2023 Smoky Mountain Classic tournament report!

55th Annual Smoky Mountain Classic

Maryville, TN

July 7-9

Travis Clark and the Resmondo team make an historic run at the Smoky!

Smoky Mountain Classic Hot Links

Smoky Mountain Classic Results and Bracket Link

Friday to Final 8 video clips link

All Star condensed game link

Saturday Final 8 video clips link

MPT Rentals vs Resmondo condensed game link (Championship)

MPT Rentals vs Competitive Edge condensed game link

Competitive Edge vs Monsta condensed game link

Resmondo vs MPT condensed game link

MPT Rentals vs Roofx condensed game link

Nitro Circus vs Resmondo condensed game link

Monsta vs Nitro Circus condensed game link

Resmondo vs S&E condensed game link

Q1 Roofx vs Competitive Edge condensed game link

Q2 MPT Rentals vs Chick-fil-a condensed game link

Hit & Sit Show – Smoky edition link

Smoky Mountain Classic Picture Album Link (adding action photos daily as I create videos)

Smoky Mountain Classic archived games link

BallClubz boxscore stats link BallClubz team totals link

Smoky Stats link (Updating throughout the week)

Smoky Team List

Friday Recap

Everett Park

The 55th Annual Smoky Mountain Classic began on 4 fields at 2 different parks on Friday morning with 34 teams including 27 Conference teams and the top 20+ teams in the country. All of the teams were trying to win 2 games on Friday to get to the Saturday “Final 8” on the show field at Sandy Springs Park in Maryville, TN undefeated. Most of the fields were 290 to 310 feet but the show field #3 at Sandy Springs is 315-335-350-335-315 and on fields 3 and 4 they used the new Dudley Pro-M Hardcore ball and it was FLYING! On field 4 with its 310-310-274 fence distances Epic/Haymack (SC-A) beat TRU/Riot/Timeless (VA-A) 40-16. After a slow start Epic scored 29 in the bottom of the 2nd and 10 more in the 3rd to leave TRU on the field. Epic hit 23 home runs and Sean Ulmer was 4-5 with 4 HR and 10 RBI in the win. Chick-fil-a/Slugger (VA-AA) made short work of Beloli Brothers HVAC (MA-B) 47-20 breaking open the game in the top of the 6th scoring 22 runs. Chick-fil-a hit 29 home runs in the game and were led by Matt Brady, Ricky Moyers, and Justin Lutheran who were all on base 6-6. Classic Glass (CA-AA) hit 32 home runs against Westpoint Softball (IN-AA) to win 53-49! Bay Area Legends (CA-A) beat Aristotle (AR-A) 34-33 holding Aristotle scoreless in the bottom of the 7th. Nitro Circus/Candy Shop/Ataraxis (MD-AA) rolled through Carolina Prime/DirtKings a very good SC ‘B’ team 28-6. And Roofx/Revolution/Albicocco (IN-AA) put up the biggest score of the night beating PF (MA-B) 57-18 as leadoff hitter Arlis Miller, two hitter Jeremy Fry, and five hitter Joseph Miller were all on base 7-7 and Roofx hit 33 home runs!

Over on the show field #3 an old high school baseball field the Major teams were rolling. Competitive Edge/Suncoast/Olmito/FBI (FL-Major) beat local non-conference team BBS/PFS 41-7 in 4 innings hitting 20 home runs. Sluggers Tyler Ervine and Brandon Streets were each 5-5 with a combined 6 HR. At 12:45 PM Monsta/Sonny’s/Worsham/Red Athlete (NC-Major) beat local TN-D team Tennessee Select 19-3 after Monsta trailed 3-2 going into the bottom of the 4th where Monsta scored 15 runs. Lead off hitter Austyn Dawe hit 3 HR. At 2:15 PM #1 ranked Resmondo/SIS/All-American/Menosse (FL-Major) beat a local Knoxville ‘E’ team called Glove Daddy 30-0 in 3 innings. Greg Connell, Buddy Wolf, and Brad Reckart were each 4-4. At 3:30 PM #2 MPT Rentals/Juno Athletics (NJ-Major) beat local team My Bad 25-5 in 4 innings.

SIS beats Rebel on a 2 out walk off single by Jason Martel.

Sports Reach beats Taylormade on a walk off homer by Austin Mapes.

Dirty Vegas beats LSR on a walk off homer by Chris Roberts.

Over at the 2 field Everett Park Dirty Vegas/Steele/Envy (TX-A) got a walk off homer by Chris Roberts to beat LSR/TG/BAF/Nitro Circus (IN-A) 55-53 on the 290 foot field #1. JBL/D1/Tailgaters (OH-AA) opened up with a 37-17 win over Van Wert Frickers (OH-B) when they jumped out to a 27-0 lead. Outfielder Brock Frentzel returning from a work injury was 5-5 with 5 runs scored as JBL hit 16 HR in 4 innings. Sports Reach/DeMarini (KY-AA) fighting for their lives against Taylormade/MidState (TN-B) scored 3 on a 2 out homer by Robert Blackburn then won on a 3 run homer by Austin Mapes. This after Taylormade had a 22-4 lead early in the game. Both teams hit 15 HR and Robo led the way for Sports Reach with 3 HR and 9 RBI. S&E/Baugh Ford (NC-AA) gutted out a 32-23 win over Cornerstone/Rebel (KY-B) on field #2 scoring 13 in the top of the 5th to separate. S&E out homered Cornerstone 21-9 and lead off hitter and Rookie of the Year candidate Matt Mosel was 5-6 with 4 HR and 6 RBI. Rebel/Anarchy/Str8play (MI-A) led Smash It Sports/Bay Area (CA-AA) 12-0 after 2 innings and were tied 15-15 after 5 innings. Going into the bottom of the 7th Rebel was in upset position up 31-25. But Smash It’s Jason Branch tied the game at 31 on a home run with 2 outs and after intentional walks to Zane Migues and Tre Porter, veteran Jason Martel hit a walk off single and SIS advanced. And in the final “Round of 32” game Primetime/Easton/FAI (GA-A) beat NFMLending/4theFallen (AZ-A) 32-18 scoring 18 runs to separate in the top of the 4th as Angel Ortega led the way with 5 hits, 2 doubles, and 3 HR.

Arlis Miller and Roofx take down SIS Friday. He started the tourny 18-18.

The “Round of 16” was also played on Friday night using the 4 fields. On the show field, Competitive Edge jumped out to a 29-5 lead on Epic and won 36-16 in 4 innings. CE hit 17 HR as leadoff hitter Mitch Lendenski was 5-5 on base with 4 HR and 8 RBI. Monsta trailing 13-12 to Classic Glass after 5 innings, out scored them 13-3 in the final 3 innings to win 25-16. Leadoff hitter Austyn Dawe and three hitter Jeremey Yates were each 5-5 and they hit 9 HR between them. MPT Rentals held Dirty Vegas scoreless for 3 innings jumping out to a 22-0 lead and won in 4 innings 23-3. MPT hit 17 HR in 35 plate appearances. And Resmondo crushed Bay Area Legends 51-7 in 3 innings while hitting 22 home runs. Phil Matte was on base 6-6 and Chad Mullins had 9 RBI. So all 4 Major teams advanced undefeated to Sunday. Meanwhile on the other fields the ‘AA’ teams were trying to advance. Chick-fil-a used a power surge to take down JBL on the 290 foot field scoring 30 runs in the 1st three innings to win 32-11 leaving JBL on the field in the bottom of the 4th. They out homered JBL 16-7 as Matt Brady and Justin Lutheran were on base 4-4 and Jacob Clifton had 7 RBI. S&E scored 10 in the top of the 4th and hung on to a 41-29 win over Sports Reach in a game that had the benches clear at one point. Lefty Jacob Hoskins was 5-6 with 4 HR and 9 RBI and Hunter Oliver 6-6 on base with 5 HR and a walk in the win. Nitro Circus scored 13 in the top of the 1st, 15 in the 2nd, and 16 in the 3rd to beat PrimeTime 44-12 over on field 4. The hardcore ball was way too much ball for that field as Nitro Circus hit 26 HR in the game and Joey Capparelli, Emilson Marquez, and Cabot Van Til hit 4 each. And in the final game of the night Roofx run ruled Smash It/Bay Area 30-13 in 6 innings, out homering them 13-11 as leadoff hitter Arlis Miller was 5-5 with 3 HR and 6 RBI. So Friday games were over and there wasn’t a single lower class team that upset a higher class team with the top 8 teams in the points standings advancing undefeated to Saturday’s show field.

Benches clear in the Sports Reach vs S&E game.

Saturday Recap

Roofx CF Brandon Yoder hit two grand slams in one inning vs Competitive Edge.

On Saturday I (DW) park myself at the show field (315-335-350-335-315 dimensions) and try to do as many condensed games as the weather (heat/rain) will allow. So I don’t get to see the loser’s bracket at all and thus aren’t able to cover many of the teams in the tournament. In quarterfinal #1 Competitive Edge mashed their way to an 18-4 lead over Roofx. But the Roofx offense came alive and took advantage of a number of Competitive Edge infield misplays to score 13 in the top of the 3rd, 16 in the top of the 4th, and they scored 12 in the top of the 5th to run rule upset CE 45-28. Arlis Miller was 6-6 with 3 HR and 10 RBI. Brandon Yoder was 5-6 with 3 HR and 10 RBI. And Jon Troyer was 5-6 with 4 HR and 11 RBI in the win even though CE out homered them 20-16.

MPT’s Daniel Cayton went 8-8 with 6HR and 12 RBI in the quarterfinals vs Chick-fil-a.

In quarterfinal #2 the Chick-fil-a defense held down the MPT Rentals offense in the top of the 1st inning when they got Andrew Collins to fly out to the fence. Threw out Daniel Cayton at 2nd trying to stretch a single into a double. And then got John Williams to strike out looking. Chick-fil-a then came in and put up 15 runs on 8 HR. They then held MPT to just 1 run in the 2nd but went on a power outage of their own scoring just 1 in the bottom of the 2nd and none in the bottom of the 3rd. From there a refocused MPT offense took over the game scoring 14 in the 4th, 11 in the 5th, 11 in the 6th, and 10 in the 7th to win 51-33! MPT out homered a powerful Chick-fil-a team 31-21 and Daniel Cayton was 8-8 with 6 HR and 12 RBI while John Williams hit 5 HR and collected 8 RBI.

After putting up 19 in the top of the 1st, Kevin Bazat makes a great double play to shut down S&E.

In quarterfinal #3 Resmondo was meeting S&E for the 6th time this year, and they did what Resmondo has been doing to everyone and crushed them. Resmondo scored 19 in the top of the 1st and 25 in the top of the 2nd and cruised to a 50-3 win in 3 innings. They out homered a very good S&E team 31-1, Josh Riley and Chad Mullins each hit 4 HR, every starter on the team hit a homer, and Josh Riley at leadoff was 5-5 with 4 HR and 8 RBI.

Nitro’s Nick Day hits a walk off homer to beat Monsta.

In the last quarterfinal Nitro Circus led Monsta 12-10 after 2 innings and 22-12 after 3 innings but Monsta scored 15 in the top of the 4th to get back into the game. But in the top of the 7th Monsta put up a “goose egg” and trailing by 1, Nitro Circus got a 1 out walk to Bryan Dezern and Nick Day hit a walk off 2 run homer to win 34-33 even though Monsta out homered them 20-16.

Final 4 Recap

MPT’s Andrew Collins hits against Roofx in semifinal #1.

After an entertaining loser’s bracket game on the show field the semifinals began early Saturday evening under threat of rain. MPT used their power to grab a 15-4 lead on Roofx early on. Roofx came back with 11 in the bottom of the 4th to cut the lead to 24-19 but when MPT put up a 10 spot in the top of the 6th, Roofx surprisingly zeroed and MPT won by the run rule 39-22. There was a surprising amount of great defense by both teams in this game considering it is unlimited home runs. MPT out homered Roofx 18-11 and Chris Anninos and Josh Kirsten were on base 6-6 while Joe Joe Bennett hit 4 HR and had 7 RBI in the win.

Nitro’s Chris Greinert hits against Resmondo in semifinal #2.

In the second semifinal Resmondo scored 13 in the bottom of the 1st, 13 in the bottom of the 2nd, and 19 in the bottom of the 3rd to win without batting in the 4th 45-21 over Nitro Circus. They hit 29 HR in the 3 innings and Josh Riley, Kyle Pearson, Phil Matte, Chad Mullins, and buddy Wolf were all 5-5 and Wolf hit 5 HR.

Winner’s Final Recap

DW watched the winner’s final from his car with the rain and lightning.

The winner’s bracket final was played in the rain and Resmondo continued their historic day of offense scoring 18 in the top of the 1st, 15 in the top of the 2nd, and 12 in the top of the 3rd to win without a fuss 45-6. They out homered MPT 34-3 and almost everyone on the team hit 3, 4, or if you were Chad Mullins 5 HR.

Loser’s Bracket Recap

Dirt Kings RF makes a great catch on the fence.

The loser’s bracket played out all day on Saturday at 5 different fields at 4 different parks. There weren’t many lower class teams beating higher class teams. LSR made a nice run in the in the top half of the bracket winning 3 games before Competitive Edge dropped down and beat them. And Sports Reach beat Westpoint, Bay Area, and Chick-fil-a before losing a slugfest to Competitive Edge 50-45 to finish tied for 7th. In the lower half of the loser’s bracket JBL beat Rebel, Dirty Vegas, and S&E before Monsta sent them home 44-24 tied for 7th. And Monsta had just won by throwing the tying run out at the plate vs Smash It to win 65-64, the highest scoring game of the tournament. The loser’s bracket 5th place games were then halted until 6 am Sunday morning because of heavy rains. On Sunday morning with just a few hours sleep Competitive Edge slugged through a 39-36 win over Nitro Circus on the show field and Monsta held on to beat Roofx 53-51 on field #4 when Roofx had the bats in their hands down 13 and scored 11. Roofx middle infielder Jeremy Fry and Monsta shortstop Heath Barnes traded spectacular defensive plays in that game. Every starter on both teams homered and Austyn Dawe, Jeremy Yates, and Heath Barnes each hit 6 HR for Monsta and Barnes had 12 RBI.

Sunday Recap

Loser Bracket Final. CE vs MPT.

In the 4th place game a less tired but still tired Competitive Edge had 4 double digit innings beating Monsta 69-49 as Joe Boland hit 6 HR and had 9 RBI and CE out homered Monsta 38-30. Then MPT Rentals pounded Competitive edge 46-17 in 4 innings in the loser’s bracket finals scoring 11 or more runs 3 times. They out homered CE 23-8 and Daniel Cayton was 5-6 with 4 HR and 10 RBI and Josh Kirsten 5-6 with 4 HR and 8 RBI in the win.

Championship game – John Williams and MPT hit against Resmondo.

In the championship Resmondo who had to this point only averaged about 3.5 innings per win and had out scored their opponents 221-37 found themselves losing to MPT Rentals 27-9. But instead of rolling over Resmondo didn’t even flinch and in the bottom of the 3rd they scored, I believe, a tournament high 30 runs and then cruised to a 5 inning 53-38 run rule victory! Buddy Wolf leading the way 5-6 with 5 HR and 13 RBI.

This was one of the highest scoring Smoky’s in its 55 year history and an almost unprecedented amount of homer’s. The only thing that kept the games within a couple hours of being on time was Resmondo run ruled everyone they played and did so most of the time in 3 innings. Thank you to the umpires, directors Chris Clark and Joe Huff as well as the USSSA staff for putting on another great event!

Random DW Notes: The crowds were similar to the past 3 years so smaller and then they get chased off by the late Saturday rain…again. Field #4 for was just a grown up version of the “Home Run Derby” game you played as a kid. The coin toss at the Smoky is very important. What is with those flying ants?

Long Bomber of the Week!

The Long Bomber of the Week is Tyler Ervine for his shot against Roofx pictured above. Josh Riley gets an honorable mention and over at Everett Park on Friday an honorable mention goes to Jacob Clifton on Field #1 and Travis Houseman on Field #2. And eye witnesses say Kevin Miller hit one of the longest on Field #4.

Smoky Results and Awards

Smoky MVP – Resmondo pitcher Travis Clark – .889, 11 HR, 20 RBI

Smoky Defensive MVP – Resmondo CF Cory Briggs (pictured here hitting)

Smoky Co-Offensive MVP – MPT Infielder Orlando Castillo .833, 13 HR, 29 RBI

Smoky Co-Offensive MVP – MPT Center Fielder Josh Kirsten .862, 11 HR, 20 RBI

Team by Team Notes

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

FL-Major Record 6-0

Here is a link to Resmondo’s BallClubz stats report. You can see that they hit 158 home runs in just 22 offensive innings and in 14 of the 22 innings they scored double digits. So they averaged over 7 home runs per inning! Kevin Bazat was .923 with 10 HR. Kyle Pearson the leagues leading hitter was .906 with 21 HR. Travis Clark, Greg Connell, Tyler Marshburn, Phil Matte, Chad Mullins, and Buddy Wolf were all .800 or over. They basically turned the Smoky main field which is a baseball field into a BLD. At one point in the championship Josh Riley made an early out and they kept saying “get it back to Riley”. So they got it back to him TWICE in that inning! They also gave up the fewest runs per inning of any team. So in other words COMPLETE DOMINATION. Cory Briggs the Defensive MVP made a spectacular running catch into the fence in the championship game which we should check out when the condensed game comes out.

2nd Place – MPT Rentals / Juno Athletics

NJ-Major Record 5-2

MPT Rentals finishes 2nd and actually led Resmondo by almost 20 runs in the championship before losing by the run rule. Josh Kirsten, Orlando Castillo, and Ben Dunn were over .800. Joe Joe Bennett and John Williams led the team with 19 HR, and Daniel Cayton had 32 RBI. MPT has been using just around 12 players all year with the injury to Brungardt.

Bill Pinkham, John Williams, SS Bennett, MI Cayton, LF Dunn

3rd Place – Competitive Edge/Suncoast/FBI/Olmito

FL-Major Record 6-2

Competitive Edge got tripped up by Roofx after leading big early on. Their defense has let them down this year and at the Smoky. Tyler Ervine and Bubba Mack were over .800. Kyle Pearson led the team with a .925 on base percentage. Leadoff hitter Mitch Lendenski had 28 home runs and if they had made it to the championship probably would have broken the record. He also had 57 RBI. LC Watson had an injured shoulder which I think affected his pitching so Mike Thorbrogger did most of the work on the hill.

Lendenski was locked and loaded all weekend. 28 HR.

Sponsor Mark Patterson has said publicly he won’t be back next year. We (the softball community) thank you for your years of sponsorship but won’t hold it against you if you change your mind. 🙂

4th Place – Monsta/Sonny’s/Worsham/RedAthlete

NC-Major Record 5-2

Monsta dropped to the loser’s bracket by not scoring in the top of the 7th against Nitro Circus. Then they went over to field #4 and wore themselves out scoring 60 vs SIS and 53 vs Roofx and didn’t have anything left against Competitive Edge Sunday morning when they got back to the show field. New pitcher Jerry “Sport” Williams and Austyn Dawe did the pitching. Dawe, Wik, and Yates all hit over .800. Yates had 29 HR, Dawe 28, Matusik 23, Wik 22, and Barnes 20. That could be a record for most players over 20 HR in a Smoky?

Jeremy Yates led the tournament in homer’s with 29.

P Williams, SS Barnes, MI Lloyd, LF Matusik

Tied 5th – Nitro Circus/Candy Shop/Ataraxis

MD-AA Record 3-2

Nitro Circus used the top ‘AA’ seed to get to Saturday where they used a Nick Day walk off homer to beat Monsta in the quarterfinals. Then they dropped two straight to Major teams. Another solid points weekend. Jose Flores did the pitching. Joey Capparelli one of the leagues leading power hitters was moved to leadoff where he was .800 with 11 HR. Nick Day led the team in HR with 12 and had a .840 on base percentage. Daniel Herren and Zach Messer were also over .800 and Bryan Dezern and Cabot Van Til were double digit homer’s. I didn’t get a lot of coverage of Nitro Circus because their quarterfinal game vs Monsta was played while I was taking down livestream cameras at the other 3 parks and their winner’s final game was during a downpour…sorry.

Tied 5th – Roofx/Revolution/Albicocco/AllHustle

IN-AA Record 3-2

Roofx had another big weekend beating Smash It Sports and then Competitive Edge and giving a decent showing against MPT in the semifinals and losing by only 2 runs 53-51 on Sunday morning to Monsta. Mooch and Mcclanahan had to leave for flights that last game but they had their usual “next man up” mentality and almost pulled off the upset. Arliss Miller, Brandon Yoder, Terry Lambright, Joey Miller were all over .800 on base and third baseman Jon Troyer hit 16 HR and had 35 RBI. Arliss Miller at leadoff started the tournament on base 18-18. It is hard to believe but this team continues to get better and they are now 4-10 vs Major teams and many of those losses were close games so the experience they are getting will help down the road.

Troyer makes a spectacular catch vs CE.

It has been “vintage” Mooch on the mound this year for Roofx and he went 3-3 hitting vs CE.

Tied 7th – Sports Reach/DeMarini/CT/LLS

KY-AA Record 4-2

Sports Reach nearly got to the 5th place game but came up just short. They have worked their magic in the loser’s bracket all year long. Jason Gilfillan .897 and Brad Sheffield .871 led the offense. And Robert Blackburn, Gilfillan, Travis Houseman, Jeff Keske, Austin Mapes, Tommy Melton, Dagmar Pena (16), and Sheffield were all double digit homer’s. Jonas did most of the pitching and when I arrived at the Denso field to take down the livestream camera Robert Blackburn was on the mound?

Tied 7th – JBL/D1/Tailgaters/Ignite

OH-AA Record 4-2

JBL after losing their 2nd game to Chick-fil-a rebounded in the loser’s bracket to finish 7th and had a nice show field win over S&E. Newly acquired pitcher Mason Farmer from Competitive Edge did a lot of the pitching. Brock Frentzel and John Radich were well over .800 on base percentage. Frentzel led the team in HR with 13 and RBI with 23.