2012 GSL 'B' Championship tournament report!
GSL 'B' World
Columbus, Ohio
October 13th
Street Kids/Mojo wins 3 straight games to take GSL 'B' title
Street Kids pitcher Faron Miller in the Championship game
The GSL 'B' World Tournament was played at Lou Berliner Park in Columbus, Ohio. It was a one day event that featured 5 of the top 'B' teams in the region. It was played on the new artificial turf infields in excellent weather, and the whole tournament was played on Saturday starting at 11:30 AM and ending around midnight.
The opening game was a "play-in" game between Reds Astros and Precision. The game was close for 5 innings then Reds pulled away and hung on 27-23. In the semi-finals Street Kids knocked off Elk and Elk 25-19 and Tailgaters beat Reds 23-18. The ball was flying in these games and the home run rules used were 6 homer's per team with one player being designated as the "DHH" – Designated Home Run Hitter. The DHH could hit as many as he could hit. If the DHH was walked the rest of the lineup was able to hit one homer that did not count towards their 6 HR total until the DHH came back up to bat. The fences were 300 foot.
The rules and the style of play in the GSL was entertaining and offensive oriented. The pitching allowed was a 5' to 10' arc with pumping and faking also allowed and the pitcher had 5 seconds to pitch the ball.
In the winner's bracket finals Tailgaters continued their hot hitting and outslugged Street Kids 29-24.
In the loser's bracket, Elk and Elk knocked off Precision 24-18 and Reds then hammered Elk 31-19. Reds at this point was looking like they might roll through the rest of the tournament. But it was not to be as Street Kids played Reds close for most of the game then put up a double figure inning late and beat Reds 34-26.
In the finals Street Kids faced off again with Tailgaters. Tailgaters led 5-4 after one inning. Then SKS scored 15 in the second inning and Tailgaters answered with 10 runs. Then Tailgaters Buddy Wolf hit a BOMB for a 3 run homer to tie the game at 30-30 and four hitter Mike Allen gave Tailgaters a 31-30 lead with a solo homer. Street Kids came back though, trailing 32-30 after 5 innings as they put up a 7 run 6th and held Tailgaters scoreless in the 6th and 7th to win 37-32.
In the "if" game of the championship Tailgaters jumped out to a 7-4 lead on a 3 run homer by James Denardo and a 2 run homer by Ron Mitko in the first inning. In the second inning Street Kids "DHH" Brandon Dillon hit a 3 run homer and SKS trailed 11-8 after two innings. In the third inning, Street Kids pounded out 14 runs on homers by Horvath, Martin, Miller, Leland Schmucker, and Tim Austin to take a 22-11 lead as they held Tailgaters scoreless in that inning. With the momentum shifting Tim Austin hit a 2 run triple in the 4th and Street Kids added 5 more runs in the 5th to win the game and the championship by the run rule 30-15!
Championship game #1 – Street Kids vs Tailgaters
1st inning of the "if" game
Rest of the "if" game
GSL's Bruce Melton, Cliff Majni, and MojoSportsGear.com's Mark Witte
Action from the championship between Tailgaters and Street Kids
Reds takes on Tailgaters in the losers finals on the all turf infields
MojoSportsGear.com arm sleeve of the week goes to Zach Messer of Tailgaters
Video Highlites brought to you by:
GSL 'B' highlites
The "Mojo Masher" of the week is: Buddy Wolf and Joe Horvath
Tailgaters Buddy Wolf
Buddy Wolf hitting BOMBS at the GSL
Street Kids Joe Horvath
These two were mashing it all day and they can keep the ball in the park as well as hit the bombs and they are very fast
GSL 'B' World Tournament Awards and Final Standings:
2) Tailgaters/B&E/Jet/Tyler Trucking – Pennsylvania 2-2
3) Red's Astros/TPS/Sports Den – Indiana 2-2
4) Elk and Elk – Ohio 1-2
5) Precision/ShirtsAndLogos – Illinois 0-2
Team by team notes brought to you by:
1st Place – Street Kids/Mojo
from Indiana 4-1 Record
Street Kids breaks through and finally wins a world tournament. SKS has been the runner up on many occasions over the last couple of years but they definitely earned this one, knocking off 3 of the other 4 teams in the tournament including a "double dip" of Tailgaters in the finals.
SKS scored in every inning of both championship games and were led by veteran hitters Brandon Dillon and Joe Horvath among others. Congratulations to Street Kids on a hard fought championship!
Street Kids Lineup:
Terry Patesel
Jeremy Hochstettler
Brandon Dillon
Leland Schmucker
Tim Austin
Joe Horvath
Jason Jeffery
Scott Martin
Fred Schmucker
Faron Miller
Nick Bishop
2nd Place – Tailgaters/B&E/Jet/Tyler Trucking
from Pennsylvania 2-2 Record
Tailgaters was in the driver's seat having won their first two games behind solid offensive play. But their offense sputtered in both the 6th and 7th innings of the first game of the championship and wasn't able to keep pace with Street Kids offensive onslaught in the championship game.
Tailgaters is a team full of talent and line drive hitters who play an entertaining brand of softball with good speed and capable defense.
Tailgaters Lineup
Zach Messer
Jesse Young
Buddy Wolf
Mike Allen
Kenny Balderson
James Denardo
Frank Renner
Ron Mitko
John Sullivan
Tommy Summers
Tim Sheeler
Tailgaters Jesse Young lays out for one
3rd Place – Red's Astros/TPS/Sports Den
from Indiana 2-2 Record
Reds Astros won their opener over Precision when they separated late in the game. In the semi-finals they lost to Tailgaters 23-18 in a game they trailed by 10 mid way through, and could not catch up. Tailgaters made better use of their homers. In the loser's bracket Reds powered their way past Elk and Elk early and often and jumped out to a big lead and won 31-19. In that game they looked like the Reds we have come to know and it seemed they would roll through the rest of the tournament.
In their final game against Street Kids, the two teams slugged their way to an entertaining 23-23 tie late in the game but Street Kids put up a big inning and Reds couldn't keep up when SKS closed the door with some great defense to win 34-26.
Reds used power hitter Chad Mullins as their DHH in the lead off spot, "old school" style. They looked to have most all of their regular players except John Steele was injured and I think Jake Stambeeze was missing.
Red's Astros/TPS/Sports Den
Travis Dale
Brian Farrar
Joshua Bowen
Ryan Joiner
Chad Mullins
Steve Kingsolver
Troy Krider
Chris Lane
Fred Lawson
Doug Martin
Wally Maybrier
Rob Roop
Jake Stambazze
John Steele
Tony Henry
Jody Wendel
Randy Lawson
Dennis Buis
Tanee John Yamcharern
Justin Aldora
Reds pitcher Ryan Joiner mashes one in the gap
Reds players like Wally Maybrier, Chad Mullins, and Travis Dale among others were made some big offers by opposing teams for 2013 but decided to stay with Reds!
4th Place – Elk and Elk
from Ohio 1-2 Record (62-74 total score)
Elk and Elk lost their opener to Streek Kids 25-19 in a game that probably could have gone either way. In the loser's bracket they sent home a good Precision team 24-18 before the Reds Astros beat them soundly 31-19.
Marce Porcello started each game on the mound and Elk added two major players to the roster for this tournament in Dale Roe (Combat, Resmondo, Shoppe) who played third base and shortstop and Brian Puckett (Linedrive, Sinister) at catcher. They also picked up the left handed ageless veteran Paul Stanly. Center fielder and lead off man Eric Gallon stood out with some nice overall play.
I have not watched a lot of Elk and Elk but they had enough horses that they could have won this tournament. They just ran into Reds, the one game that Reds played up to their normal abilities.
Elk and Elk Roster
Allen Dina
Jeff Downs
Eric Galon
Dave Hauser
Miek Lemponen
Gary Lynce
Kyle Moriarity
Marce Porcello
Ryan Roppel
Scott Shantery
Danny Szabo
Kevin Thompson
Rob Whitehouse
Steve Zemanek
Shawn Finch
Brian Puckett
Erik Adkins
Michael Blanton
Bradley Sparks
Michael Cairns
Paul Stanley
Dale Roe
Former Resmondo and Shoppe slugger Dale Roe was playing with Elk and Elk
5th Place – Precision/ShirtsAndLogos
from Illinois 0-2 Record (41-51 total score)
Precision had a tough draw and lost their opener to Reds Astros 27-23 in a game that was close for 5 innings. In the loser's bracket they lost to Elk and Elk 24-18. Precision had Travis Clark, Kevin Filby, and they had Justin Wicinski on the mound but it just wasn't their day.
Precision Roster:
Keih Laski
Dan Hall
Travis Clark
Kevin Filby
Seth Bergmeier
Jeff Keske
Todd Ankney
Gary Lofton
Curt Stewart
Mike Jacobsen
Bill Wax
Justin Wicinski
More pictures below
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I would like to thank all of my sponsors and GSL's Cliff Majni for their support!
A special thanks to the title sponsor of this event Mojosportsgear.com!
Archived games from the GSL 'B' can be found here
Link to Softballcenter.com pictures of the GSL 'B'
Send corrections to dw@softballcenter.com
Link to the SoftballCenter.com Youtube channel
Link to the 2012 Tournament Reports
Some more pictures for you:
I slow motioned this play at 2nd and he was out. Correct call.
The close call in the Reds vs Tailgaters game was also correct, safe!
This guy turned a medium t-shirt into a compression shirt…lol
Look how wrong we all were on picking the GSL 'B' winner! SKS and Tailgaters only getting 3% of the votes each.
Softball die hards take in some of the action
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