32 of the top Nationwide Insurance Conference USSSA teams traveled to Kissimmee, Florida to play in the annual Hall of Fame Classic (HOF) Men’s Major slow pitch tournament this past weekend. The 4 days of softball consisted of two separate double elimination tournaments which were played at 8 fields at two different parks. The first was the Houston Astro’s spring training facility called Heritage Park and the primary field was the Osceola County Stadium with field dimensions of 330 down the lines, 390 to the gaps, and 410 to center field. For the most part the big winner’s bracket games were held at the Stadium or behind the stadium on baseball fields and the loser’s bracket was held over at Fortune Road softball complex.
Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth based out of Winterhaven, Florida went 6-0 to win the first dual event. Resmondo, the #1 ranked team in the nation coming into the tournament and defending Major World Series champions did not cruise to the title as Buzinisports.com/BWW/Worth (B), SBS/Combat (B), Taylormade/TM Sports/Mizuno (A), and Team 454/Emerald/Worth (A), all made Resmondo play 7 innings to beat them by a combined score of 76-52. In fact they needed a walk off home run by Howie Krause to beat SBS/Combat 16-14. In the winner’s final and championship though, Resmondo beat Laser Vision/Annihilation/Supreme/D2E/Easton (a major team) by a combined run total of 42-11.
The parity in the dual events was the best it has ever been, as the ‘C’ and ‘B’ teams competed toe to toe with the ‘A’ and even the Major teams and each other. The way this tournament played out any team could have beaten any other team. Lower level teams have a ton of talent that have been around the Major teams enough that they are no longer “in awe” of them.
In the second tournament, the “fresh” teams that played less games in tournament #1 came to the forefront. This charge was led by Nordkap/Desert Falls/Easton (Major) who went 6-0 to sweep the event. After finishing tied for 17th place in the first tournament they knocked off Demarini/Dirty/3N2/ATWLDesigns (B) 30-29 on a walk off flyball/single by Brett McCollum. Then in the championship game, Nordkap/Desert Falls came from behind to knock off Laser Vision 26-25 on a bases loaded single by J.D. Genter.
The real story of this second tournament were all the upsets. Shoppe/Team TPS/Elite and TYJA-Suncoast Reebok knocked off the mighty Resmondo. Demarini/Dirty/3N2/ATWLDesigns knocked off Laser Vision. Nordkap winning their second event of the year (Vegas). Resmondo pitcher Andy Purcell suffering a broken pinky that could keep him out 7 or 8 weeks. The heart that Laser Vision showed by winning 5 straight in the loser’s bracket after a long week of ball and nearly forcing an “if” game. TYJA-Suncoast Reebok still playing great ball into their 14th game of the long weekend. There was a lot of great ball, a lot of clutch performers, and a lot of good hustle out of some players that had nothing left in the tank.
The Conference USSSA is now sponsored by Nationwide Insurance. The season began this past weekend in Las Vegas, NV at Big League Dreams Freedom Park with 31 teams including 13 from Conference USSSA. The double elimination tournament began Friday with perfect weather and almost no early upsets as Conference teams went 24-1 on the weekend vs non-conference opponents. The lone win was an incredible 25-10 Saturday morning run rule victory for non-conference Classic Glass over major classed Team Combat/Pacific Headwear. AZM, a ‘B’ team out of Arizona also pushed major team Laser Vision in the second round as they trailed the #2 ranked team in the country just 29-27 at the end of 5 innings. Laser Vision then turned it on and run ruled AZM.
In the final 4 Down2Earth folded shop against Nordkap in a 36-16 loss. Meanwhile Sonny’s and Laser Vision were locked in a battle which would end up as the game of the tournament. Laser Vision the visiting team trailed Sonny’s 6-0 after one inning with the sun pointed directly in the batters face. As the sun went down Laser Vision pulled out to a 20-12 lead and a 9 run top of the 7th on homers by Geno Buck and Rick Baker pushed their lead to 30-13. Sonny’s came to bat in the bottom half needing 17 to tie. They scored 5 runs before back to back outs put them in a deep hole. Then they did the unheard of…they had 14 straight runner’s reach base safely by hits, homer’s, and walk’s. The momentum and adrenaline kicked in and Sonny’s won the game 31-30 on the strength of an 18 run 7th inning and sent the mighty Laser Vision to the loser’s bracket. Details and video on the incredible comeback are laid out further on in this report.
Late Saturday night, Demarini beat Down2EarthSports to make it to the loser’s bracket championship on Sunday morning against Sonny’s. In that game with the wind blowing Sonny’s held off a Demarini team that would not give up. On the verge of a run rule for a couple of innings in a row, Demarini fought back to a tough 42-30 loss. Nordkap then beat Sonny’s in the championship 27-19 with some good early offense and enough defense to keep Sonny’s at bay for the entire game.
The 2012 Nationwide Conference USSSA season kicks off March 30th with the “Sin City Classic” at the beautiful Big League Dreams Park in Las Vegas, Nevada. Nationwide Conference USSSA is a league of the top 40 men’s slow pitch softball teams from 23 different states. Each team that joins the league plays in a minimum of 6 or more Conference tournaments out of 23 tournaments scheduled across the country. Their top 6 tournament point totals are tallied and the top 16 teams in the point standings battle it out for the Major World Series championship held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports stadium in Kissimmee, Florida September 19-23.
The 2012 Nationwide Conference USSSA season is set to open this Friday night March 30th at the Big League Dreams park in Las Vegas, Nevada. First game is 5:40 PM Pacific time.
Kissimmee, FL- The 2012 Conference schedule has now been released. New locations for 3 different tournaments are Glen Burnie MD , Rock Hill SC, and Riverside CA. Conference membership is at over 32 teams who are submitting their commitment form and entry fee. Conference USSSA has made great strides over the last 6 years to promote the highest level of Slow Pitch in the country while also helping promote the sport as a whole.
Incognito out of Detroit, MI were the World Series winner in the competitive “B” Division in 2011, claiming their first world championship in a 14-4 victory over Minnesota Ice in a forced IF game by Incognito out of the losers bracket. Incognito beat Minnesota Ice in the championship 18-9 to force the infamous IF game. They went 6-1 for the World Series and outscored their opponents 86-38 while averaging a solid 12 runs a game. Patrika Barlow was named the A World Tournament MVP and 8 players from the team recieved all tournament selections.
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