2024 Battle on the Chesapeake Major
Glen Burnie, Maryland
July 26-27
Van Wert Frickers and Nitro Circus played a best of 3 at the end of the Maryland Major.
Maryland Team List
Video and Article Links
Maryland Results & Bracket Link
2024 Maryland Picture Album link (adding action photos daily)
Nitro Circus vs Paint Doctor condensed game link
Van Wert Frickers vs Fishers Softball condensed game link
Nitro Circus vs Van Wert Frickers condensed winner’s final game link
Van Wert Frickers vs Nitro ‘C’ team condensed game link
“IF” Game – Nitro Circus vs Van Wert Frickers condensed game link
Friday/Saturday Highlight Clips link
Championship – Nitro Circus vs Van Wert Frickers condensed game link
Loser’s Final – Van Wert Frickers vs Fishers Softball condensed game link
Link to BallClubz Team Stat Reports
Friday Night Recap
The best game of Friday night was Nitro Circus ‘C’ vs Van Wert Frickers.
Conference USSSA returned to Baltimore, Maryland for the first time in two years to the Bachmann Sports Complex in Glen Burnie. The fields were dirt and natural grass with 300 foot fences, the Dudley Pro-M ball was used, and there were 11 teams from 6 different states vying for the 188 Conference points that went to the victor. Only two of the teams were from the Conference – Nitro Circus (MD-AA) and Van Wert Frickers (OH-A). The tournament began on Friday night at 7 PM eastern time in good weather. LVT (MD-C), Fishers Softball (PA-C), and Nitro Circus/Thurston Wyatt (MD-C) all won their “play in” games. Then at 8:45 pm the “Round of 8” began. Paint Doctor (DE-B) with veteran pitcher Tim Bouch on the mound beat Chick-fil-a (VA-B) who has a number of ex-conference players on the team, 27-20. Fishers Softball upset the local favorite CLA/Moose Sports/BAF (MD-B) 37-27. Nitro/Beloli/Ataraxis/SBT/SOL/BAF/K (MD-AA) the #1 seed and #3 team in Conference points this season got off to a slow start but ended up run ruling LVT 28-12. Nitro scored 13 runs in the 3rd inning including the first 10 batters in a row. And the best game of Friday night was the Nitro Circus/Thurston Wyatt ‘C’ team from right there in Baltimore who gave Van Wert Frickers (OH-A) the #2 seed in the tournament all they could handle. Van Wert used up their home runs too early and hit too many solos. Nitro had them on the ropes a couple times but Van Wert gutted out an entertaining 34-29 win to move on to the “Final 4” on Saturday.
Paint Doctor takes down Chick-fil-a Friday night.
Final 4 Recap
Filip Washington and an explosive Nitro Circus offense takes down Paint Doctor.
The semifinals began at 11:30 AM with Nitro Circus absolutely obliterating Paint Doctor on the main field. They scored 19 in the 1st, took advantage of multiple Paint Doctor errors, and then scored 13 in the top of the 2nd and went on to win in 4 innings 34-7. The other semifinal between Van Wert Frickers and Fishers Softball was played on field #2 with the wind blowing in. Van Wert jumped out to a 7-0 lead after one inning but Fishers Softball tied it in the bottom of the 2nd when Van Wert pitcher Jordan Patterson couldn’t find the strike zone and walked a couple of runs in. The game featured a number of great plays defensively and the Van Wert defense and the lack of Fishers Softball power led to a 23-12 Van Wert win. Leadoff hitter Greg Popatak and 4 hitter Freddie Heiser were each 4-5. Two hitter Jake Wissel hit 2 HR and drove in 6.
Fishers hits against Neil Smith and Van Wert in the semifinals.
Winner’s Final Recap
Nitro Circus turns an unorthadox 3-2-10-2-5 triple play on Van Wert.
The winner’s final was played at 3 PM Saturday in 86 degree heat on field #1 with the wind blowing out to right slightly at 5+ mph. The game was basically over before it started as Nitro Circus put up 11 in the top of the 1st, 6 in the top of the 2nd, and finished Van Wert Frickers off 37-9 in the 4th scoring 16 runs! At one point in the bottom of the 2nd Van Wert grounded into a triple play where Chris Greinert stepped on 1st for one out, then Josh Cardwell tagged a runner out at 3rd, another near second, and another runner between 1st and 2nd for what was basically a quadruple play. Score it 3-2-10-2-5. Chris Greinert, John Williams, newly acquired Cabot Van Til, and Jordan Robinson were all 5-5 and Greinert who lives in Maryland hit 3 HR and drove in 7 runs.
Loser’s Bracket Recap
Diamond Dynasty beats LVT (above) and Chick-fil-a (below) on walk off hits.
The loser’s bracket had a number of very close games between the B and C teams that played. In fact, all 4 games in the upper part of the loser’s bracket were decided by one run as Diamond Dynasty/Alpha (NJ-C) beat LVT and Chick-fil-a on walk off hits. The win over Chick-fil-a was in extra innings. Then Fishers Softball beat Diamond Dynasty 12-11 before scoring 11 runs in the bottom of the 7th to beat CLA/Moose Sports 27-26 after CLA had run the entire lower half of the loser’s bracket beating Fish Head, Nitro ‘C’ team, and Paint Doctor. In the loser’s final Van Wert Frickers put up 17 runs in the top of the 2nd against a Fishers team that had just had that emotional and energy draining 11 run comeback win. But Fishers never gave up scoring 8 in the bottom of the 2nd, 6 in the bottom of the 3rd, and 8 in the bottom of the 5th to pull to within a run 25-24. Both teams scored just two runs in the 7th giving Van Wert a 27-26 win. Fishers left 9 home runs on the table and had the hammer. For Van Wert, Drew Kortokrax and Fred Heiser were each 4-5 and center fielder and eventual Offensive MVP of the tournament Trevor Macdonald was 4-4 in the win.
Championship Recap
Van Wert takes it to Nitro Circus in the championship.
The championship started much earlier Saturday night than expected and was played in cooler conditions. Van Wert and Nitro each scored in every inning but neither scored more than 6 runs. In the top of the 2nd Van Wert hung in the game getting Nitro Circus out on a “pickle” and a strikeout looking. In the top of the 3rd Nitro grabbed a 10-9 lead on a 3 run homer by Craig Pellegrin. In the bottom of the 3rd Van Wert grabbed the lead on a 3 run homer by Keaton Sullivan to go up 12-10 and only some great defense from Nitro middle infielder Cody Collins and a diving catch by Josh McAdams held Van Wert in check. The seesaw battle continued in the top of the 4th when Chris Greinert hit a 3 run homer to give Nitro a 13-12 lead and after 5 complete innings Van Wert was up 17-16 but had hit 10 of their 14 homers while Nitro had hit just 6. The 3 run homer lead changes continued when Filip Washington hit one in the top of the 6th to put Nitro up 21-17 and RJ Turner hit one in the bottom of the 6th to tie the game at 21. In the top of the 7th Van Wert 3rd baseman Keaton Sullivan bodied up a hard ground ball and threw out the runner at 1st which was a close call for a big out and Nitro Circus who still had homers to hit ended up losing 27-24. Quentin Walker and Robert Turner were each 4-4 in the win.
In the “if” game top of the 1st Nitro pitcher Tom Bloom hit a fence scraper homer, Jason Martel hit an angry homer, and Jordan Robinson homered, all of which were 3 run shots and most of the damage was done with 2 outs as they scored 15 runs! And in the bottom of the 1st Van Wert hit a foul out and struck out looking after getting the 1st two runners on base. When Nitro added 11 more in the top of the 2nd it was 26-0 going into the bottom of the 2nd. In the bottom of the 2nd Nitro shortstop Jordan Robinson made the best diving play of the tournament, middle infielder Cody Collins made a nice play for out number two, and veteran pitcher Tom Bloom got a strikeout looking to hold Van Wert to 6 runs. In the top of the 4th the Nitro offense extended the lead to 39-9 and they won the game in 4 innings 39-13. MVP and leadoff hitter Filip Washington was 6-6 in the final game with 3 homers and 6 RBI. This was Nitro Circus’ first tournament win since the opener in Las Vegas and solidifies their 3rd place in the Conference points standings.
Nitro Circus takes down Van Wert in the loser’s final.
Long Bomber of the Week!
Chris Greinert from Nitro Circus is Long Bomber of the Week swinging his Juno. Chris hit some creatures on bad pitches.
Battle on the Chesapeake Results and Awards
MVP – Nitro’s Filip Washington .885, 7 HR, 18 RBI
Defensive MVP was Nitro 2nd baseman John Williams.
Offensive MVP – Van Wert Frickers CF Trevor MacDonald .773, 9 HR, 17 RBI
Team by Team Notes
1st Place – Nitro/Beloli/Ataraxis/SBT/SOL/BAF/K
MD-AA Record 4-1
Nitro Circus played without CF Josh Kirsten (family vacation) and Zane Migues. They dominated offensively except for that first championship game where they were unable to put together a double digit inning. As a team they had a .723 on base percentage and they got big contributions from newly acquired outfielder Cabot Van Til (.783) and right fielder Zach Sanford (.778). Tom Bloom and Sport Williams shared the pitching duties. And Craig Pellegrin and Josh Cardwell both left the championship games with some sort of muscle pulls.
Tom Bloom from Maryland and Sport Williams did the pitching. Jordan Robinson at SS, Cody Collins MI.
2nd Place – Van Wert Frickers
OH-A Record 4-2
Van Wert ended up doing what was expected of them by finishing 2nd and giving the Nitro Circus ‘AA’ team a run. But the road to get there was slow and at times it didn’t look like it would happen. They struggled with home run management in most of their games but somehow came back to beat the Nitro ‘C’ team on Friday night. On Saturday in the semifinals against Fishers with the wind blowing in they separated and used some good defense to win. Then were blown out by Nitro Circus in the winner’s final. In the loser’s final they somehow held off Fishers late and then upset Nitro Circus in the 1st championship game before losing big in the “if” game. MacDonald in center and Drew Kortokrax led the defense and the offense. The steady shortstop Greg Popatak at leadoff did his job and Heiser and Wissel led the team with 19 RBI.
Van Wert CF Trevor Macdonald makes another great play.
Drew Kortokrax lays out in left field.
3rd Place – Fishers Softball
PA-C Record 4-2
Fishers out of PA is now 10-3 vs ‘B’ and 15-2 vs ‘C’ this year and I think John Kingz posted that they were the #1 rated ‘C’ team in the country. And if you watched the Maryland Major you can see why. They are all of the cliches in softball you can think of. They never give up, they don’t care who they are playing against, they play defense, they base hit, they put pressure on you running the bases, they have great heart, etc. A fun team that beat CLA twice, squeaked out a number of 1 run wins, including an 11 run bottom of the 7th comeback to win by 1, and then they nearly beat Van Wert to go to the championship. Judging by the roster which shows 2 Esh’s, 3 Fishers, 2 Kauffmans, 3 Lapps, and 7 Stoltzfus – this is a family team which makes it that much more impressive. They just need some sponsorship and some more power to go Conference in 2025, in case anyone is out there.
Fishers shortstop makes a great play against Van Wert.
4th Place – CLA / MOOSE SPORTS / BAF
MD-B Record 3-2
CLA came into the tournament probably thinking they had a legit shot at 2nd place, which they did. The roster has some Conference experience on it with Pudge Isennock, the Shupe brothers?, Jake Ringold, and Derek McLeod. Ryan Snyder and Aaron Conrad are also listed on the roster but I don’t believe they were there, but this is a very solid roster and team who has had a little more success this year it appears than the rest of the B/C teams that were in the tournament. Their nemesis was Fishers Softball who beat them on Friday night and again Saturday. But in between they knocked off Fish Head, Nitro ‘C’, and Paint Doctor. In the last game against Fishers they gave up 11 in the bottom of the 7th to lose by a run, 27-26 but to be honest I don’t remember any errors in that inning.
Can CLA make a run at ‘B’ Worlds?
Tied 5th – Diamond Dynasty/Alpha
NJ-C Record 2-2
Diamond Dynasty was a nice ‘C’ team from New Jersey. They lost to the Nitro ‘C’ team in their opener Friday night but on Saturday they beat LVT 35-34 and Chick-fil-a 23-22 on walk off hits before losing to Fishers Softball 12-11. They competed well like all of the regional B/C teams in this event. When looking at the B/C records of these northeast teams it looks like they all take turns beating each other as most of them are around .500 in each division for the year with a tournament win or two.
Diamond Dynasty’s left side.
Tied 5th – Paint Doctor
DE-B Record 2-2
Paint Doctor had the veteran Tim Bouch pitching who used to play for Deluxe Bakery, LaFamiglia, and Maroadis in the past and a few other names we have seen around the conference like Devan Hill, Ryan Fant, and Eric Wolfe. They had a nice win over Chick-fil-a Saturday night but wasn’t ready for that Nitro Circus ‘AA’ team on Saturday morning. Then they lost to fellow ‘B’ team CLA by 2.
Tied 7th – Chick-fil-A / BAF / Slugger
VA-B Record 1-2
Chick-fil-a played 3 long games all in the 20’s for a score but lost to Paint Doctor on Friday night, beat Fathom by a run, and lost to Diamond Dynasty in 8 innings. It was good to see John Natolly the pitcher/sponsor, John Brock, and some of his players from the past on this team.
John Natolly – Chick-fil-a
Tied 7th – Nitro Circus / Thurston Wyatt
MD-C Record 1-2
Nitro ‘C’ is a team with veteran leadership and looks like a team ready to take the next step in division. They gave Van Wert all they could handle on Friday night.
Faces in the Crowd / More Pictures
Men’s Conference Director Andy Purcell, Women’s – Clay Dickey & Jim Pilla, and USSSA UIC Dave Maury.
LVT right fielder saved the day for a moment.
Martel does look safe.
Angry Beavers from Ohio won the women’s division.
Bob from Softball Sundaze on Facebook for more video clips of the MD Major.
The right handed batters boxes were even worse than the picture shows.
The Dudley Pro-M ball was used.
Bachmann Sports Complex has 6-300 foot fields.
Maryland is like a mini hot bed for tournament softball.
