USSSA ‘B’ World
September 12-14
Tournament Preview
2014 USSSA ‘B’ World Bracket Link
2014 USSSA ‘B’ World Team List Link
The 2014 USSSA ‘B’ World Tournament will be played this coming weekend in sunny Florida at the Fortune Road Softball Complex. The tournament features a couple of favored teams in Precision/Easton from Illinois who is the #6 ranked team in the nation and recently finished second at the USSSA ‘A’ Worlds. Another of the favored teams is Sonny’s from Wyoming who played ‘A’ the last couple of years but did not join the Nationwide Conference USSSA this season. Some of the other favorites are OI Livingston/Scotts Lawncare/MWA from Georgia who was runner up at the Atlanta Major, Above All Landscaping from New Jersey who recently won the 10 team Conference Qualifier, 3rd Street/Louisville Slugger from Ohio who has been solid all season, and B&B Drywall/Easton from Missouri who has surprised teams all season and was bumped to the ‘B’ division half way through the year.
As always when teams play at Fortune Road there are usually 2 to 3 teams no one expects to do well that make it to the Sunday final 4. B&B Sears was the surprise 2nd place team a year ago, Westshore Pizza and Jolt from Florida made it into the final 4 in 2012, and a non-conference 1st Step/DCS made it to the finals in 2011.
Team Breakdown
2014: 31 Teams, 27 ‘B’, 4 ‘C’
2013: 31 Teams, 25 ‘B’, 6 ‘C’
2012: 27 Teams, 24 ‘B’, 3 ‘C’
2011: 27 Teams, 24 ‘B’, 3 ‘C’
2010: 26 Teams, 22 ‘B’, 4 ‘C’
2009: 30 Teams, 21 ‘B’, 7 ‘C’, 2 ‘D’
The USSSALive.com livestream of all four fields will be here.
And finally one of the semi-finals and the winner’s bracket championship will be on ESPN3.com on Saturday night.
Lets take a look at the ‘B’ World bracket:
There are a bunch of games on Friday with 15 in games in the first round, and 5 second round games on the schedule. The games should all be hotly contested and I don’t expect many run rule games between ‘B’ teams in this tournament. Scores during the day should be low and the 6 home run limit during the day probably won’t come into play much unless the wind is blowing out.
The top quarter of the bracket is LOADED. #1 seeded Precision is the only team to get a bye from the first round, which is fine because no one wants to play them anyway. Cash House from Ohio will take on Bad Draw from North Carolina to begin the tournament at 3 PM. Both teams are first year ‘B’ after playing well in ‘C’ a year ago and the winner gets the unenviable task of playing Precision late on Friday night. Can you say “free swinging”? Pure Romance gets some horrible luck being matched up against a Sonny’s team that could easily win this tournament. Pure Romance is not playing well at the end of the season here like they did a year ago so the expectations are low but they are more than capable of knocking off both Sonnys and Precision and winning this top part of the bracket. OC Swats will also take on All American in this part of the bracket. So you have 4 of the best teams in the tournament battling it out here in the top (Precision, Sonnys, PRI, OC Swats).
In the second part of the bracket H Auto, #5 seeded 3rd Street, West Coast Newbreed, and #3 seeded TG Brand would have to be considered heavy favorites in their first round games against teams that have either struggled this season, are not in the conference, or in Nightmares case just haven’t played against top competition in a long time. This area of the bracket is wide open and most likely will come down to the H Auto vs 3rd Street winner playing TG Brand.
In the third part of the bracket #3 seeded Classic Glass is the on paper favorite but this is the part of the bracket where a team that has maybe struggled all season could break through to the final 4. B&B Drywall/Easton vs T’s 13 is an interesting first round matchup. Cooper vs P&P 333 are two teams that have struggled most of the year that get a shot at Classic Glass. Broughton has a chance to salvage a disappointing season. Its wide open to make the final 4 with Classic Glass and B&B Drywall having the easiest path of any of the top seeds in this tournament.
The bottom of the bracket has 3 teams that I think have a legitimate shot at the final 4. #2 seeded OI Livingston, last years 2nd place finisher B&B Diamond&Ice, and Above All Landscaping who just won the Conference Qualifier 2 weeks ago at these very fields. Xtreme/Miken is also in this part of the bracket but I don’t think they have the firepower to win the tournament although they could play spoiler.
Fortune Road Field Dimensions
310-325-325-325-310
– Fortune Road Softball Complex features 4 beautiful fields with 325 foot homerun fences.
– Directly down the lines the fences are 310.
– Infields are slightly small in size forcing infielders that play deep to have to contend with the lip of the grass/dirt on grounders.
– The outfields are starting to show some nasty crab grass which affects the bounce of the ball when those patches are hit.
– The Dudley Classic M ZN ball doesn’t normally carry well during the heat of the day at Fortune Road.
– The USSSA ‘B’ division plays with a 6 HR limit
Weekend Weather
Past USSSA ‘B’ World Champs
2013 USSSA ‘B’ World Tournament Champions – Chaps/BWW/Buzini from Mississippi
2012 USSSA ‘B’ World Tournament Champions – Down2EarthSports.com/SBC/Worth out of Baxley, Georgia
2011 USSSA ‘B’ World Tournament Champions – Blitz/Weller/Watanabe/MAB/Easton out of Cincinnati, Ohio
AJS/Easton/Supreme/Mike Foulks/Mojo, the 2010 ‘B’ World Champs
Northwest Combat, the 2009 ‘B’ World Champs, from Seattle, Washington
Past tournament results
2013 ‘B’ World Results
1 MS – Chaps/BWW/Buzini
2 NC – B&B Sears/BMW Insulation/Easton
3 GA – Team Adiktiv/Dynasty/D2E/LS/TYJA
4 RI – Valley Motors/Reebok/Easton/VTS
2012 ‘B’ World Results
1 GA – Down2earthsports.com/sbc/worth
2 MS – Buzinisports.com/bww/worth
3 FL – Westshore pizza/tps
4 FL – Jolt
2011 ‘B’ World Results
1 OH – Blitz/weller/watanabe/mab/easton
2 FL – 1st Step/ DCS
3 WA – Doerflinger/tsc/pro-coat/combat
4 GA – Down2earthsports.com/worth
2010 ‘B’ World Results
1 FL – AJS/easton/supreme/mike foulks/mojo
2 CA – FamousSports.com/Easton
3 UT – Desert Falls/Elite/Miken
4 MO – Hub’s Pub
2009 ‘B’ World Results
1 WA – Northwest combat / trojans
2 OH – blitz/watanabe/weller/minges/easton
3 CA – WCS / LCV berth
4 AR – Fence brokers/illustrated sportswea
2008 ‘B’ World Results
1 MI – Team Bud Light/Easton
2 MD – ANGLE INN EASTON
3 CA – WCS/LCV
4 AZ – ATS/EASTON
2007 ‘B’ World Results
1 MN – Showcase/j & h/chanticlear/combat
2 ID – C-town/americanfund./redrock/easton
3 MD – Angle Inn / Easton
4 AZ – ATS/Easton Softball
2006 ‘B’ World Results
1 MD – ABS/TEAM LTP/EASTON
2 IL – KA Softball/Worth
3 MS – SPORTS CENTER WORTH
4 MN – Tangletown/PSI/Worth
2005 ‘B’ World Results
1 FL – Kirby Investments
2 MN – Showcase/chanticlear pizza/tps
3 WA – Dobbs & fox/nw climate controls/gat
4 OH – James s. arnold/freeze concrete
2004 ‘B’ World Results
1 CA – K&C DRYWALL
2 IL – KA Softball
3 CA – BMA/all star academy/worth
4 MA – Laser Vision/Easton/3N2
2003 ‘B’ World Results
1 NV – MCA/EASTON
2 CA – JOHNNY BLAZE
3 OH – EMR/Worth Softball
4 FL – Team Synergy by Easton
2002 ‘B’ World Results
1 NV – MARNELL CORRAO / MIZUNO
2 MN – M.T. Crew/Mizuno
3 NM – Silva’s Softball / Miken
4 MI – NAIL DRIVER Softball
2001 ‘B’ World Results
1 MI – PDC Printing/Cals
2 NV – DRAI’S AFTER HOURS
3 MN – O & S CATTLE/MIZUNO
4 NV – Marnell corrao / s c / mizuno
