2018 Hoosier Classic Major tournament report!

2018 Nationwide Conference USSSA

Hoosier Classic

Columbus, Indiana

May 12-13

Precision's tournament co-MVP Dan Bean blasts a homer against Resmondo in the championship game!

2018 Hoosier Classic bracket and results link

2018 Hoosier Classic player stats link

Racks Astros John Nelson hits against Dan Bean and Precision in the winners semifinals

The Hoosier Classic Major began at 8 AM at Columbus, Indiana's Lincoln Park and the main quad of 300-foot fields. It was a beautiful weekend for softball as temperatures only reached the mid 80's with partly cloudy skies. 17 teams took to the fields with 10 of them from the Nationwide Conference USSSA and the heavy favorite was Resmondo/RDD/H.Auto/All-In/Easton a Major team that had only lost one conference game all season and had won all 3 tournaments they played in (Las Vegas, and the Hall of Fame Classic Duals). The upsets started early in the round of 16 as T&W/Miken a 'B' team from Cincinnati, Ohio crushed Conference team La Famiglia/Easton (PA-B) 29-4 on field #3. And Floors Unlimited (IN-B) at 9:30 AM smoked Conference team Stars/VSP/Miken/Thunder (CO-A) 40-18. These two non-conference teams were representative of the tough group of B and C teams from Indiana and Ohio that filled out this tournament. In the rest of the round of 16 it was all Conference teams advancing as Precision/3rd Street/Bull Dawg (IL-AA) run ruled fellow HDLNS team Headlines Sportswear/CSB 39-22, TG Brand (MI-A) beat Titans/Truckin/CashHouse ATM (OH-B) 34-21, Pauer Sports/JBL/Tailgaters/B&E (OH-A) jumped out to a 45-15 lead on Rebel Sports/Dirty Sports/Miken and won 45-26, Racks/Worth Astros/Klutch/Troupe (IN-AA) 20-run ruled Westpoint Softball (IN-C) 32-12, and Resmondo 20-run ruled Bertie's/Slayer/DDGrocery/Miken/Worth (IN-B) 32-12. And in the final game of the round of 16, Sports Reach (KY-B) used a walk off homer to beat Premier/Easton/HDLNS (OH-A) 28-27!

In the round of 8 in the winner's bracket, Precision silenced the red-hot TG Brand team who had finished 2nd last weekend in Chattanooga 36-21. Rack's Astros completely shut down Pauer Sports 25-12 after Pauer had just scored 45 in their first game. Pauer scoring the 12 while using 6 solo homers? Resmondo crushed Sports Reach 39-12 as Bubba Mack and Neil Haglund launched some of the longest home runs of the tournament. And in the battle of the non-conference teams T&W/Miken led by veteran pitcher Bobby Noeth knocked off Floors Unlimited 35-20.

In the semifinals Resmondo 20-run ruled T&W/Miken 34-14. And in the heavyweight battle between top 'AA' teams Racks Astros and Precision, it was Racks who finally pulled away and won 36-25 after a few innings where the team that was batting would take the lead.

The winner's bracket finals were moved up to 6 PM instead of its scheduled time of 8 PM because of an incoming weather system which never materialized. And in that game, it was all Resmondo led by eventual offensive MVP Brian Wegman as they made quick work of Racks Astros 34-3.

The loser's bracket then played out on Saturday evening as Titans ran through 3 non-conference teams including a walk off home run by pitcher Sport Williams to beat Floors Unlimited 27-26. Then Rebel Sports who had just won two in a row in the loser's bracket beat them 30-29 as they came from a 19-run deficit to win on a walk off infield hit to end the game. In the lower part of the loser's bracket La Famiglia sent home Stars who was "two and q" before losing to TG Brand 16-12. And Pauer Sports knocked off Premier 36-20 before losing to TG Brand 15-14 on a bases loaded bad hop grounder with 2 outs. In the loser's quarterfinals Precision dropped down to hammer Rebel Sports 35-7 in a quick game, and T&W Miken dropped down to shock TG Brand 34-19 after scoring 13 runs on 1 homer to come back from a 17-run deficit in the 4th and then they run ruled TG Brand the next inning! In the last game of the night which may have been the best game of the tournament, the hot hitting Precision team took on T&W who matched them hit for hit. The game lasted almost 2 hours and both teams were hitting line to line and gap to gap. T&W scored 11 runs on 3 HR in the top of the 1st inning and led 22-13 after 3 innings after a great play by Precision shortstop Kyle Kannenberg ended the T&W rally. Precision methodically climbed back into the game though and with 1 out in the bottom of the 7th and the bases loaded and no homer's left, Dave Kessler punched a base hit over shortstop to win the game 40-39 to advance to Sunday.

On Sunday in perfect softball weather Precision came out at 8 AM and avenged an earlier loss to Racks Astros by sending them home 45-12 as they scored 17 runs in the first inning and an incredible 27 runs in the 2nd! This win put them in the championship against undefeated Resmondo who was 4-0 with 4 run rule wins. Precision grabbed an early 17-7 lead on Resmondo and leading 17-12 in the bottom of the 5th were able to get the 10 runs they needed to win by the mercy rule and force an "if" game 27-12. In the "if" game it was 17-15 Resmondo after 3 complete innings. In the top of the 4th Resmondo threw out a Precision runner at the plate to end the inning but Precision was up 19-17. In the bottom of the 5th Resmondo got a 2 out grand slam from Bubba Mack to grab a 24-21 lead. In the top of the 6th Precision grabbed the lead back on two run homers from Jeff Flood, Jason Hoynowski, and Dan Bean. With the lead seesawing back and forth Resmondo used homers from Brian Wegman and Jeremy Yates to get their last lead 29-28. With 2 HR left to hit Chad Durick hit a solo to tie the game for Precision, Flood singled to right with 1 out, and Kessler hit a 2-run homer to give them the lead 31-29 but they were unable to score anymore. In the bottom of the 7th for Resmondo with 1 homer left – Steele Lewis mashed the first pitch for a single to left, Bubba Mack singled to right on the first pitch, and after a Todd Ankney managerial delay Buddy Wolf walked. So Resmondo was down 2 with the bases loaded, no outs, and one homer to hit! It was not meant to be though as Precision changed pitchers to ice the batter and got a ground ball to 1st base where Brett McCollum tagged the runner for out #1, stepped on first base for out #2, and threw home and nearly got the runner scoring. Then they walked Rettenmeier and got a fly out to end the game! Precision had done the unthinkable, they had double dipped a Resmondo team who had only lost one conference game all year!