2019 Pure Sports Myrtle Beach tournament report

2019 Nationwide Conference USSSA

Pure Sports Battle at the Beach

Myrtle Beach, SC

May 10-12

Myrtle Beach Major Friday night sunset – Thanks for the picture!

SoftballCenter Myrtle Beach Major picture album link

2019 Myrtle Beach bracket and results link

2019 Myrtle Beach Major stats link once available

2019 Myrtle Beach archived games link

The 7 fields were all 325 all the way around and the Classic M ball was used

Winner's bracket finals Resmondo defending Greinert and SIS/Thunder

The first ever Pure Sports Myrtle Beach Major was a very interesting event.  It was played on 7 almost all turf fields with their bigger than normal 325 foot home run fences at Grand Park just a few miles from the beach and the Conference used the Dudley Classic M ball which combined with 8 to 18 mile per hour winds kept the scores very low.  There were 28 teams total and 19 of them were from the Nationwide Conference USSSA!  The action started at 5:30 PM on Friday and had perfect weather until Sunday morning.  The tournament was seeded by 2019 Conference points and 3 of the Major teams (Pure Sports, Resmondo, Dan Smith) plus Nightmare drew a bye from the 1st round.  In that 1st round Headlines/Titans (OH-A) beat Tru/Selling Virginia (VA-B) 16-12, Non Conference 'B' team CCP/Terry's/Cookies from North Carolina upset Primetime (GA-A) 18-11, MPT Rentals (NJ-A) knocked off New Jersey rival Above All/B.O.T./TNT 8-4, Dan Smith (CA-Major) beat Lewis Lawn Services (SC-B) just 20-15 after trailing 12-9 at one point, B&B/Demarini just got past 'A' rival SNI 23-20, and Sports Reach (KY-A) used a Jacob Clifton walk off hit to beat T&W/BCG/Cornerstone (OH-A) 23-22.  Meanwhile Baugh Ford (GA-A), Beckham Brothers (SC-A), Bay Area Legends (CA-AA), SIS/Thunder (NY-AA), and Newbreed (WA-AA) were all Conference teams that run ruled non-conference teams in the 1st round.

In the "round of 16" which was also played on Friday night, it became clear that games on the big fields with the wind blowing in or across the diamond were going to be low scoring.  Very few teams were using or even coming close to their home run limits.  Nightmare and Xtreme advanced past Headlines and CCP, Xtreme getting 3 HR and a 5-7 performance out of lead off man Matt Schrage.  Dan Smith out homered Newbreed 9-3 as Andrew Collins went 5-5 with 3 HR and 8 RBI.  Resmondo made short work of B&B 28-5, SIS/Thunder pulled off a nice win over Bay Area 15-9, Beckham Brothers came from behind to beat Baugh Ford 21-13, and Pure Sports run ruled Sports Reach 34-17.  In the big Friday upset of the tournament MPT Rentals got a 3 run homer from Mike Mallory in the top of the 7th to go up on Major team TDB/Racks 27-22.  In the bottom of the 7th TDB closed to within 2 runs on an Everett Williams 3 run homer but could get no closer and lost 27-25!

On Saturday in the "round of 8" it was all Conference teams remaining and all of the semifinal games were played at 12:30 PM in beautiful 79 degree weather.  Resmondo jumped on Dan Smith scoring 11 runs on 8 homer's – hitting 4 solo's in a row at one point.  So Resmondo was off to an 11-3 lead and would score 5 more in the 4th, 8 in the 5th, and 12 in the 6th to finish off Dan Smith 36-17.  Jeremy Yates was 6-6 with 3 HR and 7 RBI and a grand slam, and Brian Wegman was 5-5 with 2 HR, 8 RBI and a grand slam in the win.  Meanwhile Pure Sports run ruled fellow Pure team Beckham Brothers 23-8, SIS/Thunder won a pillow fight over on field #5 6-3 over MPT Rentals, and Xtreme used a clutch homer by newly aquired Seth Brown and another key extra base hit by Brown to take a 1 run lead into the bottom of the 7th against Nightmare.  Nightmare got a couple of runners on but was unable to score and lost 19-18.

The "Final 4" of the winner's bracket and winner's final played out at 5 PM and 6:30 PM Saturday evening.  Resmondo beat Xtreme 27-18 in a game where Xtreme just never gave up eventhough Resmondo out homered them 12-5.  And SIS/Thunder kept up a relentless offensive attack against Pure Sports and held on to win 25-22 over Major team Pure Sports when Filip Washington in center field robbed a home run to end the game!  In the winner's bracket finals Resmondo continued to show superior offense to that of any other team in the tournament, outscoring SIS/Thunder 13-9 early on and 27-14 mid game and winning 36-21.  Because of the rain on Sunday that ended up being the championship game.

In the loser's bracket Bay Area Legends won 3 straight including a nice upset win over TDB/Racks when Jeff Renno hit a walk off grand slam with the score tied at 18.  The ball actually hit the top of the fence and bounced over.  And Baugh Ford won 2 straight before Dan Smith dropped down and beat Baugh 25-14 and then Bay Area 28-27 on a walk off by Steven Lloyd.  Then Dan Smith beat Pure Sports scoring 10 runs on a home run barrage in the top of the 7th to win 35-31 and then late Saturday beat Xtreme 29-13 when Argen Dodds went 5-5 with 4 homers and had 10 RBI.  In the lower part of the loser's bracket Briggs won 5 in a row including upsets of Newbreed and Beckham Brothers to finish tied for 5th.

Sunday's 8 AM game started between SIS/Thunder and Dan Smith to see who would go to the championship against Resmondo and Thunder grabbed a 10-0 lead and was leading 14-11 when the rain came and washed out the rest of the event which probably could have been completed except for players having to leave for early flights home.

The tournament was well played.  It was definitely much harder to hit home runs on the big fields.  There was a big crew of Conference umpires that came in for the event.

The best plays I was witness too was a diver by Steve ? from T&W vs CCP in the 10-6 hole.  Bazats diver vs Dan Smith, and Tommy Meltons diver in the 5-6 hole vs Dan Smith.  Some great plays!   

Wind was blowing out on F7, across on F6 and F4, and in on F5 most of the time

Team Breakdown:
 28 Teams Overall
19 Nationwide Conference USSSA Teams
4 Major Teams
5 'AA' Teams
10 'A' Teams
5 'B' Teams
4 'C' Teams


Key Winner's Bracket Games

SIS/Thunder middle man Brian McBryde turns two

Semifinal between SIS/Thunder and Pure Sports was won by SIS/Thunder 25-22

Matt McGowan hits against Resmondo in a semifinal won by Resmondo 27-18.

Xtreme was the only team to take Resmondo 7 innings

SIS/Thunder won their quarterfinal game over MPT Rentals 6-3 with the wind gusting straight in on Field #5

Xtreme has had Nightmares number this year beating them twice at the Cajun and now pulling one out 19-18 in Myrtle Beach

The Dan Smith shade tent blew over the fence and onto the field

A view from center fields Sports Reach vs B&B.  That box over the umpires head is the livestream camera.

 

The battle of New Jersey teams MPT and Above All was won by MPT 8-4 (wind gusting in Friday)

The battle of Georgia was won by Baugh Ford over Primetime 10-7


TDB/Racks pset!

 

MPT finishes their upset win Friday night over TDB/Racks 27-25!

 

Bay Area's Chad Mullins and Tyler Marshburn set the table against TDB/Racks in the bottom of the 7th.  Then after an intentional walk, Jeff Renno hit a walk off grand slam with two outs to win the game! 

Renno homer and celebration

 

The game winning homer actually hit the top of the fence and went over!


  

The Pure Sports Major team beat fellow Pure team Beckham Brothers 23-8

New Breeds Lee Payne uses all of his 6'5 frame to make a great catch


 Myrtle Beach Major Final Standings and Awards

MVP was Resmondo pitcher Travis Clark

SS Cory Briggs was Defensive MVP for Resmondo

 

3B John Williams from SIS/Thunder and 2B Steven Lloyd from Dan Smith were co-Offensive MVP's

THE USSSA MOBILE APP

  • USSSA on the App Store
  • USSSA on the Play Store
  • Explore upcoming & past events
  • Get updated schedules, scores & standings
  • Book and manage your event lodging
  • Stay informed with important event updates
  • Find your fit with custom event apparel
  • Easily view & navigate to event venues