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2023 ‘A’ World
Viera, Florida
October 6-8
Str8play’s Carlos Abrigo hits another homer vs Seminoles.
Video and Article Links
2023 Men’s ‘A’ World Results & Bracket Link
2023 Men’s ‘A’ World Picture Album link
‘A’ World Semifinal – Str8play vs LSR condensed game link
‘A’ World Semifinal – Seminoles vs Taylormade condensed game link
‘A’ World Winner’s Final – Str8play vs Seminoles condensed game link
‘A’ World Loser’s Final – Rebel vs Seminoles condensed game link
‘A’ World Championship – Str8play vs Seminoles condensed game link
‘A’ World video highlights link
Friday Recap
Proaxion the runner up at ‘B’ World takes down #1 seed for the ‘A’ World, Primetime.
The 2023 USSSA ‘A’ Worlds began on Friday, October 6th at 9 AM in good softball weather on 4 fields, 2 in the white quad, and 2 in the red quad at Viera, Florida’s Space Coast Complex. There were 36 teams overall from 22 different states plus 1 team from Canada. 16 of the teams were ‘A’ teams and 20 of the teams were teams from the ‘B’ Worlds that stayed after the ‘B’ was done Thursday and played the ‘A’. They used the Dudley Pro-M Hardcore ball with a 12 home run limit on all turf 325 foot fences. The wind blowing in or out did affect the size of the scores.
In the 4 “play in” games all played by non-conference ‘B’ teams, Sal-8 from Virginia beat Nitro Circus from Maryland 12-11. Infinity Contractors from Oklahoma beat Old Bag from Ohio 32-19. S&S Landscaping from Connecticut beat Bennett Homes from Utah 28-17. And Proaxion the Canadian team that finished 2nd in the ‘B’ playing 8 games somehow found the energy to come from behind in the 5th and 6th innings to knock off P&P 333 from Michigan 32-24.
In the “Round of 32” played Friday afternoon Proaxion upset #1 seeded Primetime (GA-A) 34-24 on the main field White Rawlings and Infinity Contractors pulled off a 22-7 upset win over #2 seed NFM Lending (AZ-A). #3 seed LSR (IN-A) beat Sal-8, but #4 seed Bay Area Legends lost 35-34 to S&S Landscaping after Bay led by 10 runs mid game. S&S held Bay Area scoreless in the top of the 7th and tied at 34 then won on a bloop double, an intentional walk, and a walk off single. So 3 of the 4 ‘B’ teams that had to play into the “Round of 32” knocked off the top 4 seeded ‘A’ team that they played. #5 seed Epic (SC-A) won by the run rule over GWA (CO-B). #6 seed Dirty Vegas (TX-A) handled Smoke (CO-B) 20-11. #7 seed Str8Play/MyAutoJack (CA-A) beat Tranont (UT-B) 17-6. #8 TRU/Riot (VA-A), last years ‘B’ World winner, knocked off J&I (WA-B) 24-8. #9 Siteman/Pure (MO-A) beat Thin Air (CO-B) 19-18 on a walk off walk by William Dooley after a clutch 2 out game tying hit by Daniel Larson. Future 1’s a Texas ‘B’ team beat Frickers, the Ohio ‘B’ team that had just won the ‘B’ Worlds the day before, 20-19 on a walk off single by Devin Garza. Rebel (MI-A) beat a good Comatose (WI-B) team 15-12. Beloli (MA-B) beat Conference ‘A’ team Aristotle 13-7. Beechy Construction (MO-B) jumped all over EAS (CO-B) winning 27-7. In a battle of southwest teams Cheap Suits (CA-A) run ruled Classy (AZ-B) 28-12. Taylormade the ‘A’ team from Tennessee beat PF (MA-B) 28-13. And the veteran Seminoles team from Oklahoma who had a rough regular season knocked off Cornerstone (KY-B) 20-14.
The “Round of 16” played out early Friday evening. Rebel had a huge 4th inning to beat Dirty Vegas 33-28. LSR run ruled Beloli 31-11. Infinity Contractors upset Beechy 24-8 in a battle of ‘B’ teams trying to get to the “Final 8”. Str8Play crushed Future 1’s 32-5. Epic beat Cheap Suits 35-34 on a bases loaded walk off sacrifice fly by Sean Ulmer. Taylormade held off a bottom of the 7th comeback bid by S&S Landscaping to advance 30-28 with Frank Frisk leading the way 4-4 with 2 HR and 5 RBI. Seminoles scored 15 runs on just 1 home run in the 3rd inning to beat a tired Proaxion team 30-4. And TRU in the highest score of the tournament on Friday beat Siteman 46-28.
The “Round of 8” was also played late Friday evening to cap a loonngg day of good softball. In very calm wind conditions with the air cooling off, the scores went up with the really good hardcore ball. LSR out slugged Rebel 41-31 back in the Red quad. Str8play down 17-11 scored 21 runs in the bottom of the 4th to go up 32-17 and they went on to beat Infinity Contractors, the only ‘B’ team left in the winner’s bracket, 39-24. Seminoles run ruled TRU 35-14. And Taylormade scored 8 in the top of the 7th to break open a 23-23 tie with Epic and held Epic off to win 31-26. The leadoff hitter for Taylormade, Gregory, was 5-5 with 3 HR and 5 RBI in the win.
Final 4 Recap
Semifinal #1 – LSR vs Str8play was a nailbiter.
Str8play vs LSR semifinal condensed game link
Semifinal #2 – Taylormade and Seminoles
Taylormade vs Seminoles semifinal condensed game link
The semifinals didn’t begin until 6:30 PM Saturday evening so those teams had a nice half a day rest before squaring off. LSR scored 7 on 3 home runs in the bottom of the 6th to go up 26-23 on Str8play. Str8play then scored 5 in the top of the 7th to go up 28-26. In the bottom of the 7th LSR loaded the bases on two muffed grounders and a walk but could only score 1 run and Str8play came out on top 28-27. In the other semifinal Seminoles trailing Taylormade 28-17 going into the bottom of the 6th scored 20 runs on 6 home runs to take the lead 37-28 and wound up winning by that score.
Winner’s Final Recap
The winner’s bracket finals – Str8play hitting against Seminoles.
Str8play vs Seminoles winner’s bracket finals condensed game link
In the winner’s bracket finals on Saturday night it was Str8play and Seminoles both teams that won close emotional games in the semifinals. Str8play grabbed a 15-0 lead scoring 5 in the top of the 1st and 10 more in the top of the 2nd on 5 home runs. Seminoles came out flat putting up 3 straight zeros to start game and Str8play led by an amazing 32-0 score going into the bottom of the 4th having hit 11 of their 12 home runs. Seminoles did not recover like they did against Taylormade in the semifinals and Str8play won by the run rule 32-8.
Loser’s Bracket Recap
The loser’s bracket played out all day on Saturday as P&P 333 (MI-B) made an unlikely run winning 5 straight games in the top of the loser’s bracket before losing to Rebel late Saturday night to finish tied for 7th. And Rebel went on to beat Taylormade 25-24 in the night cap to advance to Sunday. In the lower half of the bracket Beloli another ‘B’ team beat Bay Area Legends by a run, Dirty Vegas by a run, and then knocked off TRU and Epic to finish tied for 5th. In the tournament Beloli beat 5 Conference ‘A’ teams. And it was LSR that stopped the Beloli run 40-29 to advance to Sunday.
Sunday Recap
LSR hits against Rebel in a shootout Sunday morning at 8 AM.
On Sunday morning at 8 am in the 4th place game it was a shootout 12-10 after 1 inning between Rebel and LSR. LSR then grabbed a 33-26 lead in the bottom of the 3rd scoring 20 runs! But Rebel answered and won the slugfest 49-38! In the loser’s final at 9:45 am Seminoles scored 12 on 2 in the bottom of the 2nd to go up 14-2 on Rebel. Seminoles actually batted around in that inning before hitting their 1st home run. Rebel answered with 5 on 1 in the top of the 3rd all with 2 outs led by Chris Stamper who hit a 3 run homer. In the bottom of the 3rd though Seminoles base hitting continued as they scored 8 on 1 to go up 22-7, the home run was a grand slam by Steve Smith, and Seminoles had the big lead with only a 4-3 lead in home runs. In the last 3 innings Seminoles could not run rule the pesky Rebel team but did end up winning 28-15 and advancing to the ‘A’ World championship game vs Str8play.
Tom Osenbach for Rebel hits against Seminoles in the loser’s final.
Oliver Odle homer’s for Seminoles in the Championship vs Str8play.
In the Championship game the “fresher” Str8play hit 3 home runs in the top of the 1st – Tavarez a 3 run shot, Cole Campbell a solo, and Carlos Abrigo a 2 run shot and they led 6-1. In the top of the 2nd the Str8play onslaught continued as they scored 10 runs on 3 homer’s with Abrigo hitting another one, this one a parking lot shot. In the top of the 3rd it was again Str8play scoring 5 runs led by Abrigo who hit yet another long home run. In the top of the 4th Str8play added 14 more on 4 HR as Jacob Almaraz hit a 3 run homer and they led Seminoles 35-7 having hit all 12 of their home runs and Seminoles had used up 5 of theirs. In the bottom of the 4th down to their last 2 outs looking to lose by the 20 run rule, Seminoles batted around the lineup scoring 11 runs to make it 35-18. In the bottom of the 5th with both teams out of home runs Seminoles added 7 more runs to pull within 12 runs 36-24. In the bottom of the 6th Seminoles went down in order 1-2-3 and in the top of the 7th Str8play went down in order 1-2-3. So in the bottom of the 7th Seminoles needed 12 on zero to tie the game and they locked in and hit 12 straight base hits to start the inning. Then down 1 with the bases loaded they hit a line drive to right field that was caught where the tying runner at 3rd came off the base and couldn’t tag up, although he may have been thrown out anyways. Then Seminoles hit two home runs for outs to end the game, and Str8play who won a couple of close and odd games during the tournament was your 2023 ‘A’ World CHAMPIONS!
MVP Josh Jones adds to the Seminoles lead in the championship game!
Long Bomber of the Week!
Carlos Abrigo is the Long Bomber of the ‘A’ World tournament based on just his sheer volume of long homer’s!
Steve Smith from Seminoles with the honorable mention (pictured below).
‘A’ World Results and Awards
‘A’ World MVP – Joshua Jones – Str8play
‘A’ World Defensive MVP – Nicholas Guillen – Str8play
‘A’ World Offensive MVP – Christopher Musick – Seminoles
Team by Team Notes
1st Place – Str8play/MyAutoJack/Franchise/Rebel
CA-A Record 6-0
Str8play sort of combined with MyAutoJack early in the season and it wasn’t completely evident what the combination would produce. Not many people were picking Str8play to win this year. But it all came together in the ‘A’ Worlds and the team won even though they made many mistakes along the way. The offense was led by Carlos Abrigo, Jeffrey Redden, Misael Tavarez, Isaiah Worlow, and Mike “Nino” Echeverria among others. Nick Guillens athletic catches in the outfield led to Defensive MVP, and pitcher Josh Jones was the MVP as he has been a difference maker on the mound for this team the past two seasons. It has been fun seeing the new talent that this sponsorship group has brought into the Conference the past couple of years and they are moving up to the ‘AA’ ranks for 2024! Congratulations to the leadership/sponsorship group – Danny Hakker/Cholo Brown.
2nd Place – Seminoles/NACSF.Inc/TPS/RS/Anarchy
OK-A Record 5-2
Seminoles nearly pulled off the comeback of the century after getting those 12 consecutive base hits to start the bottom of the 7th in the championship game down 11. But they came up a run short of tying and forcing the “if” game and are ‘A’ runner ups again. Seminoles will be back in 2024 to take another shot.
3rd Place – Rebel/Anarchy/Str8play/FrogHollow
MI-A Record 6-2
Rebel felt that if they could win the shootout with LSR Sunday morning that they could run the table and win the ‘A’. While they did beat LSR they came up short against Seminoles but had a nice 3rd place after a frustrating Conference season. Rebel will be back in 2024 to try again.
Chris Stamper doing the pitching for Rebel.
4th Place – LSR/TG/BAF/Nitro Circus
IN-A Record 4-2
LSR was most peoples pick to win and they made a nice effort with a veteran team. If they could have had one more hit vs Str8play Saturday night things may have fell their way. LSR should be a favorite again in 2024.
Veteran David Kessler with the catch.
