Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Added winner’s final and championship condensed games —> 2021 USSSA Schiffhauer Strong Major tournament report!

 

Condensed Game – Winner's Final

 

Condensed Game – Championship

 

Condensed Game – semifinal between Resmondo and SNI

 

Final 4 video clips link

 

Send corrections to dw@softballcenter.com

 

2021 Nationwide Conference USSSA

 

Schiffhauer Strong Major

 

Presented by Smash It Sports

 

Cincinnati, OH

 

August 6-8

 

S&E's Rich Racobaldo hits against MPT in the Schiffhauer Strong championship game!

 

SoftballCenter Schiffhauer picture album link

 

2021 Schiffhauer Strong bracket and results link

 

2021 Schiffhauer Major stats link once available

 

2021 Schiffhauer archived games link

 


 

Video Highlights brought to you by:

 

Friday and Saturday video clips link

 

Final 4 video clips link

 

Condensed Game – semifinal between Resmondo and SNI

 

Condensed Game – Winner's Final

 

Condensed Game – Championship

 

Team Breakdown:
25 Teams Overall
21 Nationwide Conference USSSA Teams
3 Major Teams
6 'AA' Teams
7 'A' Teams
9 'B' Teams
 

 


 

Friday Night "Play In" Games

The Conference played the Schiffhauer Strong Major at Mid America Ballyard in Cincinnati, Ohio in honor of Smash It Sports owner Rick Schiffhauer who sponsors multiple men's and women's Conference teams and is battling pancreatic cancer.  The tournament began with 25 of the top teams in the country including 21 Nationwide Conference USSSA teams from 13 different states, 3 of them were Major, and all 6 'AA' teams were in the bracket.  The tournament was played with the Dudley Pro-M ball on 300 foot fields with 240 bat compression testing.  The upsets began early on Friday at 5 PM eastern when SmashIt/Schiffhauer Strong (NY-B) scored 10 runs in the bottom of the 4th and out scored Premier/BAF/Easton (OH-A) 17-1 down the stretch to win 22-17.  Crawford was 4-4 with 5 runs scored and Whitlock 4-5 with 6 RBI in the victory.  The SIS 'B' team out homered Premier 5-4.

The softball world was rocked again by the unexpected passing of Bryce Johnson the GTF manager.

LSR (IN-B) flashed some leather and upset Baugh Ford/GRZY/Klutch 23-21 in extra innings winning on a walk off homer pictured above.

And in the rest of the "play in" games Precision/3rd Street (IL-AA) just did escape a narrow win over the upset minded non-conference Silverbacks (IN-B) 20-18.  Slugger/SVC (OH-A) won by forfeit over Statewide (NC-B) when Statewide said they were not coming because of players suffering from Covid-19.  Juno Athletics/MPT Rentals (NJ-A) scored 10 runs in the bottom of the 6th to beat Cornerstone/LSR/Midstate (KY-A) 20-11.  Ike Worlow the Juno lead off hitter went 4-4.  Chick-fil-a (VA-A) beat Belly's/CSB (OH-B) 15-8 back on field #3.  Xtreme (MN-AA) rolled through TG Brand (MI-B) a non conference team 24-4.  Westpoint (IN-B) knocked off Rebel (MI-B) 29-24 and WM Roofing (OH-B) held down BNS-SIS-Easton (KS-B) 12-4. 

 


 

"Round of 16"

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The "Round of 16" was also played after dark on Friday night as the temperatures and humidity dropped some.  MPT Rentals/Juno Athletics (NJ-M) struggled past Smash It's 'B' team 34-30.  SNI/Thunder/Chosen/DeMarini (FL-AA) the #3 seed made quick work of LSR 36-5.  Precision beat 'AA' rival Albicocco 41-40 as Curtis Stewart pictured above had the game winning hit!  Albicocco scored 17 runs in the top of the 5th and Precision came back with 19 in the bottom of the 5th.  Then both teams put up zero's in the 6th?  Tyler Kahlke the Precision 1st baseman was 6-6 with 5 RBI in the win and both teams hit all 12 of their home runs in the game.  S&E/Friendlys Trans/Worsham (NC-AA) smoked WM Roofing 20-2 and Chick-fil-a upset Xtreme 25-5!

In the 9:30 PM games Juno Athletics held on to beat Smash It Sports/Newbreed the #1 seed 41-39.  In the picture above Victor Cordova hit a ball long enough to be a game winning homer for Smash It but it drifted just foul and then he flew out to end it.  

Resmondo/SmashIt/Menosse/Thunder (FL-M) the #2 seed scored 13 runs in the top of the 1st but trailed 30-19 after 3 innings vs Slugger/SVC.  Resmondo came back to score 11 in the 5th and held on to win 41-37 as SVC had the hammer at the end of the game.  Resmondo's Josh Riley was 7-7 with 3 HR and 9 RBI and Bradley Jones had 4 HR and 11 RBI in the win.  Brandon Streets picture above was 5-6 with 3 HR in the loss.

And in the last game of the night Westpoint Softball upset Sports Reach/Worth/CT/Grizzy (KY-AA) 34-33 even though Sports Reach scored 7 runs in the bottom of the 7th.  Pitcher and Westpoint lead off hitter Kyle Johnson was 5-6 in the win.

 


 

"Round of 8"

Chick-fil-a takes on Juno Athletics in the "Round of 8"

The winner's bracket "Round of 8" began on Saturday morning with Resmondo scoring 18 runs in the top of the 1st but taking 7 innings to beat Precision 46-32.  Resmondo had 50 hits in the game.  Bradley Jones, Jeremy Yates, and Steele Lewis each had 6 hits.  Jeff Flood was 6-6 and Brad Tabler had 8 RBI in the loss.  Then SNI/Thunder run ruled the MPT Rentals Major team 30-13.  Meanwhile the lower half of the winner's bracket which now had 3 'A' teams and a 'AA' team – Chick-fil-a beat Juno Athletics 11-10 after leading 11-4 and getting a line out to end the game and Westpoint led S&E 15-2 up on field #2 with the wind blowing in but S&E came back late in the game to pull out an 18-16 victory. 

There was a nasty collision between Juno outfielders but after a few minutes both players thankfully remained in the game.

 


 

"Final 4" 

 

Zirkle celebrates another homer!

In semifinal #1 which can be watched in condensed form on the SW48 Youtube channel the SNI/Thunder team which has been Resmondo's nemesis all year came to play again.  SNI got a 2 out grand slam homer from Brian Zirkle in the 2nd inning to go up 11-6.  They extended the lead to 23-6 in the bottom of the 3rd as they placed the ball seemingly wherever they wanted to throughout the lineup.  As Zirkle and Mike Snyder went on to each hit 3 home runs pitcher Brandon Jonas was closing down the middle with his glove and although the game went 7 innings and Resmondo scored 10 in the bottom of the 7th, SNI ended up beating them again 40-36.

Jonas closes down the middle.

Kendall Welborn homer's vs Chick-fil-a

In the 2nd semifinal S&E jumped out to 16-0 and 18-3 leads on Chick-fil-a and won easily 31-9.

 


 

Winner's Final

  

 

S&E in the white takes on Mike Snyder and SNI in the blue in a battle of top 'AA' teams.

In the winner's final on Saturday night which can be viewed in condensed form on the SW48 Youtube channel later this week neither team did anything to separate from the other early on.  But S&E scored 17 runs on 5 homer's in the 5th to beat SNI 28-13

 


 

Loser's Bracket

   

In the loser's bracket Baugh Ford upset Xtreme 36-32 to send Xtreme home 1-2.  Premier upset SmashItSports/Newbreed 38-12 to send SIS the #1 seed home 0-2.  Premier scored 14 in the 1st, 12 in the 2nd, and 5 in the 3rd.  Clay Norton, Bobby Noeth, and Steve Hendrickson each had 5 hits in the win.  Sports Reach won 2 games before MPT Rentals dropped down and sent them packing 29-28 as Sports Reach had the hammer at the end after MPT had scored 10 in the bottom of the 6th.  Premier won 2 games before Precision dropped down and sent them home and then MPT won the top half of the loser's bracket by beating Precision by 1 and Chick-fil-a by 20.

In the lower half of the loser's bracket TG Brand and Albicocco made short runs before Westpoint dropped down and beat TG Brand by 20 and Juno beat Albicocco by 17.  Then Westpoint beat Juno by 20 and lost to Resmondo by 9.    

Late Saturday night it was the remaining two Major teams fighting in the loser's bracket, Resmondo and MPT Rentals.  Resmondo's dominating offense disappeared as MPT jumped out to a 20-2 lead.  Resmondo scored 8 in the top of the 4th and 5 in the top of the 5th but lost by the run rule 30-15.  MPT's Joe Dorton, John Radich, Orlando Castillo, and Brock Frentzel each collected 4 hits.  Radich had 8 RBI.

 


 

Sunday

MPT's John Williams

On Sunday morning in the loser's bracket finals both MPT Rentals and SNI flashed the leather as right fielders John Radich and Greg Downing made diving catches.  But MPT pulled away to a nice 18-3 lead and won easily by the run rule 21-6.

S&E SS Joel Sanchez hits a liner.

In the championship a fresh S&E team scored 7 runs on 1 HR in the top of the 1st while MPT answered with 4 straight solo home runs to start their half of the 1st and they grabbed a 14-7 lead after two complete innings.  Then S&E put up a zero in the top of the 3rd inning but rallied to within one run 18-17 in the top of the 4th scoring 10 runs as they took advantage of a bunch of walks.  In the bottom of the 5th a tired and banged up MPT team put up a zero and it was all S&E from there as they out scored MPT down the stretch 24-1 and won the game and the tournament 41-19!  This was S&E's 3rd tournament win of the season (Atlanta, Maryland).

I would like to thank the teams, the umpires, the park and staff especially Matt Dickhouse for his work on the fields.

S&E 3rd Baseman Kendall Welborn makes a diving play in the championship.

 

Best Quotes of the Week

"Can I have a pinch runner for my pinch runner?"

"You can be fat and still hustle"

On a high pitch called a strike a player said "This isn't ASA"   Then I thought about it and ASA and USSSA have the same max height of 10 feet…

 


 

 

The oldscout pollers had Resmondo…

 


 

Long Bombers of the Week

Lhe long bomber of the week went to Chris Greinert who hit this 410 foot shot on Saturday.

But then Ryan Harvey hit this right center squirrel killer into the top of one of the tallest trees.  I feel like the ball would have went into the road behind the field #1 trees which is estimated to be 444 feet.

 


 

Schiffhauer Strong Major Final Standings and Awards

S&E SS Joel Sanchez was MVP.  He hardly made an out it seemed and was spectacular on defense as always.

S&E pitcher Brian Renner who ended the championship game with this snag was Defensive MVP.

MPT Rentals SS Orlando Castillo was Offensive MVP

 


 

Team by team notes brought to you by:

 

 

1st Place – S & E/Friendlys Trans/Worsham

Conf 'AA' from NC  5-0 Record

S&E is the #1 offensive team in the nation when it comes to on base percentage and runs scored per 7 innings.  The entire lineup goes on hot streaks and they do it with line drives as well as power and pick each other up when a player goes in a mini-slump.  The defense and pitching are rock solid and they came from behind to win, they dominated teams at times, and they had big innings in every game.  

  

1B/C Matt Gregory and RF Matt Lloyd

 

1B/C Edmund Locklear and 2B Tyler Wiles

CF Bill Cullen played 4 years of baseball at VCU

 

2B Marquez is one of the faster base runners in the conference and Kampfer in left field robbed a couple of homers.

 

 


 

2nd Place – MPT Rentals/Juno Athletics

Conf 'M' from NJ  6-2 Record

 

MPT played without Mike Nino and were a little banged up and short handed but found ways to win in the loser's bracket and started out pretty good in the championship before S&E's offense took off and left them a step behind.

 

Dorton hit his way up to the two spot in the lineup and Radich made all tournament.

  

3B John Williams, SS Orlando Castillo, MI Zach Messer

  

Dombrowski and his low release won a bunch of games.

Filip Washington at one point was like 14-15 and then he tweaked his bat and was reduced to a pinch hitting role.

 


 

3rd Place – SNI/Thunder/Chosen/DeMarini

Conf 'AA' from FL  3-2 Record

 

SNI finishes 3rd again…  They played without Jason Branch (2 month suspension) and Kyle Olsen is out injured.  But they beat Resmondo again and have positioned themselves as the #1 in 'AA' points but they did lose to S&E.

SNI LF Colin Baartman almost made the catch of the year

  

Roxby has been real good at SS.

 

The SNI outfield is all lefties that played center field in conference.  Baartman, Zirkle, Downing

 


 

4th Place – Resmondo/Smash It/Menosse/Thunder

Conf 'M' from FL  3-2 Record

3B Jones, SS Ussery, MI Bazat

 

Resmondo was missing Pearson (injury) and Briggs, Mack, and Magnum were tending to family illnesses so they used more of the bench and the offense didn't seem to miss a beat until late Saturday night against MPT.  Resmondo will finish 2nd in the points unless they add a tournament or two which I don't believe they are going to do.  Riley and Yates were over .800

 

Ussery at SS and Lewis in CF got a lot of playing time.

Yates was all tournament and robbed this SNI homer

 

Yates kept the ball in the park and the ricochet was almost caught by Santana.

Reckart playing in his hometown.

 


 

Tied 5th Place – WestPoint Softball

Conf 'A' from IN  4-2 Record

Westpoint upsets Sports Reach Friday night.

Westpoint scored 180 points and moved themselves up to 20th in the points standings going into their home state Indiana's dual Major which starts this Thursday.  Price, Smith, Johnson, and Edwards were all over .700

 

Edwards, Smith?, and Tucker

 


 

Tied 5th Place – Chick-fil-a

Conf 'A' from VA  3-2 Record

Chick-fil-a scored 180 points moving them to 14th in the Conference standings and positioning themselves to make the Major World Series in only their 2nd year in the league.

Kyle Center pitches, leads off, hits homers, and plays middle infield!

Stidham will be the Long Bomber of the week someday soon!

 


 

Tied 7th Place – Juno Athletics/MPT Rentals

Conf 'A' from NJ  3-2 Record

Juno moved up to 23rd in the standings but I don't believe they are playing anymore regular season tournaments this year.  Their upset over Smash It will be in their memories for a long time.

 

Verbasco helped pull off some upsets.


 

 


 

Tied 7th Place – Precision/3rd Street/Red Athlete/Pure

Conf 'AA' from IL  3-2 Record

Precision picked up Roger Drake to pick some when Mooch couldn't make it.

Precision scored a 170 which put them in the 16th spot in the standings.  They played without Mucciareli and they are playing the Indiana dual so they hope to solidify their spot in the Major since they are the only AA team in the tournament which also has 2 Major teams (MPT and Dan Smith).

 

 


 

Hot Links section brought to you by:

I would like to thank USSSA and the SoftballCenter advertisers for their support!

Link to the SoftballCenter.com Youtube channel

Link to the SoftballCenter.com Facebook page

Link to all 2009 to 2021 Tournament Reports and Previews

Nationwide Conference USSSA Points and information link

 


 

Some more pictures for you:

Tied for 9th – TG Brand (MI-B) 3-2 – TG was run by John Golich and had a smattering of former confernce playser like Morrow and Franklin among others.

 


 

Tied for 9th – Albicocco/Riot/Klutch/Broughton (FL-AA) 2-2 – Albicocco moved up to 10th in the standings.  Above – Vitcak pitching, SS Letak, MI Lizcano.


Tied for 9th – Sports Reach/Worth/CT/Grizzy (KY-AA) 2-2 – Sports Reach picked up former Primetime slugger Chivas Clark (pictured below) and Tre Porter was hitting some bombs.


Tied for 9th – Premier/BAF/Easton (OH-A) 2-2 – Premier pulled off an upset of SIS in the 1st round of the loser's bracket.

 

Mike Umschied hits a grand slam homer for Premier vs his former team Precision after his longtime coach at Precision – Todd Ankney had called time to "ice" him.

 


 

Matt Brady played middle infield for Baugh.  Normally he plays 3rd.  Baugh went 1-2.

WM Roofing has fun playing even though they went 1-2.

Smash Its 'B' team will be a favorite at USSSA 'B' Worlds. (1-2) upset Premier.

One conference team told me LSR had the best defensive game against them they have had this year. (1-2)

SVC came so close to that huge upset of Resmondo Friday night.  That would have been huge. (1-2)

Josh Collins hits for BNS-Easton (0-2)

Rebel went 0-2

Belly's 0-2

Xtreme (1-2)

Smash It Sports Major team went 0-2 after winning both Seattle Duals last week.

Cornerstone went 1-2

Silverbacks 0-2

It looks like Jones may have blocked third with his foot so the out call may have been correct.

Branch is suspended 2 months so he chased foul balls.

Spread your wings!

Picture of the live stream on USSSALive.com

Lots of DeMarini's in that S&E bucket

When Xtreme goes 0-2 they like to heckle former players from the 2nd deck.

Mike Cornell and former GTL Donnie Wilson

Jerry Scudder – Snake (in the back in the grey) aka "The Candyman" was at the park.  It was great to see you!

Eric "Slim" Rice and Mark Dallenbach on the championship game!

 

 

 

 

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