2020 USA Softball ‘AA’ Nationals tournament report!

2020 USA Softball 'AA' Nationals

Drakes Creek Park

Hendersonville, TN

August 22-23

Precisions Travis Clark homers against MPT's Jon Dombrowski in the Championship of the 1st ever USA 'AA'

SoftballCenters USA 'AA' Nationals picture album link

2020 USA 'AA' Nationals bracket link

2020 USA 'AA' Nationals archived games link

USA Softballs recap of the 'AA' Nationals

Video Highlites brought to you by:

2020 USA 'AA' Nationals video clips link

2020 USA 'AA' Nationals Condensed Game – Winner's Final – Thunder and Precision

2020 USA 'AA' Nationals Condensed Game – Championship – MPT and Precision

Winner's bracket Game by Game

The 1st ever USA Softball 'AA' Nationals was held in Hendersonville, Tennessee at the Drakes Creek Park the day after the Super ended.  They used Field #4 with its 325 foot fences and Field #3 which was the main field was a high school baseball field with artificial turf infield and grass outfield with the home run fence at 320-345-375-345-320.  They used the Dudley Thunder ZN .52 core 300 compression ball and unlike the Super tournament which was played in overcast and cooler conditions, this 'AA' was played in more heat and sunshine and the ball definitely did not fly as well as the home run totals and scores were down.  But it made for some great games and brought more defense into play.  Each game used 3 umpires and the pitching arc was 6 foot minimum and 10 foot maximum.  Pitching distance was 50 feet.  Base distance was 70 feet (needed to be 75) for the baseball field.  Below is a game by game report of the 8 team double elimination tournament which began on Saturday at 8:30 AM and ended Sunday at noon.  Teams were allowed to hit 12 homers per game.

Game #1 (Quarter Final)

Game #1 featured MPT who had most of their same players from the Super and Bigger Den Me a team put together by Bryce Johnson who is known for giving new players a chance on softballs big stage.  The game was at 8:30 AM on the main field and Bigger Den Me was overmatched as they only collected 4 hits in the game and trailed 7-1 going into the 4th inning.  Then MPT finally woke up and scored 16 runs beating Bigger Den Me by the 20 run mercy rule.  Filip Washington, Johnathan Williams, and Chris Greinert all were on base 4 out of 4.  MPT out homered Bigger Den Me 8 to 1 and John Williams had a grand slam.

Game #2 (Quarter Final)

Game #2 had a rematch of the Super Finals in a way.  Precision which was a good chunk of the H. Auto roster that won the Super against Southern Monsta which had about half of the players that finished 2nd at the Super the day before.  Southern Monsta came out of the gate scoring 9 in the 1st inning and they answered Precisions 17 run 2nd with a 10 run 3rd but couldn't keep pace with Precision who scored in every inning and won 35-26 even though Southern Monsta out hit them 32-27.  Colin Baartman for Precision was 5-6 with 3 homers and 9 RBI.  Daniel Cayton also hit 3 HR.

Game #3 (Quarter Final)

Game #3 in the 1st round had Thunder/Chosen which was a majority of the 2020 Thunder Major team that folded against Mark Katz and Brandon Cashwells Bad Draw team who had about half of their team that played the Super the day before.  Bad Draw scored in every inning but found themselves down 22-14 going into the bottom of the 7th where they could muster just 4 runs and lost.  Thunders Brian McBryde was 4-4 in the game and they out homered Bad Draw 6-1 as Kyle Pearson hit 3 homers.  As you can see as the humidity rose the home runs were harder to come by.

Game #4 (Quarter Final)

Game #4 was played at 11:30 AM Saturday over on the dirt field #4.  The fences there were 325 feet all the way around and led to higher scoring games.  Daddy Rocks a team put together by Dennis Doerr and featured a number of long term Resmondo players like Connell, Fulk, Mack, Yates, and Haglund took on Drip City a USA 'B' team.  As you can see by the box score both teams scored in every inning but the Daddy Rocks team just had too much firepower out homering Drip City 12-9 and collecting 10 more hits.  Jeff Roxby and Jared Hunt both hit 1000 for the game and Jared Hunt hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 5th extending the Daddy Rocks lead to 31-19.

That is veteran pitcher Danny Lopez for Daddy Rocks

Game #7 (Semi Final)

Game #7 was the semi final contest between Precision and MPT on the main field.  Again runs were hard to come by and MPT let a 12-4 lead in the 4th inning slip away as they failed to score in the last 3 innings?  Precision got back into the game in the 5th scoring 6 runs on a Baartman homer and then the bottom of the order rolled the top with 2 outs and Travis Clark hit a 3 run homer.  Both teams blanked in the 6th but in the top of the 7th needing 2 to tie Precision got an RBI double from Clark and a two run single from Patrick Ellwanger to take a one run lead.  In the bottom of the 7th MPT got a lead off double from David Johnson but then lined out and flew out which advanced Johnson to 3rd.  But the tying run never scored as they pitched around pinch hitter Ira Brown to get a flyout to end the game.  MPT had let one slip away and it probably cost them the tournament.  There were just 7 homers hit in the game.

David Johnson doubles to set up the tying run in the bottom of the 7th

Jason Branch singles up the middle in a tight game

Game #8 (Semi Final)

Game #8 was played on field #4 between Thunder and Daddy Rocks.  Thunder scored in every inning, out homered Daddy Rocks 11-6, and played a little bit better defense in the 31-13 win.  Collecting 40 hits.  Kyle Pearson and Adam Ussery each hit 3 homers.  Fyffe, Ussery, and Briggs were all 5 for 5 in the game. 

Thunder middle infielder Brian McBryde bare hands this grounder and throws out Lee Payne.

Check it out in the video clips.

Game #11 (Winner's Final)

Game #11 was the winners bracket finals at 5:30 PM between Thunder and Precision.  Some of the Thunder guys (Pearson, Riley, Briggs, Magnum) who play with Resmondo against the Precision players picked up from Resmondo (Clark, Cayton, Ellwanger, Reckart, Bazat).  Made for a good game.  Thunder trailed most of the game after Precision put up 12 runs in the 4th inning as Clark and Ellwanger hit multiple home runs.  But leading 27-14 in the 6th Precision (much like Resmondo this year) was unable to put Thunder away by the run rule and Thunder got a second wind in the top of the 7th scoring 10 runs and closed to within 3 on Jason Magnums 2nd home run of the inning but would get no closer ending the game on a flyout.  Thunder out homered Precision 10-7.  Clark though for Precision had 4 homers in the game and 9 RBI. 

Precision pitcher Travis Clark snaps off Briggs

Pearson crushes one into the night

Clark hit 4 homers in the winners bracket finals

Loser's Bracket

In the losers bracket Marquis Curry (not pictured) hit a 2 out walk off grand slam in the bottom of the 7th to push Bigger Den Me past Southern Monsta 21-18.  Bad Draw won a pillow fight with Drip City 9-7 holding off a late run by Drip City.  There were zero home runs hit in the game.  Then MPT sent Bad Draw home 11-6 out homering them 3-1 when Chris Greinert went 3-3 with 2 HR and 5 RBI.  Daddy Rocks beat Bigger Den Me 18-11 as they scored in every inning.  Jeremy Yates and Greg Connell each had 4 hits.  In the loser's semifinal MPT run ruled Daddy Rocks 23-8 in 6 innings by scoring 11 runs in a decisive  5th inning as David Johnson went 4-4 and they out homered Daddy Rocks 8-3.  And the loser's bracket championship game Sunday morning was uneventful as MPT/Anarchy led Thunder from start to finish in a 24-7, 6 inning game where Filip Washington went 5 for 5 and MPT out homered Thunder 7-2.

The loser's semi as Jeremy Yates doubles against MPT

Championship Game

In the championship game MPT tried to set the tone in the top of the 1st with a Filip Washington leadoff homer but trailed 3-2 after one inning when Precisions Travis Clark and Daniel Cayton led off with doubles and Patrick Ellwanger hit a home run.  MPT put up zeroes in the 2nd, 4th, and 7th.  And Precisions Travis Clark and Pat Ellwanger continued to homer their way to leads of 8-2 and 14-7 after 4 innings.  In the 5th and 6th a tired MPT team reached down deep to take a 18-16 lead in the top of the 6th as Branch, Williams, Johnson, and Genter all homered but Precision scored 4 in the bottom of the 6th on a homer by Lunda, a triple by Reckart, and a double by Umschied.  In the 7th Baartman in left field robbed a home run attempt by Branch and Precision won the 1st ever USA Softball 'AA' National!

MPT's Filip Washington leads off the game with a homer to right center

Dombrowski snaps off Umschied

Clark snaps off Dombrowski

Ellwanger hits another homer

Brad Lunda stole 3rd base when the 3rd baseman was playing back too far.

Reckart came up with both big hits and big defensive plays

Baartman robs Branch to preserve the game

Long Bombers of the Week

Pearson gets long bomber of the week for this majestic Saturday night bomb over the lights

 USA 'AA' Nationals Final Standings and Awards

USA Softball 'AA' Nationals Final Standings:
1st – Precision/Sonnys/H.Auto/Sprizzi/Bulldawg Trucking
2nd – MPT/Anarchy
3rd – Thunder/Chosen
4th – Daddy Rocks/Hoffman/Ductech
5th – Bigger Den Me
5th – Bad Draw/Rapid Fire/Easton
7th – Southern Monsta
7th – Drip City/Monsta

2020 Men's Class 'AA' Awards:

MVP – Travis Clark – Precision

Batting Champion (.867) Austyn Dawe – Thunder

HR Champion (8) – Kyle Pearson, Travis Clark, Chris Greinert

2020 All Americans:
Greg Connell – Daddy Rocks/Hoffman/Ductech – IF
Brian McBryde – Thunder/Chosen – IF
Austyn Dawe – Thunder/Chosen – IF
Kevin Bazat – Precision/Sonnys/H.Auto/Sprizzi/Bulldawg Trucking – IF
Daniel Cayton – Precision/Sonnys/H.Auto/Sprizzi/Bulldawg Trucking – IF
Patrick Ellwanger – Precision/Sonnys/H.Auto/Sprizzi/Bulldawg Trucking – OF
David Johnson – MPT/Anarchy – OF
Colin Baartman – Precision/Sonnys/H.Auto/Sprizzi/Bulldawg Trucking – OF
Jeremy Yates – Daddy Rocks/Hoffman/Ductech – OF
Chris Greinert – MPT/Anarchy – UTILITY
JD Genter – MPT/Anarchy – UTILITY
Brad Lunda – Precision/Sonnys/H.Auto/Sprizzi/Bulldawg Trucking – UTILITY
Kyle Pearson – Thunder/Chosen – UTILITY
Filip Washington – MPT/Anarchy – UTILITY
Travis Clark – Precision/Sonnys/H.Auto/Sprizzi/Bulldawg Trucking – P
 

Team by team notes brought to you by: