB/Racks went 1-2 and finished tied for 13th.  I did not realize Daniel Cayton swung Easton until this picture

Late Saturday the benches cleared in the Xtreme vs Dan Smith game and Whaley and Santana were tossed.  Afterwards Steve Smith was tossed, then later Collins after a 4 letter word uttered after an out.

A few middle shots hit Dirk Updike hard but he amazingly stayed in the game.  That dude is as tough as they come.  Then Whaley spiked the ball near Santana after the third out and Santana tossed it at Whaley.  Not much really happened though.  Just a long day and some weird circumstances.

 

 

Above All/B.O.T./TNT didn't score enough but did beat B&B and almost Briggs. 

B&B didn't fare to well but Sanchez had some good quotes…

Calling the no beer guy "Jake from State Farm"

"Tequila taught me to swallow anything"

Rains came Sunday morning.

 

During the rain and shortley after.  The field drained pretty fast.

They tarped home plate and the pitchers mound at night.

Conference Umpires honoring Mother's Day!

Tournament director stro with Super Man

 

I thought the livestreaming the park allowed us to tie into was perfect.  I know Field #2 did not have a working microphone though.

Anatomy of a bullet.  Remember it isn't guns that kill people, its bullets…

Grand Park from the airplane

 

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