2020 USSSA Maryland Major tournament report!

2020 Nationwide Conference USSSA

The "Battle on the Chesapeake"

Glen Burnie, MD

July 25-26

Dan Smith MVP Andy Purcell hits a home run in the championship game against Resmondo Sunday

SoftballCenter Maryland picture album link

2020 Maryland bracket and results link

2020 Maryland Major stats link once available

2020 Maryland archived games link

Video Highlites brought to you by:

Check out Resmondo middle infielder make an incredible play in this weeks video clips!

Maryland Saturday video clips

Maryland Saturday night and Sunday clips

Dan Smith's Luis Reyna smashes another single through the 5-6 hole

The 2020 "Battle on the Chesapeake" Major was played in July this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic changing the Conference schedule.  There were originally 26 teams but a number of teams including SIS/Thunder and Anarchy/MPT dropped out due to injuries and there ended up being 19 teams in the tournament.  Tournament director Bob Holland decided to start the tournament on Saturday morning at 8 am but even that was delayed by overnight thunderstorms and the tournament ended up starting at 9 am eastern on all 6 of Bachman Parks 300-foot fields.

The play in games were uneventful as local teams from Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York battled it out to get to the "round of 16" where the 7 Conference teams awaited.  There Chick-fil-a (VA-B) held off Fish Head (MD-B) when Fish Head failed to do anything with the bat in the 7th.  Turnkey/CCP/Dan Smith (NC-A) beat local Platinum Group (MD-C) just 35-29.  CGR/House Money a long time Maryland 'A' team beat rival and former Conference team Tru/Mojo (VA-B) 22-19 after beating Tru twice the week before in another tournament.  Tru was down 3 with 4 homer's left and couldn't get it done.  And the rest of the top Conference teams Dan Smith (CA-M), Resmondo (FL-M), Sports Reach (KY-A), Maroadi/SNI (FL-A), and Pure Sports/Infamous/EB (SC-M) all won by the 15 or 20 run mercy rule. 

In the "round of 8" which was played in 90+ degree afternoon heat and high humidity witnessed TurnKey/CCP shocking Resmondo 31-28 as the defense of veteran pitcher Shawn Jones, and the infield defense of shortstop Joel Sanchez and middle infielder Tyler Wiles helped TurnKey hold on to the upset win!  Resmondo was down 3 in the 7th and went in order 1-2-3 to end the game.  

TurnKey/CCP/Dan Smith celebrates their 31-28 win over Resmondo in the "round of 8"

Dan Smith on the other hand crushed CGR 42-20 scoring 33 runs in the first 2 innings as the top of the lineup Andy Purcell, Andrew Collins, and Ryan Harvey went a combined 17-18 and Argen Dodds had 13 RBI!  At the 1:30 PM games Pure Sports had their hands full with Chick-fil-A over on field #2 with the wind blowing in.  Chick-fil-a led going into the bottom of the 7th but the bottom of the order rolled the lineup to the top and an intentional walk to Bryson Baker set up a walk off homer by Jason Branch and Pure won 29-26.  In the final game of the "round of 8" Sports Reach extended a 24-23 lead to 40-23 in the top of the 5th after a 16 run inning and won 40-31.  Sports Reach veteran Jason Hatley was 5-5 extending his hit streak on the day to 11.

Pure Sports Jason Branch hits a walk off homer to beat Chick-fil-a 29-26

The "final 4" started around 4:30 PM as the Maryland moonshine flowed and Pure Sports struggled again with Turnkey/CCP but held a 19-8 lead early and won 30-22.  In the other semifinal Dan Smith scored 12 in the 1st, 14 in the 2nd, and 13 more in the 4th inning to beat a tired Sports Reach team 42-6.  Purcell was 5-5 and Harvey 6-6 in the win.

The winner's bracket finals started immediately following the semifinals and both Pure and Dan Smith got off to sluggish starts offensively and Dan Smith the home team held just a 9-3 lead after 4 innings.  Pure managed 4 runs to seemingly get back into the game in the top of the 5th down 9-7 but Dan Smith got on a roll and smelled blood when they got to within 5 runs of the mercy rule and then just started hitting a bunch of solo homers to leave Pure on the field 23-7.  Jason Matusik hit the final homer.  Phil Matte and Luis Reyna were each 3 for 3 in the game.

Dan Smith cracked out the rarely used grey uniforms for the winner's final against Pure Sports

In the loser's bracket it was all Resmondo.  They beat local team Douglas Realty and then knocked off conference teams Chick-fil-a.  Later Saturday they beat Sports Reach 44-25 even though Sports Reach was beating them at one point 25-21 going into the bottom of the 5th when Resmondo scored 19 runs to leave Sports Reach on the field.  Travis Clark, Daniel Cayton, and Patrick Ellwanger were a combined 14-16 with 14 RBI at the top of the order.  Then Resmondo beat TurnKey/CCP 29-14 in the last game of the night after leading just 17-14 in the 5th.  

On Sunday morning Pure Sports jumped out to a 13-8 lead in the 1st inning on Resmondo in the loser's bracket finals.  Resmondo fought back to tie the game at 21-21 after 4 innings and the game seesawed back and forth with Pure Sports going up 35-30 as the game entered the bottom of the 6th.  But Resmondo with 9 homer's left to hit had a huge inning scoring 13 runs as Brad Reckart and Travis "Blaster" Clark hit the last of their 9 homers in the inning and they held off Pure Sports last ditch effort 43-39.

In the championship as the heat and humidity took hold it was the two heavyweight contenders and the last two Major World Series champions battling in out!  This game is worth watching either in the archives or on the Condensed Game I will release later in the week on my YouTube channel SW48.  It had a little bit of everything – Great plays, clutch homer's, comebacks after comebacks, runner interference, strike outs looking, pitcher stabs, and even a little jawing…  A tired Resmondo team reached down deep to take a 13-5 lead in the 1st inning but put up just 1 run in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings combined as they watched Dan Smith take a 24-14 lead after 4 complete innings.  But in the bottom of the 5th the offensive flood gates opened up for both teams as Resmondo scored 17 runs to take a 31-24 lead.  And it would have been worse had it not been for a tremendous diving stop and out by Luis Reyna up the middle on a Pat Ellwanger grounder.  In the 6th Dan Smith answered with 11 runs of their own and that was matched by Resmondo who scored 10 to take a 41-35 lead into the 7th.  But Dan Smith as they have done all year came through with 13 more clutch runs and held Resmondo who had just one homer left to hit to just 3 in the bottom of the 7th to win 48-44!  It was Dan Smith's 3rd straight tournament win.  Collins was 6-6 with 7 runs scored and Jason Matusik 7-7 with 3 HR in the win.  Offensive MVP Bubba Mack was 7-7 with 3 HR and 9 RBI for Resmondo in the loss.

The Dudley Pro M ball was used and although it is still too much ball for the 300-foot fields the games were pretty good if not a bit high scoring and long.  The rain helped the field conditions and there was a small contingent of Conference umpires from Ohio and North Carolina.  Conference USSSA moves to Lexington, South Carolina this Friday night July 31st.

I would like to thank super fan Billy for helping me put up the new live stream cameras and director Bob Holland for his hospitality.

Box Score from the Championship Game

Team Breakdown:
19 Teams Overall
7 Nationwide Conference USSSA Teams
3 Major Teams
0 'AA' Teams
4 'A' Teams
5 'B' Teams
8 'C' Teams

Key Winner's Bracket Games

Mooch goes behind the back and then pitches left handed trying to get Chick-fil-a hitters to hit junk

Pure Sports pitcher Ryan Mcclanahan takes a shot off the thigh but still tries to make a great play

Resmondo's super utility man Brad Reckart hits a key home run against Pure Sports in the loser's bracket finals.

CGR in the red beat Tru in the white in a grudge match between two non conference teams that don't particularly like each other

In the last game Saturday night Resmondo returned the favor beating TurnKey/CCP 29-14

Bachman Park is scenic

The biggest crowd may have been back on field #6 for the CGR vs Tru game

Bat Bucket compression testing, check

Dudley Pro-M ball was used.

The oldscout pollers had Dan Smith to win

Long Bombers of the Week

The Long Bomber of the week goes to Resmondo's Bubba Mack and Pure Sports Dale Brungardt.

Although Harvey may have hit the nastiest long one on Saturday morning but I lost sight of it so it doesn't count!  🙂

 Maryland Major Final Standings and Awards

Dan Smith pitcher Andy Purcell was MVP for the 3rd tournament in a row

Dan Smith MI Luis Reyna and SS Jo Jo Bennett were Co-Defensive MVP's

Resmondo 3rd Baseman Bubba Mack was the Offensive MVP

Team by team notes brought to you by: