2018 Nationwide Conference USSSA
19th Annual Cincinnati Major
Cincinnati, Ohio
July 20-22
TG Brand hitting against Racks/Astros in the quarterfinals as the rain starts again
2018 Cincinnati Major bracket and results link
2018 Cincinnati Major stats link
2018 Cincinnati archived livestream link
Smash It Sports pitches to Dan Smith as the semifinals started but was postponed and then cancelled.
Rain eventually won out in Cincinnati but not before 40 of the 54 scheduled games were played. The tournament was played at Mid America Ballyard in Cincinnati, Ohio on the 4 – 300ish foot fields using the Dudley Classic M ZN ball. The tournament began at 5 PM Friday after storms muddied the fields. 22 of the 28 teams were from the Nationwide Conference USSSA and for the most part they dominated the tournament. In the first round Rebel Sports upset Pauer Sports 26-10. Rapid Fire continued their hot hitting beating Insane Sports 31-14. Riot Sports beat non Conference 'A' team Fish Head 29-19. And La Famiglia outslugged Sports Reach 40-35. The rest of the games were rained out and moved to Saturday morning starting at 8 AM.
Saturday for the most part was played in fairly good field conditions until about 8:30 PM when the semifinals of the winner's bracket was starting and a downpour never let up and cancelled the last 14 games of the tournament.
On Saturday in the first round there were no other real upsets as the rest of the higher ranked teams advanced. In the round of 16 though Dan Smith barely got past Rebel Sports 36-27. Rapid Fire upset Precision 27-26. Nightmare got past fellow 'AA' team Riot Sports 32-29 for one of their bigger wins of the season. Smash It Sports Major team survived a real scare but won 14-13 over LaFamiglia who left 5 home runs on the table. That was probably the best game of the day if you want to check it out on the archives. In the lower half of the bracket in the 2nd round, Pure Sports run ruled Wileys, Bay Area Legends upset TDB 23-22, Racks run ruled fellow 'AA' team Xtreme, and TG Brand pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament with a 34-32 win over #1 Resmondo! At the end of the game Resmondo was down 4 and the game ended with a base runner that slipped rounding third in the mud and was tagged out.
In the "round of 8" the two remaining Major teams were both at the top of the bracket and both Dan Smith and Smash It Sports won by the run rule. In the lower half of the bracket Pure Sports put it on Bay Area Legends 47-22 and Racks' outlasted TG Brand in the rain 29-18. This left arguably the 4 best "300 foot" field teams to battle it out in the final 4. But it wasn't meant to be as rains washed out the Pure Sports vs Racks game before it started and Dan Smith was leading Smash It Sports by the run rule midway through their game but the rain got harder and the games were called.
A real thank you goes to the field crew led by Dave Maury who tirelessly prepared the fields after every rain storm and a lot of games were played. There were two infielders injured by slips or bad bounces – TG Brand 3rd basemen John Franklin and Rebel 3rd baseman Matt Michaels. Ironically they were injured within about a 2 minute period on two different fields late in the day. Hopefully both will recover and their faces are no worse for the wear. 🙂 I now Michaels had 16 stitches.
Nationwide Conference USSSA points will be divided up appropriately based on where each team finished in the bracket. (Website is currently down)
Fields on Sunday morning were unplayable
This is the way the radar seemed to look most of the weekend
Team Breakdown:
28 Teams Overall
22 Nationwide Conference USSSA Teams
3 Major Teams
7 'AA' Teams
11 'A' Teams
7 'B' Teams
Bay Area Legends takes on Pure Sports in the quarterfinals
We did get some sunshine Saturday. Mid America Ballyard is one of the best places to watch a Major tournament.
Remember the GSL 'A' Worlds will be at Mid America August 18-19. Enter your team now!
Smash It Sports nearly got upended by LaFamiglia in the 2nd round. LaFamiglia lost 14-13 but left 5 HR on the table
Briggs upended at 2nd base
LaFamiglia pitcher Bouch hit but stays with it for the out
La Famiglia's John Robinson hits a 7th inning homer
Tropics hit a walk off homer to beat Smash It Sports 'A' team on field #4
Brian Wegman of Resmondo batting in his own park
Lots of failed bats at testing
Mike Williams of Bay Area Legends singles against Smash It 'A' team. They had a new hom run fence on fields #3 and #4. It made #3 a lot bigger for sure.
Video Highlites:
Cincinnati Major Final Standings and Awards
Awards still need to be divied up and the teams will have to send them in.
