2023 Jim Beam Classic tournament report!

2023 Jim Beam Classic

Cookeville, TN

May 26-28

Championship – Resmondo pitching to MPT Rentals

Jim Beam Hot Links (More Videos to come)

2023 Jim Beam Bracket Link

2023 Picture Album Link (adding action photos daily)

Competitive Edge vs Monsta condensed game link

Roofx vs Dirty Vegas condensed game link

MPT vs Sports Reach condensed game link

2023 Jim Beam Stats link (Updating throughout the week)

2023 Jim Beam archived games link

Jim Beam Teams

Friday Night Recap

The City of Cookeville worked hard on the fields.

The Jim Beam Classic was supposed to be played in Hendersonville, Tennessee but a last minute booking problem sent the Conference teams to Cookeville about an hour and 20 minutes away. The men’s tournament had 31 teams (29 Conference) and all of the Major teams and 9 AA teams in attendance. The show field was the Tennessee Tech college baseball field with 330-360-405-365-329 dimensions and they used the Dudley Stadium ZN on those fields. The rest of the men’s games and all of the loser’s bracket was played at the Cane Creek Complex a few miles away where they had 4 – 300 foot fields and used the Dudley Pro-M ball. The tournament began on Friday night at 4 PM central time on all 5 fields. In the stadium Friday TRU/Riot/Timeless (MD-A) jumped out to a 7-0 lead on Westpoint Softball (IN-AA) in the 1st inning when they started the game with 3 walks and a grand slam by Ty Cobb! TRU went on to win 21-11 as Christian Glisson the EH and Greg Walters each went 4-4 in the win. That earned them a 7 PM “Round of 16” game with #1 seed Resmondo/SIS/All American/Menosse (FL-Major). In that game Resmondo scored 21 in the bottom of the 2nd and won in 3 innings leaving TRU on the field 35-5 by the 30 run mercy rule. Resmondo hit 13 HR as Kyle Pearson, Travis Clark, Kyle Overstreet, Cory Briggs, and Kevin Bazat were all on base 4-4. LSR/TG/BAF/Nitro Circus (IN-TBD) run ruled Cheap Suits (CA-A) 27-12. #2 seed MPT Rentals/Juno Athletics (NJ-Major) run ruled non-conference ‘B’ team MTS/Pure/Bill Mace Homes 25-4 in 4 innings as Joe Bennett and Chris Anninos went 4-4. Then MPT jumped out to a 10-0 lead on LSR and rolled to a 5 inning 34-16 run rule victory to advance to Saturday’s “Final 8”. MPT 1st baseman Donnie Walsh was 4-4 with 2 HR, 2 doubles, and 7 RBI in the win. That was it for the Stadium on Friday. The rest of the games were at the 300 foot quad at Canes Creek Park where it got a little chilly as the night went on and the ball was flying as each of the teams tried to win 2 games to get to the Saturday “Stadium” Final 8! JBL/D1/Tailgaters (OH-AA) jumped out to a 24-1 lead on Beechy Construction (MO-B) after 2 innings. But the feisty Beechy hung tough scoring 10 in the bottom of the 3rd and 12 in the bottom of the 5th to close the lead to 32-23 but would end up losing to JBL 41-32. Ryan Roppel the JBL 3rd baseman was 6-6 in the win without hitting a homer and Orlando Olivera was 5-6 with 4 HR and 9 RBI. S&E (NC-AA) jumped out to a 10-4 lead on Taylormade/MidState (TN-TBD) after both teams failed to score in the 1st inning. But Taylormade led 27-20 after 5 innings. S&E out scored Taylormade 8-2 down the stretch though and won 28-26 when Taylormade scored just 1 run in the bottom of the 7th with the hammer and no homer’s left. Jordan Robinson led the way for S&E 4-5 with 3 HR and 7 RBI. S&E then joined Resmondo and MPT in the “Final 8” when they scored 3 in the top of the 7th to take a 37-34 lead on JBL in a battle of “AA” teams and JBL with 3 home runs left only scored 1 run and S&E advanced 37-35. S&E 3rd baseman Matt Mosel and 1st baseman Hunter Oliver were each on base 6-7 as the two teams combined for 80 hits, 24 HR, and 72 runs! In the 3rd “quad” part of the bracket Competitive Edge/Suncoast/FBI/Olmito (FL-Major) 20 run ruled Vivid/Killbombers (TX-B) 39-19 in 4 innings scoring 18 runs in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Lead off hitter Mitch Lendenski, Kyle Pearson, and Taylor Cobb were each 5-5. Rebel/Anarchy/Str8play (MI-A) upset Chick-fil-a/Slugger/BAF/ShoreIrrigation (VA-AA) 39-37 when Chick-fil-a, out of home runs, failed to score in the bottom of the 7th. Rebel shortstop Joey Simmons was 5-5 with 2 HR and 8 RBI in the win. And then Competitive Edge punched their ticket to the Saturday “Final 8” by scoring 26 in the top of the 4th and 11 in the top of the 5th to come from a 25-11 deficit to run rule Rebel. Ryan Honeycutt, Bubba Mack, and Brandon Streets (off of IR) all were on base 6-6 and Joe Boland had 4 HR and 11 RBI. In the 4th quad Aristotle (AR-A) upset Classic Glass (CA-AA) 31-28. I don’t have any details as neither team used the BallClubz app. 🙁 Monsta/Sonnys (NC-Major) made quick work of PF (MA-B) 32-11 scoring 21 runs in the bottom of the 4th to leave PF on the field 32-11. Jason Matusik, Steven Lloyd, Kendall Welborn, and new pitcher Greg Hardy were all 4-4. And then Monsta advanced to the “Final 8” beating Aristotle 29-9 in 4 innings as Steele Lewis and Jason Matusik each went 4-4. In the 5th quad Epic/Haymack/Killmans (SC-TBD) shut down Siteman/Pure (MO-A) late after both teams put up a bunch of runs early on and Epic won 31-23. Frank Fisk was 4-5 with 3 HR and 7 RBI. And Roofx/Revolution (IN-AA) run ruled Cornerstone/Rebel (KY-B) 28-12 in 5 innings as they out homered Cornerstone 12-3. Terry Lambright, Jon Troyer, Mike Jacobson, Faron Fry, and Marcus Miller were all on base 4-4. Then Roofx advanced to the “Final 8” 40-29 over Epic when they trailed 26-9 in the bottom of the 4th and had a 20 run inning to take the lead. Then Mooch stabbed a liner up the middle and Roofx turned a nice double play to hold Epic down! Brandon Yoder was 6-6 on base in the win and batted for the cycle as both teams hit all 14 HR. In the 6th quad Dirty Vegas/Steel/Envy (TX-TBD) beat Primetime 32-11 scoring 14 in the bottom of the 3rd and winning by the run rule in the 4th. Almost the entire Dirty Vegas starting team reached base safely 4 of 4 or 4 of 5 times. Nitro Circus (MD-AA) rolled over non-conference ‘B’ team Legacy Sports 44-14. And then Dirty Vegas won in a marathon game over Nitro Circus 46-39 scoring at least 5 runs in every inning and they didn’t even have to bat in the bottom of the 7th to advance to the “Final 8”. Lead off hitter Mario Moralez and Jordan Harrison were each on base 7-7 and Harrison had 3 HR and 12 RBI in the win. In the 7th “quad” in the winner’s bracket Smash It/Bay Area (CA-AA) struggled past Van Wert Frickers (OH-B) 41-32 as Josh Cardwell went 7-7 and Brady Bate had 8 RBI. Sports Reach/Demarini (KY-AA) trounced GNATS (AR-A) 35-2 in 3 innings as Tyler Kahlke and Robert Blackburn were 5-5. And then Sports Reach using their home runs better beat Smash It/Bay Area 36-31 out scoring SIS 17-11 down the stretch. Tommy Melton was 5-6 on base and Austin Mapes was 5-5 with 4 HR and 12 RBI in the win.

Rebel takes down Chick-fil-a Friday night.

Saturday Recap

Q1 at 9:45 AM – Competitive Edge vs Monsta! Brandon Streets returns!

The “Round of 8” was played in the stadium one game after the other all day Saturday and “spoiler alert” I am creating a condensed game for each game. In quarterfinal #1 Competitive Edge led Monsta 11-8 after the 1st inning then stretched the lead to 19-8 going into the bottom of the 4th where Monsta came alive and scored 16 runs to take a 24-19 lead. Comp Edge responded though with 13 in the top of the 5th and 9 more in the top of the 6th and won impressively 45-28. Mitch Lendenski was 6-7 with a homer and 7 RBI. Tyler Ervine, Ryan Honeycutt, and Bubba Mack each hit 3 HR, and Brian Zirkle was 5-5 in the win. Monsta hit just 9 HR.

At 11:30 AM it was S&E taking on Resmondo.

S&E who won 2 games Friday with defense in the bottom of the 7th wasn’t looking forward to another matchup with Resmondo having played them twice in Myrtle Beach. Resmondo set the tone early in this one jumping out to a 14-10 lead and shooting middle a number of times. Resmondo held down the S&E offense with some nice line shot stabs by pitcher Travis Clark and a trio of nice plays by middle infielder Kevin Bazat and found themselves leading 18-13 going into the top of the 5th where they scored 12 to win it by the run rule 30-14. They out homered S&E 11-5 and out hit them 35-17.

At 1:15 pm in Q3 it was Dirty Vegas and Roofx.

Dirty Vegas and Roofx were playing to score some big Conference points and they both brought it for the first 3 innings in an action packed game. Roofx led 21-14 going into the 4th and then Mooch got 2 strikeouts and stabbed two line drives up the middle – turning a double play on the second one, then Ryan Mcclanahan the two time Conference Defensive Player of the Year laid out for one of the best diving stops of 2023 and all of a sudden Dirty Vegas had only scored 1 run in 3 innings and got left on the field with a run rule 30-15 in the bottom of the 6th. Arlis Miller and Jon Troyer each had 4 hits and Troyer had 2 HR and 7 RBI in the win.

Q4 – Sports Reach vs MPT – Carucci was automatic runner for the pitcher!

In Q4 MPT and Sports Reach got off to sluggish starts but it was all MPT from the 3rd inning on as they outscored Sports Reach 25-1 in the last 3 innings to win 27-5 in 5 innings. The 1st 4 batters were each 3-4 and they out homered Sports Reach 8-3 and out hit them 27-7. Orlando Castillo was 3-3 with 3 doubles.

Final 4 Recap

MPT’s Harvey hits against Roofx in the semis.

In the semifinals early Saturday evening MPT had their hands full with Roofx who was having their first big tournament run of the season. MPT grabbed a 22-13 lead going into the bottom of the 4th where Roofx scored 14 on 8 home runs as Jon Troyer and Faron Fry each hit two. Then the Roofx defense and pitching took over until the top of the 7th where MPT scored 9 to make it close but Roofx won 31-29. Troyer and Jeremy Fry were both 5-5 and Faron Fry had 7 RBI.

In the second semifinal as the sun went down Resmondo scored an incredible 13 runs on 1 homer in the 1st and 11 in the 6th to beat their rival this year Competitive Edge 47-36. CE has beaten Resmondo 3 times this year and Resmondo only has 7 losses for the season. Tyler Marshburn was on base 7-7 in the win and Resmondo used all 16 of their homer’s with Kyle Pearson hitting 4 HR and collecting 9 RBI.

Winner’s Final Recap

Bradley Jones hits a creature in the winner’s final Saturday night.

In the winner’s final under the lights it was Resmondo and Roofx, the nations two most popular teams. This was a game filled with incredible defensive plays, middle shots, and some really long bomb home runs! I encourage you to watch the condensed game on the USSSALive youtube channel when it comes out. Resmondo controlled the game but Roofx never gave up and forced Resmondo to play 7 innings. Resmondo led 27-19 going into the top of the 5th where they scored 14 runs. Roofx had a chance to comeback but both teams zeroed in the 6th. Roofx did score a “gutty” 13 runs in the bottom of the 7th but lost 47-41. Kyle Pearson was 7-7 in the win and Josh Riley had 8 RBI. Resmondo used all 14 of their homer’s and Roofx 11 but Roofx had 15 doubles.

Loser’s Bracket Recap

Roofx Terry Lambright hits a homer over the 360 mark in LF vs MPT in the loser’s final.

All games in the loser’s bracket were played over at the Cane’s Creek park Saturday except for the loser’s bracket final Sunday morning in the stadium so I didn’t get to see 95% of the loser’s games. Smash It Sports after losing their 2nd game Friday night beat Primetime, LSR, S&E, and Nitro Circus to finish tied for 5th. In the lower half of the loser’s bracket Chick-fil-a who lost their first game Friday night to Rebel beat Vivid, JBL, Classic Glass, Sports Reach, and got a revenge win over Rebel to finish tied for 5th. Then MPT Rentals and Competitive Edge who each lost in the semifinals beat Smash It and Chick-fil-a respectively to meet each other after midnight Saturday in the 4th place game where MPT won 59-40 and then had to be back at the stadium Sunday morning to play Roofx in the loser’s final. That game was a wild one as MPT grabbed a 23-9 lead in the bottom of the 3rd and looked to be pushing a run rule but Roofx out scored MPT 20-3 over the next 3 innings to take a lead into the 7th. But MPT down 6 in the bottom of the 7th walked down Roofx in the bottom of the 7th winning on a 1 out solo homer by Joe Joe Bennett 33-32. Everyone on the team except pitcher Bill Pinkham hit a homer.

Championship Recap

A tired and short handed MPT team takes on Resmondo in the Championship.

In the championship it was all Resmondo – offense, defense, and special teams! They trounced MPT 23-2 in 4 innings scoring 13 runs on 1 homer in the bottom of the 1st inning out homering them 8-2.

Long Bomber of the Week!

Josh Riley is the Long Bomber of the week for his homer Saturday night vs Roofx.

Jim Beam Results and Awards

MVP – Resmondo SS Tyler Marshburn – .864, 3 HR, 10 RBI

Defensive MVP – Resmondo middle infielder Kevin Bazat

Offensive MVP – MPT Rentals 3rd baseman John Williams – .775, 8 HR, 18 RBI

Team by Team Notes

1st Place – Resmondo/SIS/All American/Menosse

FL-Major Record 5-0

Resmondo
4 tournament wins, 12-4 vs Major division, has not lost to A and below.
Finished all 7 tournaments in the top 4
300 point lead in the standings which should lead to a #1 seed at the Major World Series.
.736 on base percentage as a team is probably the highest of all time.
41.9 runs per 7 innings also I believe the highest of all time.
Done it with injuries to Kyle Pearson, Everett Williams, Brad Reckart.
Kevin Bazat having one of the best years of his career and looks like he has fully recovered from his shoulder surgery from last year.
Cory Briggs also seems recovered from his neck injury that slowed him the last two years.
Travis Clark always underrated as a pitcher has been getting some mishits in late innings and fielding the middle.
Tyler Marshburn with back to back MVP’s. 17-20 hitting .864 on base only hit 3 HR while playing SS.
Josh Riley, Kyle Pearson, Bradley Jones, Phil Matte vying for the batting title.
Chad Mullins and Kyle Overstreet blending in nicely.
The entire team “plays the game” at all times and they are currently the best base hitting team in the nation.
Helmer has been calling out bad defensive plays, demanding focus.
Team does not seem to care if they lose a game knowing they will roll through the loser’s bracket if needed.
Lost 3 times to Competitive Edge and 2 to Chick-fil-a out of 7 losses.
Defense is not great. Each player is capable of a great defensive tournament but not great overall.

Kyle Pearson, Marshburn, and Bradley Jones were over .800 in TN and Connell led with 10 HR.

Bazat lays out!

2nd Place – MPT Rentals / Juno Athletics

NJ-Major Record 6-2

MPT Rentals
Defending champs, slow start. 32.5 runs per 7 innings a big problem. .679 on base.
Just 2-8 vs Major teams and 5 losses to AA teams.
No Filip Washington.
Ben Dunn, Argen Dodds missing tournaments. Dale Brungardt out with injured thumb.
Most of the team below .700 on base.
Jeff Roxby leading the team .746 moved to lead off some. Also is their backup pitcher.

In TN Donnie Walsh led the team with a .833 on base, Bennett and Collins each had 13 HR.

3rd Place – Roofx/Revolution/Albicocco/All Hustle

IN-AA Record 4-2

How was this team built?
6 starters: Corner outfielders Marcus and Arlis Miller, brothers MI Jeremy Fry and 2B Faron Fry, catcher Terry Lambright, and DH Kyle Miller all return from the Rock Run/Silverbacks team from last year. They pick up Jon Troyer 3B and Joey Miller 1B from WM Roofing from Ohio and one of their sponsor/managers now is Mike Yoder from WM Roofing who’s brother they also pick up from Westpoint Brandon Yoder to play CF. When they couldn’t get Erik Lehman to return at pitcher they went and got veteran Justin Mucciarelli to pitch and 2 time Conference Defensive Player of the Year Ryan Mcclanahan to backup pitch and play SS. Then they picked up Mike Jacobsen to help after he left Monsta.

Is Roof X the best defensive team in the Country? Other teams have the best defensive player at a given position. Heath Barnes at SS for Monsta, Joe Joe Bennett corner outfielder for MPT, Josh Kirsten arguably the best center fielder for MPT, Tyler Marshburn from Resmondo can be the best defensive player at a given position on a given weekend. A healthy Kevin Bazat this year in the middle for Resmondo. And on and on. But Roofx has a pitcher in Mooch that gets strikeouts and mishits and with the Roofx range at each position and their willingness to go after every ball he just needs a “half” mishit to give his defense a chance. Other teams are “softball lazy” to the ball to conserve energy but Roofx is always quickest to the ball, backing each other up, and covering bases on throws behind the runners, and hitting cutoffs knowing every base runner is a potential out. Jeremy Fry could be the best defensive middle infielder in the country (yet to be determined) and Brandon Yoder with experience is getting better quickly and has pure speed and range in center field.

On offense with the hard balls used this year and the confidence in their hitting growing each game, Roofx has a pick up the guy making the out and get it back to the guy that made the out mentality and their speed causes defenses to play in and makes for mistakes. Throw in some new found power and they are not a team to take lightly.

Faron Fry and Jon Troyer were .800. Faron and Marcus Miller hit 10 HR each.

Joey Miller hits a backside grand slam against MPT Sunday morning.

SS Ryan Mcclanahan makes one of the better diving stops of the year.

4th Place – Competitive Edge/Suncoast/FBI/Olmito

FL-Major Record 4-2

Competitive Edge
37 runs per 7 innings. .708 on base
Won the Texas dual #2. 5-6 vs Major.
Mason Farmer as backup pitcher stepped up and helped win that Texas Dual #2.
Brandon Streets just returned from hand/wrist injury and had an .864 on base percentage in TN.
Mitch Lendenski setting the table for Tyler Ervine but has not adjusted to the move from CF to LF.
Taylor Cobb was 15-15 off the bench in Tennessee this past weekend.
They have Elite hitters but have imploded defensively at times this year.
They have not been “Relentless” but they weren’t either early in the year last year either until the second half.
Lost to a B team.

Cobb was 1000 on base. Tyler Ervine, Bubba Mack, Ryan Honeycutt, Brandon Jackson, and Brandon Streets all over .800.

Taylor Cobb was 15-15 on base off the bench for CE.

Tied 5th – Chick-fil-a/Slugger/BAF/Shore Irrigation

VA-AA Record 5-2

Chick-fil-a lost their first game then played all day Saturday to finish tied for 5th and score big points. Brady, Collins, Lutheran, Ross all over .750

Tied 5th – Smash It/BayAreaLegends/BaughFord/BD

CA-AA Record 5-2

I didn’t see much of Smash It who did all of their damage in the loser’s bracket Saturday at Creek park to take home a big points weekend. Cardwell and Dickens were over .800. Cardwell hit 14 HR and had 35 RBI.

Tied 7th – Rebel/Anarchy/Str8play/FrogHollow

MI-A Record 4-2

Rebel upset Chick-fil-a and had a great run in the loser’s bracket. This may have put them in the running for a Major World Series berth. Jacob Boggess had a .913 on base percentage.

Chris Stamper doing the pitching.

Tied 7th – Nitro Circus/Candy Shop/Ataraxis

MD-AA Record 4-2

Nitro Circus had Ramsey pitching and lost their 2nd game to Dirty Vegas so they never made it to the show field. They did salvage a 7th place finish which is still good points in a tournament this big. Emilson Marquez and Kevin Miller were over .800.

More Teams

Greg Hardy did a nice job at pitcher.

Monsta
Won HOF Dual #1. 6-7 vs Major. 34.9 runs per 7 innings. .692 ob
Heath Barnes .715 at SS 69% of his hits for extra bases.
? at pitcher. The pitching carousel continues for Monsta. Lehman retired again.
On base percentages are low for the amount of hard ball tournaments.
Tyler Storey not a hundred percent.
“Culture” – accountability. It is interesting to see how each major team approaches accountability.
Not as much star power but could be right there if they can solve the pitching problem and stay healthy.

JBL lost with the bats in their hands to S&E and then dropped to a part of the loser’s bracket where they had to play Chick-fil-a right away and lost that one. 1-2

Sports Reach was tied for 9th 2-2. Beat Smash It Friday night, lost to Chick-fil-a by 1.

Dirty Vegas had a great start beating Nitro Circus in that marathon game Friday night. Tied for 9th.

GNATS went 0-2 but we finally got that team pic!

Van Wert Frickers beat GNATS to finish tied for 17th.

Westpoint went 1-2 tied for 13th.

PF which stands for Platinum Fire played their first event going 0-2.

TRU beat Westpoint Friday in the stadium but finished 1-2 tied for 17th.

Siteman/Pure was 1-2 tied for 17th.

Because the main field was separated from the loser’s bracket fields I really didn’t see the rest of the teams play in this crazy big Conference event. Sorry.