2025 ‘A’ World tournament report!

2025 ‘A’ World

Viera, Florida

October 3-4

Nate McGray lays out on the first day of the ‘A’ Worlds!

‘A’ World Team List

‘A’ World Video Links!

Men’s ‘A’ Results & Bracket Link

2025 Men’s ‘A’ Picture Album link

BallClubz Boxscore Link

BallClubz Team Stats Link

A World – F1’s vs Chick-fil-a condensed game link

‘A’ World Quarterfinal – CutThroatSports vs Bay Area Legends condensed game link

‘A’ World – Legendz vs Dirty Vegas condensed game link

‘A’ World Semifinals – Legendz vs CutThroatSports condensed game link

‘A’ World Semifinals – Chick-fil-a vs Charm Builders condensed game link

‘A’ Worlds Winner’s Final – Charm Builders vs Legendz condensed game link

‘A’ World Loser’s Final – CutThroatSports vs Charm Builders condensed game link

‘A’ World Championship – Legendz vs CutThroatSports condensed game link

‘A’ World Highlight Clips link

Friday Recap

The men’s ‘A’ Worlds began on Friday, October 3rd on the Red and White Quads at the Spacecoast Complex in Viera, Florida. There were 30 teams total. 8 ‘A’ teams and 22 ‘B’ teams that stuck around after ‘B’ Worlds and played the ‘A’. After the ‘B’ Worlds used the Pro-M ball on 300 foot temp fences with the wind blowing out which made home runs too easy to hit, the USSSA directors made a good decision to play the ‘A’ on the 325 foot fences with the Pro-M ball. Unfortunately, the wind then blew straight in on 3 of the 4 fields they used so the scores on those fields were down a little bit.

The first round of 30 started at 9 AM Friday morning as the ‘B’ teams upset ‘A’ team after ‘A’ team. Chick-fil-a (VA-B) knocked off Team Proaxion (Canada-A) 13-12. Charm Builder’s (OH-B) beat Primetime (GA-A) 10-4. And Comatose (WI-B) knocked off BeHappy (AZ-A) 28-20. In the 2nd round the upsets continued as F1’s (TX-B) beat SNI (FL-A) 6-3. The ‘A’ teams that survived the first two rounds were #1 seed Bay Area Legends (CA-A) who beat J&I 18-17. Dirty Vegas (TX-A) who beat D2/Brush Masters 29-13 as Donald Hollingsworth and Steve Paramore each went 4-4. And Legendz/Beloli (OK-A) who beat Stars (CO-B) 27-3. Matt Mosel, John Schlabach, Carlin Yoder, and Zach Sterry were all on base 4-4 in that win.

So, the quarterfinals began on Friday evening with no ‘A’ teams left in the top half of the bracket. Those two games were on White Marucci with the wind blowing in and were low scoring games. Chick-fil-a held off F1’s 12-9 as Drew Henderson hit a big 2 run homer. And Charm Builders beat Comatose 6-5. In the lower part of the bracket one of the best games of the tournament was played as the CutThroatSports ‘B’ team battled Bay Area Legends. CutThroat got all of the breaks as Bay Area misplayed a number of balls on the fence leading to two out runs and a Kyle Harmon hit an inside the park home run. When you add in a 460 foot homer by Joe Lewis and a clutch top of the 7th pinch hit 3 run homer by Bryan Torres, CutThroat ended up with a dramatic 24-22 upset! At 9:15 PM it was a battle between the last two remaining ‘A’ teams in the winner’s bracket, Legendz and Dirty Vegas. Legendz led from the start, 4-2 after 1 inning, 12-6 after 3 innings, and in the 5th center fielder Nate McGray hit a 3 run homer to make it 17-6 then made a spectacular diving catch on a line drive. In the 6th Steve Pierce hit a 3 run homer to make it 20-7 and Legendz won by the run rule in 6 innings 22-7. Veteran pitcher Shawn Jones who sparked Legendz late season run when he came over from Bay Area, was 3-3 in the game.

Final 4 Recap

Charm put it on Chick-fil-a from the start in the semfinals.

The semifinals were played Saturday morning back in the Red Quad with a very strong wind blowing in on the Legendz vs CutThroat game, and the wind blew across the field left to right on the Chick-fil-a vs Charm Builders game. In the CFA vs Charm game, Charm Builders scored 13 runs on 5 home runs in the bottom of the 1st inning. In the bottom of the 2nd Charm’s Andre Yoder hit a grand slam after a number of walks and they went up 20-1 and run ruled CFA 28-3 to advance to the winner’s final at noon. Meanwhile Legendz adjusted to the nasty winds on their field, getting out to an early 6-1 lead. CutThroat left them loaded in the 5th, then managed to pull within 6-3 in the bottom of the 6th on a Dylan Husted 2 out 2 run double. In the top of the 7th Legendz pinch hitter Cody Anthony hit a key 2 run homer to go up 8-3 and that was the final score. The home run was the only one hit in the game for Legendz.

Winner’s Final Recap

Legendz and Charm put it all on the line in the winner’s final!

The winner’s bracket final moved over to the traditional White Marucci field where it rained hard and the wind blew in hard in the early going and Charm Builders hit a couple of sacrifice fly’s to score their early runs. Legendz Kyle Slicker hit a backside homer in the bottom of the 1st, Legendz turned a double play in the top of the 2nd, and Charm Builders returned the favor with 3 nice plays in a row on grounders to shut out Legendz in the bottom of the 2nd. Neither team scored from the bottom of the 2nd until the bottom of the 4th when Steve Pierce hit a 3 run homer to put Legendz up 5-3. In the top of the 5th Charm Builder’s tied it at 5-5 when a walk led to a Jeremy Troyer 2 run backside homer. In the bottom of the 5th Kyle Slicker hit a 2 out 2 run double to put Legendz up 7-5 and that was the final score as neither team scored in the last inning and a half. Slicker, John Schlabach, and Gary Levesque were each 2-3 in the victory.

Loser’s Bracket

Kyle Harmon tries to get one threw that stingy Charm Builder’s infield.

In the loser’s bracket which played out all day Friday and into Saturday, all 7 of the ‘A’ teams that lost fell into the bottom half of the loser’s bracket. Primetime beat the ‘B’ champs I57/I55, then SNI 19-15, before losing to Cheap Suits 23-14 who had sent home BeHappy. Proaxion beat Thin Air 34-17, then Moneyball 29-11, before Dirty Vegas beat them 16-6, and then Dirty Vegas ended Bay Area Legends 16-6 before the Chick-fil-a ‘B’ team dropped down and sent them packing 13-3. In the top half of the loser’s bracket F1’s and Fisher’s made runs before CutThroat dropped down and beat F1’s 9-6. Then in the loser’s final in the late afternoon Saturday, CutThroatSports beat Chick-fil-a 18-5 before sending Charm Builder’s home 19-7 in the loser’s bracket finals. In that game Joe Acevedo hit a big 3 run homer, then Husted a 3 run shot, Wright a 2 run shot, and Acevedo another homer. Then Husted at middle infield and Harmon at pitcher closed out the game with some great defense. So, Chick-fil-a finished 4th and Charm Builder’s 3rd.

Championship Recap

Legendz Nate McGray hits their 1st homer of the game in the 5th inning.

In the championship Saturday evening CutThroatSports used base hits to take an 8-2 lead including 5 straight hits to start the game and a big 2 run double by Blake Madewell. Legendz then base hit their way to 7 runs in the top of the 2nd to take a 9-8 lead as Davy Schwartz painted the 3rd base line for a 2 run double with 2 strikes! In the bottom of the 3rd Joe Acevedo hit the first home run of the game, a 3 run shot and Thompson hit an RBI triple to put CutThroat up 12-9. In the top of the 4th Joe Acevedo at 3rd base made a nice diving stop and a rolling throw to first for the out as CutThroat held Legendz scoreless in the 3rd and 4th innings. In the top of the 5th Legendz outfielder Carlin Yoder tied the game at 12-12 on a double down the line and Nate McGray hit Legendz first home run of the game, a 3 run shot, then Zach Sterry hit a 3 run shot to put them up 17-12. In the bottom of the 5th Shawn Jones at pitcher started a 1-10-3 double play to end the inning and Legendz “freed up” and John Schlabach, Steve Pierce, Zach Sterry, and Cody Anthony all homered in a 6 run 6th and Legendz closed it out 24-15 to win the 2026 USSSA ‘A’ World Championship! Matt Mosel 4-5, John Schlabach 5-5, and Carlin Yoder 4-5 led the offense which hit 5 home runs and 5 doubles out of their 26 hits overall.

CutThroat 3rd baseman Joe Acevedo makes a diving stop and a rolling throw for the out.

Long Bomber of the ‘A’ World!

Legendz left handed slugger Steve Pierce gets the Long Bomber of the ‘A’ World.

USSSA ‘A’ World Results and Awards

MVP – Legendz pitcher Shawn Jones

Defensive MVP – ET

Offensive MVP – DT

Manager of the A World – Brandon Miller, Jason Montalvo, and Josh Schlabach

Team by Team Notes

1st Place – Legendz/Beloli/MSGA Sports

Conf ‘A’ from OK – Record 6-0

Congratulations to the sponsorship/managerial group of Jason Montalvo, Josh Schlabach, and Brandon Miller on their championship. The team really came together after picking up Shawn Jones at pitcher and the defense and offense seemed to rally around that move late in the season when Legendz basically played like a good ‘AA’ team in Evansville, the Conference Championship, and throughout the ‘A’, ‘AA’, and Major Worlds!