2020 USSSA Salt Lake City Major tournament report

September 1, 2020 by DW —No Comments ↓

2020 Nationwide Conference USSSA

Salt Lake City Classic

Salt Lake City, UT

August 28-30

2020 Salt Lake City bracket and results link

2020 SLC #1 Major stats link once available

2020 SLC #2 Major stats link once available

2020 SLC archived games link

Team Breakdown:
22 Teams Overall
7 Nationwide Conference USSSA Teams
2 'AA' Teams
5 'A' Teams
10 'B' Teams
4 'C' Teams

The Seattle Dual which was canceled due to Covid-19 wound up in Salt Lake City this past weekend where they had a nice field of 22 teams from 11 different states. The first Dual kicked off Friday morning and lasted until 4:15 AM Saturday morning just hours before the 2nd Dual began. 6 of the 7 Nationwide Conference USSSA team won their "round of 16" games, only Gorillas (MO-A) lost to a good AbeyTu/CSC/Salt Riot/Savon (WY-B) team 28-18. In the "final 8" Friday afternoon Xtreme (MN-AA), Bay Area Legends (CA-AA), L&S Glass (CA-A), and Cheap Suits (CA-A) all won their games by high scoring run rules in the light air and the favorites Xtreme and Bay Area won their semifinal games by the run rule as well. In the winner's final Xtreme jumped out to a 20+ run lead before Bay Area came all the way back but lost by 3. In the loser's bracket a long day turned into a long night and a new morning as teams dropping down from the winners bracket to the losers bracket picked up wins and Classic Glass (CA-A) made a little run to a 4th place finish with L&S Glass beating them by a run before getting run ruled by Bay Area Legends who then "double dipped" Xtreme for the Dual #1 win.

The second dual started just a few hours after the first one ended on Saturday. In that one some tired and banged up teams were prone to upset as LazerSports (NV-B) knocked off Gorillas 45-43. The Bay Area 'C' team beat Classic Glass 41-31. The Denver Stars (CO-B) beat Cheap Suits 36-18. And The Product beat Xtreme 34-24. The only Conference teams advancing were L&S Glass, Bay Area Legends AA team, and Levels (CO-A). In the "round of 8" Bay Area AA beat LazerSports 39-27. Levels run ruled the Bay Area C team. L&S Glass put up 50 to beat Denver Stars. And GS Nallys beat The Product. In the "final 4" the upsets continued as Levels knocked off Bay Area 49-40 and GS/Nallys took down L&S Glass 26-25 and then GS/Nallys beat Levels 36-35 to win the winners bracket on Saturday night. In the losers bracket Cheap Suits, Gorillas, Classic Glass, and Xtreme who had all lost their first game ran through the losers bracket with Xtreme winning 7 in a row to make it to the championship where GS/Nallys beat them 40-31. It was GS/Nallys second tournament win of the season as they won Arkansas over July 4th weekend.

From an Anonymous Reporter:

Bay Area and Xtreme walked off the field Friday night/Saturday morning at 4:15am and were back playing at 9:30 am Saturday. With games running so long, every field was behind all weekend. I saw quite a few minor injuries around the park like hamstring pulls etc. I think the lack of sleep everyone got played a part. The umpires and directors were definitely troopers this weekend on hardly any sleep.

Classic Glass and Cheap Suits both played extremely well on Friday but between the grind of Dallas last weekend, and long Fridays for both teams, they look gassed Saturday. Both teams looked really good overall and I think are in real good spots for the major now.

Levels is starting to play much better. Between putting up some good runs and starting to play better in Dallas, to the same momentum this weekend, and the 2-3 new guys are meshing and they look good.

LS Glass has now played extremely well in Dallas and both duals. They have the ability to put up some runs. I know LS was missing 2-3 guys this weekend as well. Their lack of events is going to cost them a potential shot at making the major.

Nallys is extremely good. They have one of the best infields out there and they have a deep talented bench. They hit with keeping the ball in the park and have multiple pitchers. They play as a team with energy. Two Major wins and a Top 4 at another major is crazy for a ‘B’ rated team.

The infields were dangerous at times. 3 people were sent to the hospital on Friday from bad hops. As long as they put some water down and have it a drag, they played great. They just couldn’t keep up since the games all ran long.
Short cut infields and large areas of outfield, along with 300 foot fences in the altitude led to some extremely high scoring and competitive games.

I didn’t see really any normal conference umpires and it really plays a major impact on a lot of games. The inconsistency was really bad this weekend. But with Atlanta and Salt Lake being added late, only so many good guys to go around. So it’s something you have to play through.

The atmosphere was actually pretty good all weekend. With the men’s and women’s at the same park, and then Saturday with the lowers event, there were good crowds for a lot of games. A lot of people watched the Levels Bay Area game and the Levels vs Nallys game had some viewers as well.

The park itself is a great complex. 8 fields. Spread out. Plenty of parking spaces. There is, however, not a lot of shade. D worlds will be there in a few weeks.