North Carolina USSSA regained the Annual Eddie O Bunn Memorial tour¬nament held in Raleigh, NC at Walnut Creek. Tournament Director, Johnny Blizzard, wanted to attract teams to the tournament by renaming the tourna¬ment to the “Eddie O Bunn Six Shooter” and making the tournament a six game guarantee. The tournament was first advertised in the beginning of January and was full by the end of January. With only having nine fields at Walnut Creek and three outside fields, Johnny was only able to accept the first 48 teams. Johnny stated, “I had over 70 teams contact me to get into the tournament, but I was limited by only having twelve fields available.” Teams traveled from Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina and across North Carolina to play over 196 games in two days.
Four Men’s divisions were played with eight C teams, sixteen D teams, sixteen E teams and seven rec. E teams. The tournament started at 9am on Saturday, March 20 and ended Sunday evening at 9:30pm. In the Men’s C Division, Team B&B/Sears/O’Neal Law Firm and Cedar Creek met in the Winner’s bracket final, with Team B&B/Sears/O’Neal Law Firm prevailing. Team East Coast Elite battled all the way from the loser’s bracket to win six games on Sunday and win the Men’s C Division. In the Men’s D division, Team Carolina Driver and Gameday Marketing battled to the winner’s bracket finals, with Team Carolina Drive winning the Men’s D bracket. In the Men’s E bracket, seventeen teams played over 100 games to have Team N&L Softball win the IF game against Team C-N-B Softball. In the Men’s Rec. E division, seven teams battled their way through the round robin and bracket play to have Team Rudino’s double dip Team Triangle Turf Management.
Tournament Director, Johnny Blizzard, stated “I am very happy with the tour¬nament filling up so quickly and every¬thing ran smoothly for the most part”. The tournament format was a round robin with three games in each pool.
Then teams were seeded into bracket play using a three game guarantee bracket. Round robin wins received two cases of Myoplex Protein Shakes, with the runners up also receiving one case of Myoplex. Bracket winners received gift certificates. In between the round robin play and the bracket play, State Director, Andy Richards, hosted a Homerun Derby. With thirty-two participants all swinging for the fences and the 2009 Worth Resmondo Titan Bat, Lee Gold from Team B&B/Sears/O’Neal Law firm came away with the title. Lee was able to hit seven home runs on ten swings. Lee stated, “It is a lot harder to hit homeruns when you have about one hundred people all watching you hit”.
North Carolina USSSA will be hosting another six game guarantee at Walnut Creek on Memorial Day in May. For more details, please visit www.northcaro linausssa.com.
About USSSA:
The United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA), headquartered in Osceola County, Florida, USSSA is the World's Largest Multi-sport Athletic Organization. Founded in 1968, USSSA has grown to over 3.7 million participants, competing in 13 nationally sanctioned sports including Baseball, Fastpitch, Slow Pitch, Karate, Basketball, Soccer and more! For more information on USSSA and to register your team visit USSSA.com. Also be sure to visit USSSAToday.com for the latest USSSA News!