2016 Nationwide Conference USSSA
Miken/Worth "Circle City" Classic
Indianapolis, IN
April 23-24
Resmondos Andrew Collins hitting against Justin Mucciarelli in the Championship game!
2016 Indy Major picture album link
Link to the Indy Major tournament information
The "Circle City" Classic which was originally scheduled for the end of June had to be rescheduled for the week after the Hall of Fame Classic in April due to a lack of field availability. This change forced a number of teams to drop out of the event but one team Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth actually added the tournament after they missed the Hall of Fame dual tournament the previous weekend because of the untimely passing of longtime manager Frank Webb. Resmondo was in Indianapolis for one reason and one reason only, to win and grab the 192 Nationwide Conference USSSA points they desperately need to climb the points ladder and get a better seed for the remainder of the year.
The tournament began at 9 AM Saturday morning with 18 teams including 9 teams from the Conference and had perfect but cool weather the entire weekend. #6 seeded Resmondo had their hands full early on with Premier/Easton/Silvertowne/Headlines a 'B' team out of Ohio but as would be the case in most of Resmondos games they would grab a lead mid game and then hold down their opponents late and they ended up run ruling Premier 32-12. TG Brand a new 'B' Conference team out of Michigan playing in their first event of the season knocked off rival 'B' team Columbus Pipe 33-20. In a bit of a first round grudge match between two of the lower Conference teams STL/Mizuno/Sportsmanshop and SOL Softball/Castle Sports, STL used a 14 run second inning to pull out a 23-22 victory. Local Indiana team Street Kids/MSC started off with a big win over Conference 'B' team Rebel Sports/HangRite/Miken 35-31 in a game where Street Kids scored 23 runs in the top of the 4th after opening the inning with a double play! And Precision, TG/Red's, Slayer, and ASP/Venom were all Conference teams that won their first game by the mercy rule.
In the round of 8 in the winner's bracket Resmondo got off to another slow start against Conference 'A' team Slayer who was playing in their home state. Resmondo in the bottom of the 4th however got grand slams from Andrew Collins and Bubba Mack to take a 22-12 lead and won 33-14. Precision (AA) Walked through TG Brand 34-3 in a very short contest. TG/Red's Astros (AA) likewise cruised through STL/Mizuno 37-7 in a game that was over before it started it seemed. And Street Kids handled ASP/Venom 29-20.
In the final 4 of the winner's bracket Resmondo soundly defeated Precision 33-14 after another slow start to make the finals and TG/Red's Astros knocked off home state rival Street Kids 37-22. In the winner's bracket finals on Saturday at 7:30 PM TG/Red's Astros jumped out to leads of 5-0 after one inning and 15-0 after an inning and a half. But Resmondo caught fire as the night cooled off temperature wise and scored 23 runs in the bottom of the second inning and although TG/Red's never gave up, they couldn't keep up with Resmondo who went on to win 49-35 in the highest scoring game of the tournament.
The loser's bracket pretty much played out for the most part with the higher classified teams winning except for an early exit by Slayer who was beaten by Rebel Sports 36-34 and TG Brand who was beaten by SOL Softball 37-26. Premier after getting that bad draw vs Resmondo in the first round got to play most of the rest of the day as they knocked off Westpoint, Honey Badgers, ASP/Venom, and STL/Mizuno to finish 5th. SOL had high scoring wins over South Side, TG Brand, and Rebel to tie for 5th. And Street Kids knocked off SOL Softball 33-17 then watched Precision take batting practice on them for a 48-24 late Saturday loss to finish an impressive 4th.
On Sunday morning at 9 AM in the loser's bracket finals TG/Red's Astros and Precision who had met in the finals of this tournament the past two years had a fun hard hitting game. Reds jumped out to an 11-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Precision came back in the 3rd and 4th innings to take a nice 26-18 lead and grabbed the momentum. In the top of the 6th Red's used homers by Steve Edwards, Travis Dale, and Jon Jamison to tie the game at 26-26. In the bottom of the 6th Precision got a solo homer from Seth Burgmeier, and hits from Keske, Gallmeier, Llanas, and Porter, and a big 3 run homer from Brett McCollum to take a 33-26 lead. In the top of the 7th Precision middle infielder Jeff Keske made a great ranging play towards second on a grounder for the first out and shortstop Brett McCollum fielded a hot shot and they shut Reds out in the 7th for the win 33-26.
In the first game of the championship Precision turned two impressive double plays in the first two innings to hold down Resmondo. The first was a backhand by third baseman Matt Rear and throw to middle man Keske who turned and threw it to Llanas at first just in time. Precision added homers by McCollum and Holstein to make it 5-5 after two complete innings. But Resmondo wasn't afraid to use solo homers to gain a lead and got line drive homers out of Andy Purcell and Bubba Mack as well as an rbi triple out of Lee Payne to grab a 12-8 lead and used 3 more solos to gain an 18-10 lead after 4 innings when they shutout Precision in the bottom of the 4th. Fans could here BJ Fulk from the Resmondo dugout joking on Lee Paynes triple that little Luis Reyna scoring from first must have taken 45 more steps than the long legged Lee Payne to go the same distance. 🙂 Resmondos defense and persistent offense though was too much for Precision who never gave up. Purcell stretched a single into a sliding double and Nic Santana hit a big 3 run homer to push the run rule in the 5th inning 25-10. But Precision forced it the full 7 innings in a 36-24 loss.
Resmondo won the tournament, their first of the year and gained the 192 points they were after. They will be the #18 seed for the Columbus Major which should put them in the same "quad" as Smash It Sports so expect some early fireworks at that tournament in two weeks. The tournament featured 4 conference umpires and used the Classic M ball which was a little too hard for the cool conditions. Fences were 300 feet and there was full bat bucket bat testing and all 8 conference team bats that failed were cut open including a couple of Resmondos and all of the top three teams.
Championship Sunday
The winner got this customized Championship plaque.
Team Breakdown:
18 Teams Overall
9 Conference USSSA Teams
1 'M' Team
2 'AA' Teams
1 'A' Teams
6 'B' Teams
5 'C' Teams
3 'D' Teams
Precisions Jeff Keske hits against TG/Red's Astros pitcher Brandon Jonas in the loser's final Sunday morning.
TG/Red's Astros left fielder Steve Edwards learned there is no warning track on Indy Sports Park fields.
TG/Red's Brandon Bellamy hits against Resmondo co-MVP Andy Purcell in a very high scoring winner's final.
The show field F3 had a nice observation deck.
Resmondo came back from early deficits in most all of their games
Indy Sports Park was pretty nice. 300 foot fields and the infields were pretty soft.
Weather was perfect and maybe the only negative was the infields were cut pretty short.
But there were not many bad hops, the outfield was plush, but no warning tracks?
8 Conference bats failed and 2 non-conference bats failed compression out of 18 teams.
8 bats were cut open including Resmondo bats.
Indy Major Awards and Final Standings
Note: Not all awards have been turned in yet
| Player Tournament Awards | Players Name | Plays For |
| Tournament CO-MVP | Andy Purcell | Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth |
| Tournament CO-MVP | Lee Payne | Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth |
| Defensive Tournament MVP | Don DeDonatis III | Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth |
| All Tournament Team | Daniel Sanchez | Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth |
| All Tournament Team | Greg Connell | Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth |
| All Tournament Team | Steve Edwards | TG/Red's Astros/Headlines/K&G/Worth |
| All Tournament Team | Cory Boothe | TG/Red's Astros/Headlines/K&G/Worth |
| All Tournament Team | Andrew Collins | Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth |
| All Tournament Team | Rocky Staton | TG/Red's Astros/Headlines/K&G/Worth |
| All Tournament Team | Luis Reyna | Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth |
| All Tournament Team | Billy Fulk | Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth |
| All Tournament Team | Ronald Mack III | Resmondo Specialty Tank Worth |
| Place | State | Team | Team Class |
Wins | Losses | Ties | Runs Scored |
Runs Allow |
Avg Runs |
Avg Allow |
Avg Diff |
Max Runs |
USSSA Points |
| 1 | FLS – Winter Haven | resmondo specialty tank worth | USSSA-SPMensMajor | 5 | 0 | 0 | 199 | 113 | 39.8 | 22.6 | 17.2 | 49 | 300 |
| 2 | IL – Chicago | Precision | USSSA-Mens-AA | 5 | 2 | 0 | 231 | 170 | 33 | 24.2 | 8.71 | 48 | 225 |
| 3 | OH – Cincinnati OH & /Indianapolis IN | tg/red's astros/headlines/k&g/worth | USSSA-Mens-AA | 3 | 2 | 0 | 162 | 118 | 32.4 | 23.6 | 8.8 | 37 | 200 |
| 4 | IN – South Bend | Streetkids/MSC | USSSA-Mens-C | 3 | 2 | 0 | 143 | 153 | 28.6 | 30.6 | -2 | 35 | 175 |
| 5 | OH – Cincinnati | premier/easton/silvertowne/hdlns | USSSA-Mens-B | 4 | 2 | 0 | 158 | 158 | 26.3 | 26.3 | 0 | 36 | 180 |
| 5 | MO – Saint Peters | SOL Softball/CastleSports | USSSA-Mens-C | 3 | 2 | 0 | 142 | 137 | 28.4 | 27.4 | 1 | 37 | 255 |
| 7 | MI – Dearborn | rebel sports/ hang rite / miken | USSSA-Mens-B | 2 | 2 | 0 | 124 | 130 | 31 | 32.5 | -1.5 | 36 | 230 |
| 7 | IN – Indianapolis | STL/Mizuno/Sportsmanshop | USSSA-Mens-B | 2 | 2 | 0 | 92 | 119 | 23 | 29.7 | -6.7 | 34 | 230 |
| 9 | IN – Fort Wayne | seamless/ poormans/ veterans | USSSA-Mens-C | 2 | 2 | 0 | 93 | 82 | 23.2 | 20.5 | 2.75 | 29 | 110 |
| 9 | MI – Flint | TG Brand | USSSA-Mens-B | 1 | 2 | 0 | 62 | 91 | 20.6 | 30.3 | -9.6 | 33 | 210 |
| 9 | IN – Depauw | Slayer | USSSA-Mens-A | 1 | 2 | 0 | 84 | 91 | 28 | 30.3 | -2.3 | 34 | 110 |
| 9 | WI – Janesville | ASP/Venom | USSSA-Mens-B | 1 | 2 | 0 | 71 | 67 | 23.6 | 22.3 | 1.33 | 31 | 210 |
| 13 | IN – Columbus | raisor sharp/ burts pest control | USSSA-Mens-D | 1 | 2 | 0 | 49 | 75 | 16.3 | 25 | -8.6 | 25 | 70 |
| 13 | IN – Indianapolis | SOUTHSIDE | USSSA-Mens-D | 1 | 2 | 0 | 59 | 70 | 19.6 | 23.3 | -3.6 | 29 | 70 |
| 13 | MI – Portage | honey badgers/advanced auto and tru | USSSA-Mens-C | 0 | 2 | 0 | 26 | 43 | 13 | 21.5 | -8.5 | 20 | 70 |
| 13 | OH – Columbus | columbus pipe/cotner/mts nutrition | USSSA-Mens-B | 0 | 2 | 0 | 35 | 53 | 17.5 | 26.5 | -9 | 20 | 95 |
| 17 | IN – Indianapolis | line drive/riot2k/yats/worth | USSSA-Mens-C | 0 | 2 | 0 | 34 | 56 | 17 | 28 | -11 | 24 | 40 |
| 17 | IN – Indianapolis | Westpoint Softball | USSSA-Mens-D | 0 | 2 | 0 | 27 | 65 | 13.5 | 32.5 | -19 | 14 | 40 |
Resmondo pitcher Andy Purcell and left fielder Lee Payne were co-MVP's
