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2024 Crown Town Classic

Shawnee, Kansas

June 28-30

A spectacular sunset at the Crown Town Classic as Sports Reach takes on T’s 13.

This Report is dedicated to the late Tim “Tiny” Taylor & Randy Beamish

Tim was a long time manager at the Conference level and loved and was dedicated to the game of softball as much as anyone in the history of the game. He won the ‘A’ Worlds with Team 454 and that was before their was a ‘AA’. He was also a part of some Dan Smith teams in the early 2000’s and helped manage Smash It Sports to a Conference regular season championship a few years ago. Tiny deserves recognition in the Hall of Fame.

Randy Beamish was my (DW’s) first softball manager in 1984 and taught myself and my brothers a lot about the game. Randy also followed Major softball, travelling to a dozen or more Major tournaments every year for over 20 years and is responsible for introducing me to the upper level.

Crown Town Team List

Crown Town Video and Article Links

Crown Town Bracket and Results link

2024 Crown Town Picture Album link (adding action photos daily)

Crown Town Archived Games link

Nally’s vs Seminoles condensed game link

End of the Weather Pro vs WestPoint game link

Ely Reel vs Weather Pro condensed game link

Resmondo vs Str8play condensed game link

Str8play vs Sports Reach condensed game link

Sports Reach vs Resmondo condensed game link

Link to BallClubz Boxscores

Link to BallClubz Team Stat Reports

Crown Town Stats link

Friday Night Recap

Local KC player and Nally’s lead off hitter Mike Brown gets the “Round of 16” started.

The annual Crown Town Classic kicked off at the Mid-America Softball Complex in Shawnee, Kansas on Friday night with 24 teams including 9 from the Conference USSSA. The park received a lot of compliments from the teams with their 300 foot all turf fields and mirror technology Musco lighting. There was only 1 Conference team that played in the 8 “play in” games to start the tournament and that was Seminoles/NACSF/INC/TPS/RS (OK-A) who struggled passed #Nothing Personal a Missouri ‘D’ team 14-11. There were no upsets in the “play in” games as the non-conference ‘B’ teams advanced. In the “Round of 16” Legendz/CE/Adiktiv (OK-A) beat THIN AIR (CO-B) a non-conference team when THIN AIR was found to have had an illegal player. Ely Reel/Schlabach/MSGA Sports (OH-B) jumped out to a 14-1 lead on Blue Ox Exteriors (CO-B) but going into the 6th inning it was 15-11. Ely Reel then scored 6 in the top of the 6th on homers by Tim Kandel, Carlin Yoder, and the newly acquired Andre Yoder to go up 21-11 and they won in 7 innings 21-15. Leadoff hitter Ben Young and Kandel were each 4-5 in the win. WestPoint (IN-AA) battled fellow Indiana team Weather Pro/Cedar Creek/ TSC (IN-B) in what was probably the best game of the night. Weather Pro, going for the upset, built a 15-6 lead after scoring 11 runs in the top of the 3rd inning. But WestPoint came from behind, scoring 6 or 4 runs in each of the last 5 innings. In the bottom of the 6th WestPoint scored 6 on 2 to take a 22-18 lead. In the top of the 7th Weather Pro answered with a clutch 7 runs to regain the lead 25-22 but WestPoint loaded the bases in the bottom of the 7th and won on a walk off walk 26-25. Kyle Fisher, Nick Canfield, and Kyle Johnson were each on base 4-5 in the win although WestPoint used just 8 of their 14 home runs. Meanwhile Seminoles on the main field MASC #1 jumped out to a 19-6 lead on Nally’s/Q Solutions/One Shot (KS-B) and won by the run rule 29-12 in 5 innings. They were led by Conner Murray, Justin Wilkie, and KC’s own Toby Letak who were all on base 4-4. During the 9:00 PM games there was an hour or so delay for lightning as a big storm just missed the park. Sports Reach/Demarini/Grizzy/SMHS (KY-AA) trailed T’s 13 (NE-B) 15-3 when the weather delay hit during a 13 run Sports Reach bottom of the 4th. When play resumed it was all Sports Reach as they outscored T’s 15-8 in the last 3 innings to win 31-23. Joel Sanchez and Jimmy Ward were 4-4 in the game and Dagmar Pena, one of the leagues leading home run hitters (3rd with 54), hit 3 and drove in 7 runs. I-57 Roofing/Beechy’s/Royce Geo/SA (IL-A) playing without the Yoder brothers but with their new pickups Cody Roton from JBL and Lyf Nimmo from Monsta, scored 11 runs in the bottom of the 2nd and escaped, beating Los Rookies a Kansas ‘C’ team 19-15 hitting just 8 home runs in the game. Cody Roton and Nate Jess were 4-4 in the win. Str8play/Rebel/MAJ/DTS/LA Empire (CA-AA) crushed MD/FAFO/TTPB/TTM (KS-C) 37-1 scoring 27 runs in the bottom of the 2nd inning and Str8play only batted twice in the game. The entire middle of the Str8play lineup was 4-4 (Streets, Acevedo, Roxby, Dickens, and Erickson). And Resmondo/All American Restoration/O (FL-Major) rolled through Wichita Bonding/Warkins Agency Inc (OK-C) 31-5 scoring 11 in the bottom of the 1st inning, 10 in the 2nd, and 10 more in the 3rd. They were 36-44 on base as a team for an .818 percentage in the drubbing.

WestPoint avoids Weather Pro’s upset bid with a walk off walk.

The quarterfinals were also played late Friday night and it was the top 8 Conference teams squaring off. Sports Reach held Legendz scoreless in the 5th and 6th innings to come from behind and beat them 31-25. Both teams hit all 14 of their home runs and Sports Reach didn’t have to bat in the bottom of the 7th. Joey Kampfer was 5-5 with 3 doubles and a homer in the victory. Seminoles went 7 innings with Resmondo but couldn’t overcome their offense as Resmondo won 41-19. Bubba Mack was 6-6, Kyle Pearson 6-7, and Phil Matte drove in 8 runs for Resmondo who had Bradley Jones, Matte, and Pearson back from injury. I-57 Roofing had a 19-11 lead going into the top of the 7th against Ely Reel when Ely Reel scored 7 runs to lose 19-18 with still 4 home runs left on the table. Orlando Olivera was 4-4 with a double and 2 HR to lead I-57. And in a battle of ‘AA’ teams Str8play held WestPoint scoreless in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings and left them on the field in the bottom of the 5th 23-8. Daniel Herren and Bryan Dezern were 4-4 on base in the win.

Saturday Recap

Str8play and Resmondo in the semifinals.

Saturday was hot and humid but overcast for the most part when the semifinals began at 4:30 PM. Str8play who had beaten Resmondo the last time they played in Phoenix squared off on the main field. Str8play went up 5-2 on 2 home runs in the bottom of the 1st but left the bases loaded. Resmondo then scored 12 on 3 homers in the top of the 3rd and then Resmondo pitcher Travis Clark got 2 strikeout looking’s on Str8play in the bottom of the 3rd and Misael Tavarez was ejected for arguing. But even with the momentum Resmondo came out and put up a zero in the top of the 4th and Str8play climbed back into the game with a 12 run bottom of the 5th to make it 25-21 Resmondo. Resmondo then outscored Str8play 16-7 in the last two innings powered by 400+ foot homers by Bradley Jones and Josh Riley as they hit 5 – 2 & 3 run homers in the inning and won 41-28. For Resmondo, Jason Matusik, Travis Clark, and Tyler Marshburn were all 6-6 on base and Bubba Mack drove in 9 runs. In the other semifinal the wind was blowing in on field #2, and Sports Reach pitcher Mark Blaziewske held a normally potent I-57 Roofing offense to just 2 home runs in 6 innings and Sports Reach who hit 10 homers themselves won 23-8, separating in the bottom of the 5th when they scored 10 runs. I-57 only scored 2 runs after the 1st inning and none in the final 6 frames. Sports Reach leadoff hitter Robert Blackburn was 4-5, setting the table for Travis Houseman who hit 3 HR and had 6 RBI.

Winner’s Final Recap

Greg Connell hits in the winner’s final against Sports Reach.

The winner’s bracket final was played at 8 PM as a cool front came through and the temperatures dropped into the 70’s. This one was over before it began as Resmondo scored 8 in the bottom of the 1st, 15 in the bottom of the 2nd, 11 in the bottom of the 3rd, and left Sports Reach on the field 36-15 in the 4th. The entire starting lineup except for 2 players were on base 4 out of 4 or 4 out of 5 and Buddy Wolf drove in 9 runs on 4 HR.

Loser’s Bracket Recap

Thin Air from Colorado pitching to T’s 13. A great matchup early in the loser’s bracket.

The loser’s bracket played out all day on Saturday in the heat and humidity. Nally’s beat Northlanders, Wichita Bonding, and had a walk off homer to win over Legendz to finish tied for 7th. Non-Conference teams Blue Ox, Weather Pro, and Thin Air made similar runs in the loser’s bracket to tie for 7th. But the end of the loser’s bracket was all Conference teams as WestPoint beat Seminoles and I-57 Roofing. And Ely Reel beat Nally’s 23-7 before Str8play sent them home 35-34. Ely Reel scored 9 in the top of the 7th to make it close, but Str8play had the hammer and home runs remaining. And in a wild nightcap in the 4th place game Str8play down 31-15 to WestPoint ended up scoring 28 runs in the last two innings to beat WestPoint 43-37 to make it to Sunday.

WestPoint hits against Str8play late Saturday night in the 4th place game.

Sunday Recap

Blue hits a clutch grand slam vs Str8play!

On Sunday at 8 am in perfect softball weather Sports Reach and Str8play (both ‘AA’ teams) battled for over 2 hours in an entertaining game that had some great defense, middle shots, clutch homer’s and more! You can watch that game here in condensed form. Sports Reach scored 12 runs on 5 homers including 3 that were 3 run homers in the top of the 1st. Str8play was giving up too many walks and Sports Reach pitcher Mark Blaziewske made the Sports Reach lead 19-3 when he hit a grand slam in the top of the 2nd. But Str8play weathered the storm scoring 8 in the bottom of the 3rd on a Misael Tavarez grand slam and the defense for Str8play held them scoreless in the 3rd, 5th, and 6th innings getting some nice defense from backup pitcher and new pickup Jacob Neal who got a strikeout looking, stabbed 3 line shots up the middle, and went 3-3 at the plate in the comeback when Str8play put up 19 runs in the bottom of the 5th to take a 36-26 lead! But Sports Reach batted around in the top of the 7th, freeing up and hitting their remaining 5 HR, and grabbed an unlikely 39-35 lead. In the bottom of the 7th the Sports Reach infield made two nice plays on hard shots and they got a strikeout looking to win it 39-35. Jason Gilfillan who was a major league pitcher for the local Kansas City Royals was 6-6 and Jeff Keske 6-6 in the win with Travis Houseman driving in 9 runs.

Dagmar Pena hits a grand slam.

In the championship Sports Reach came out sluggish putting up zero and sending just 4 batters to the plate in the top of the 1st. Resmondo jumped on them with 10 on 3 in the bottom of the inning. In the 2nd Sports Reach found their mojo scoring 9 runs and they scored at least 3 runs in every inning after that. And even though it felt like Sports Reach was hitting too many solos they did get a grand slam from Dagmar Pena in the top of the 5th to go up 21-15. In that 5th inning Resmondo shortstop Tyler Marshburn and Sports Reach shortstop Joel Sanchez traded some great defensive plays and in the top of the 6th Sanchez hit a 3 run homer to put them up 25-22. In the top of the 7th Austin Andrews hit a 2 out 3 run homer to put Sports Reach up 34-23 and Resmondo needed 11 on 5 to tie. They got 10 of those but ended the game on a home run for out and Sports Reach had won 34-33 and forced the unlikely “if” game. Houseman, Pena, and Andrews were each 5-6 in the win and Houseman hit for the cycle.

Tyler Marshburn ties up the “if” game.

In the “if” game after playing over 4 straight hours, Sports Reach tried to do the unthinkable and “double dip” Resmondo? Sports Reach again lost the coin toss and were visitors and they trailed Resmondo 7-4 after one inning. In the top of the 2nd Sports Reach scored 11 runs on just 3 homers and then held Resmondo scoreless in the bottom of the 2nd with Justin Ogletree pitching to go up 15-7. In the top of the 3rd Sports Reach hit 3 straight solo homers to go up 18-7 but it again felt like solos may hurt them down the stretch. Throughout the 3 Sunday games the Sports Reach defensive players all made some great plays on hard shots, infield and outfield. In the bottom of the 4th left fielder Joey Kampfer hustled to a Resmondo shot that painted the left field line and he held the batter to a single. This turned into a double play and then in the bottom of the 6th pitcher Ogletree turned a double play and next thing you knew Sports Reach was leading 30-29 going into the bottom of the 7th with both teams out of homers. Marshburn walked, Buddy Wolf hit an accidental home run on a line drive for an out, Bazat walked, Riley hit into a fielder’s choice, and then Kyle Pearson grounded out to 2nd to end the game. Sports Reach had done the unthinkable and “double dipped” Resmondo after playing for 6.5 hours straight! Joel Sanchez who played great defense was named MVP, was 2nd on Sports Reach in on base percentage for the weekend, and hit for the cycle in the final game and Justin Ogletree beat Resmondo twice pitching and was 4-5 with 3 HR and 8 RBI in the “if” game.

Thank you to Kelly and her crew for the hospitality and for hosting the tournament which was added to the schedule late. And as always thank you to the sponsors, umpires, and ballclubz scorekeepers for their hard work.

Long Bomber of the Week!

Long Bomber of the Week was Kyle Pearson with honorable mention for Jimmy Ward, Josh Riley, Jason Matusik, Bradley Jones, Joseph Capparelli, and Travis Houseman. Lots of bombs on field #1.

Crown Town Results and Awards

MVP – Sports Reach SS Joel Sanchez

Defensive MVP – Sports Reach CF Austin Andrews

Offensive MVP – Resmondo’s Phil Matte

Team by Team Notes

1st Place – Sports Reach/Demarini/Grizzy/SMHS

KY-AA Record 6-1

Sports Reach played without Rich Racobaldo who was at his kids tournament and Austin Mapes their right field power hitter. But it didn’t seem to matter as their roster depth was on full display. Sports Reach didn’t win with particularly overwhelming offense and many times seemed to hit bad home runs, but yet they won 5 games by 8 runs or less and the last two against Resmondo by 1 run in each game! Credit the team defense, the pitching, timely hitting, some big innings late in games against top teams, and lets give Mike Haney some credit as manager this is his 4th top 4 finish of the season (HOF, Texas, Memphis, Crown Town). Hit & Sits Joel Sanchez was MVP and played a great shortstop. Join us on the Hit & Sit Show this coming Wednesday at 11 am eastern where we will be joined by special guest “Mighty” Mike Macenko to talk about the Smoky Mountain Classic!

Jason Gilfillan pitched for the Kansas City Royals back in the day.

Dagmar Pena and Joel Sanchez locking down the left side of the infield.

2nd Place – Resmondo/All American Restoration/O

FL-Major Record 4-2

Resmondo played without center fielder Cory Briggs but did get Phil Matte, Bradley Jones, and Kyle Pearson back from injury. They put up some big numbers on Friday and Saturday but never got it together in any facet of the game on Sunday. Finishing 2nd at the Crown Town made it so they are the #2 seed for the Smoky which kind of works out for them because now they won’t have to play Sonny’s on Friday night there because Sonny’s is the #16 seed.

Travis Clark has a low release at times.

3rd Place – Str8play/Rebel/MAJ/DTS/LA Empire

CA-AA Record 4-2

Str8play winds up 3rd and played some long games with Westpoint and Sports Reach. Str8play is pretty good at letting the game come to them, they aren’t afraid of long games, and they tend to only beat themselves when they argue borderline calls. But for the most part they have played like a Major team all year long. They played without Mike Nino and Brian Zirkle. They added Jacob Neal as another pitcher who won ‘B’ Worlds last year with Van Wert Frickers and the Challenge Cup ‘B’ with Team Ohio. He was a spark defensively and offensively when he came in the game and the Str8play defense at times is underrated. Str8play still needs to turn in stats for the Crown Town.

Str8play picked up Joey Capparelli from Juno.

4th Place – WestPoint

IN-AA Record 4-2

WestPoint had a nice comeback win against Weather Pro in their opener Friday night but lost in the tournament twice to Str8play, giving up a big lead in the 2nd game while using their homer’s early in that one. They have used a lot of different players this year. They were led by Kyle Fisher, Nathan Francis, Kyle Johnson, Jess Maloney, Kendall Welborn, and Daryl Yoder who were all over .700. Canfield led with 10 HR and Welborn with 22 RBI.

Tied 5th – Ely Reel/Schlabach/MSGA Sports

OH-B Record 3-2

Ely Reel had their best finish of the season. They beat a good Blue Ox ‘B’ team 20-15, came up a run short of I-57, then dropped to the loser’s bracket and shut down Weather Pro and Nally’s before losing a great battle with Str8play 35-34. A fun team to follow and there are 2 condensed games coming out with Ely Reel in them. They were led by David Schwartz .857, 1 HR, 11 RBI. Rookie Andre Yoder .833, 10 HR, 19 RBI. Veteran James Miller .739, 5 HR, 15 RBI. And pitcher Billy Malovrh who had opposing offenses off balance and played the shots up the middle well.

Andre Yoder who was just picked up by Ely Reel went 15-18, .833, with 10 HR

Tied 5th – I-57 Roofing/Beechy’s/Royce Geo/SA

IL-A Record 2-2

I-57 played without the Yoder brothers but picked up Cody Roton from JBL and Lyf Nimmo from Monsta. They held on to beat Ely Reel 19-18 but couldn’t hit with the wind blowing in against Sports Reach in a 23-7 loss. In their final game they lost to WestPoint 34-11. The offense was slow but led by Orlando Olivera .786, 6 HR, 11 RBI, and the lefty Jacob Hoskins .733, 5 HR, 10 RBI. I-57 is the #5 seed going into the Smoky and they are the #1 ‘A’ team in the nation.

Tied 7th – Nally’s/Q Solutions/One Shot

KS-A Record 3-2

Lost to Seminoles in their opener, beat 2 non conference teams, then beat Legendz on a walk off homer 28-25, before losing to Ely Reel. They showed some life. Colton Leet was .955 with 8 HR and 17 RBI and Tyler Cooklin who played with Siteman last year was .813 with 7 extra base hits. Washington, Brown, and Page all pitched.

Tied 7th – Seminoles/NACSF.INC/TPS/RS

OK-A Record 3-2

Seminoles finally got a couple of nice wins over Nally’s and Thin Air. Lost to Resmondo and WestPoint. 22nd in Conference points.

More Teams

Tied 9th – Weather Pro/Cedar Creek/ TSC (IN-B) (3-2) – Nearly pulled off a big upset of WestPoint on Friday night but lost by 1. Beat 3 non-conference teams. Couldn’t get the offense going against Ely Reel in a 22-3 loss.

Tied 9th – Blue Ox Exteriors (CO-B) (3-2) – Therkildsen and the Blue Ox won 3 games against non-conference teams. Lost to Ely Reel and WestPoint.

Tied 9th – THIN AIR (CO-B) (3-2) – Thin Air beat 3 non conference teams including T’s 13. Ended up losing to Seminoles.

Tied 9th – Legendz/CE/Adiktiv (OK-A) (1-2) – Legendz played without manager Brandon Miller and lead off hitter Jason Branch. They had some new faces. They beat Thin Air on an appealed illegal player. Lost to Sports Reach by 8. Then Nally’s sent them home on a walk off homer. The offense was sluggish but led by Cody Anthony .750 with 5 HR.