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2025 Conference Championship
Columbus, Ohio
September 12-13
Middle Wars at the Conference Championship.
RoofX pitcher Kyle Center makes the play after being hit in the foot!
Team List
Conference Championship Video and Article Links
Conference Championships Results & Bracket Link
2025 Conference Championships Picture Album
I-57/I-55 vs Fishers Softball condensed game link
Anarchy vs Primetime condensed game link
Legendz vs Proton condensed game link
Fishers Softball vs RoofX condensed game link
Sports Reach vs I-57 Roofing condensed game link
Chick-fil-a vs WestPoint condensed game link
Primetime vs Resmondo condensed game link
Cheap Suits vs Resmondo condensed game link
Legendz vs Juno Athletics condensed game link
Sports Reach vs RoofX condensed game link
Ataraxis vs Resmondo condensed game link
Juno vs RoofX condensed game link
Winner’s Final – Resmondo vs RoofX condensed game link
WestPoint vs Proton condensed game link
Cheap Suits vs I-57 Roofing condensed game link
Juno vs Resmondo condensed game link
Championship condensed game link
Friday Night Recap
Somehow Primetime pitcher Rod Armour tore his bicep on this catch?
Note to teams, you do turn in stats for the Conference Championship.
The 2025 Conference Championships were played at the Berliner Park in Columbus, Ohio on high school baseball sized fields in great softball weather. The double elimination tournament began on Friday, September 12th at 4 PM eastern time with 18 teams and they used what seemed to be a bad batch of Hardcore balls or at the very least they did not fly like they did at the Smoky, Phoenix, Connecticut, or even Memphis Majors. The Hardcore was doing some incredible “dancing”, as when hit square, it sort of squishes then when it gets passed the infield it “pops” and then knuckles like crazy. Also a lot of bats were failing as teams complain that the USSSA tester isn’t calibrated correctly? As we know, testing is not an exact science. They did use 75 foot bases instead of the 70 of years past. At 4 PM there were 2 “play in” games. Primetime/Marucci/Ballhawk (GA-A) got off to a slow start vs Anarchy/Rebel/TAFN/Midstate/PT (MI-B) on the slightly bigger field #17 with its 310-358-358-352-312 home run fence dimensions. Neither team scored more than 6 runs in an inning and both teams walked too many hitters. In the top of the 2nd Jaquavius Cureton made a great catch on the fence in center field for Primetime. In the bottom of the 5th Primetime pitcher Rod Armour hit a key 3 run homer and Anarchy kept themselves in the game by turning a double play in that inning. Going into the 7th inning Anarchy held a 1 run lead but did not score in the top of the inning even after Mike Snyder hit a leadoff double. In the bottom of the 7th needing 1 to tie and 2 to win, Primetime got a leadoff single by Jarvis Riggins and “Sir” Francis Fisk hit a walk off homer to win 16-15. Fisk was 4-4 in the game. Primetime out homered Anarchy 6-2. Rod Armour was 3-3 in the game but left the game late when tearing his bicep catching a low line drive at pitcher and is out for the year. Meanwhile on the show field #14 with its 303-330-352-352-298 dimensions, Fishers/StoltzfusWelding/All Hustle (PA-B) jumped out to an 11-6 lead on I-57 Roofing / I-55 Logistics (MO-B) as Andrew Stoltzfus hit a 2 out 3 run double in the bottom of the 2nd, and good infield defense by Fishers shut down I55 in the top of the 3rd. More defense, this time by pitcher Levi Stoltzfus and a “diver” double play by Andrew at 3rd, kept I55 from scoring more than the 5 they already had in the top of the 5th. Fishers playing without their tall 1st basemen David “Stretch” Smucker, put up 5 runs on 1 homer in the bottom of the 4th, and they staved off a 2 out rally by I55 in the top of the 7th to win 19-16 even though I55 out homered them 5-3. Leadoff hitter, Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year candidate Matthew Kauffman went 5-5 and hit for the cycle in the victory for Fishers.
Primetime’s Franky Fisk hits a walk off homer to beat Anarchy in a play in game.
The “Round of 16” began at 5:45 PM with a battle of ‘AA’ teams – Chick-fil-A/Shore OL/LS/Skyren/BAF vs WestPoint on the show field. The home team in the Conference Championships is always the higher seeded team. This was the highest scoring game of the tournament. WestPoint hit a line drive up the middle that hit pitcher Brandon Jonas and Chick-fil-a could not find a pitcher that could throw strikes consistently after that. Chick-fil-a walked 13 batters in 4 innings as WestPoint scored 10 in the bottom of the 2nd, 21 in the bottom of the 3rd, and 13 in the bottom of the 4th to leave Chick-fil-a on the field 52-32 by the 20 run mercy rule. WestPoint was led by Kyle Fisher 6-7 with 9 RBI as he hit for the cycle, Adam Kaminski who was 6-7 with 4 home runs and 10 RBI, and Tyler Cowles who was 7-7. Over on field #17 ATARAXIS/SONNYS/JBLNEWBREEDKOVALBAF (MD-AA) struggled past a depleted DIRTY VEGAS/BDC/ARK CONCEPTS (TX-A) team 12-11 after trailing 11-6 going into the bottom of the 7th. They won on a walk off 3 run homer by Jason Martel. Cheap Suits /REPUBLIC REALTY /ESP (CA-A) beat rival Bay Area Legends (CA-A) 20-13 out homering them 4-1 as Brandon Traylor and the 2025 Home Run Champion Demario Boyd each hit 3 homers. Reach/Demarini/Worshams/RedAthlete (KY-AA) who has been playing better, upset I-57 Roofing/AXE/SHIRTSandLOGOS/SA (IL-AA) 16-11, pretty much leading the whole way, and getting key double plays. I-57 just didn’t have a focused offense. Jason Magnum, Josh Fyffe, and Dagmar Pena each went 3-4 in the win as both teams hit 7 HR on the field #16 with its 300-338-358-360-300 dimensions. At 7:30 PM the “Round of 16” finished up with Resmondo-SIS-Skoni-StubTerm-RDD-S&S (FL-Major) 4 inning run ruling Primetime 36-15, out homering them 12-4. Most of the Resmondo offense was on it and Phill Matte was 5-5 with 2 HR and 6 RBI in the win. Travis Clark, Jason Matusik, and Jeremy Yates all did not play much in the conference championships due to nagging injuries etc and Kevin Bazat wasn’t there. Apparently Clark was hit in the USA Nationals and will be ready for the Major World Series next month. RoofX/Thunder/BD/CE/Chosen/RF/Pure (IN-Major) scored 19 runs in the bottom of the 2nd and made short work of Fishers 30-10 in 4 innings. Arlis Miller, Joe Bennett, Terry Lambright, and Chris Anninos were all 4-4. All of the RoofX players were healthy and playing. Juno Athletics / LSR (NJ-Major) advanced past BeHappy/Proton/Standard (AZ-A) 30-24 in a long game over on field #15 with its 308-358-358-360-315 dimensions. I don’t have the details on this one as I was filming the Proton game and neither team kept score on the Ballclubz electronic scoring app. Juno was playing without power hitter Donnie Walsh and pitcher Mason Farmer this weekend. In a very entertaining game Legendz/Beloli/MSGA Sports (OK-A) trying to save money by only sending the players that could get to the tournament cheap, played Proton/Str8play/Rebel/Dalsanders (CA-Major) who was playing without Ryan Honeycutt (wrist). In the top of the 4th Legendz Nate McGray gave them the lead on a 3 run homer 17-14. A Kyle Slicker 2 run homer made it 19-14 in a 10 run inning. In the bottom of the 4th Legendz pitcher Kevin Miller got Brandon Streets to strike out looking and right fielder David Schwartz made a pair of nice catches. In the top of the 6th Proton 3rd baseman Bryan Dezern made a pair of spectacular plays to keep them in the game but Protons bad luck continued when Brandon Streets who grounded out was walking back to the dugout when he was hit by an errant throw to first and an out was assessed. I have never seen that happen before. In the bottom of the 7th needing 10 on 6 to tie, Proton came up short 29-20 and Legendz had pulled off the unlikely upset.
The tournament opened with a Legendz upset of Proton.
This errant throw actually hit Brandon Streets who was walking back to the dugout from the previous play and he was called out.
At 9:30 PM Friday night as it cooled off the “Round of 8” quarterfinals began. Ataraxis run ruled WestPoint 35-18 over on field #15 as one prominent ‘AA’ player claimed, “that will be the matchup in the ‘AA’ World finals.” Resmondo beat Cheap Suits 34-12 in 4 innings over on field #17, scoring 12 in the bottom of the 4th to leave them on the field. Tyler Marshburn was 4-4 and hit for the cycle. Juno batted around in the bottom of the 1st against Legendz, John Williams made some incredible plays at 3rd base, and Michal Rainer and Chad Mullins hit grand slams as Juno rolled and won 32-5 after scoring 18 runs in the bottom of the 3rd. And RoofX scored 12 in the bottom of the 4th but went 7 innings in a win over Sports Reach 26-16 out homering Sports Reach 13-8. Faron Fry was 4-4 with 3 extra base hits in the victory.
Final 4 Recap
Semifinals – Juno CF Erik Nevoso robs a RoofX home run.
The semifinals were played Saturday morning in near perfect and cooler softball weather. RoofX began their game on the show field #14 with Juno as Joe Joe Bennett at 3rd base made a diving stop and right fielder Arlis Miller caught one on the fence. In the bottom of the 1st Austyn Dawe hit one of the furthest home runs of the tournament and Joe Joe hit a laser, but Juno right fielder Mitch Lendenski tracked down two nice catches to hold RoofX to 8. After 2 complete innings RoofX led Juno 16-3 but they had used up 8 of their 16 home run limit. In the top of the 3rd inning Juno scored 14 runs on 6 homers to take a 17-16 lead with half of that damage coming after the 2nd out. In the top of the 4th Arlis Miller robbed a Juno home run and in the bottom of the 4th Juno middle infielder Bishop Harris made two great plays to hold RoofX to 7 runs and a 25-22 lead with both teams hitting 12 HR. But in the bottom of the 5th RoofX scored 11 on 3 HR and a flurry of doubles to separate and Juno answered with 7 on 3 all with two outs in the top of the 6th. Erik Nevoso robbed a homer in center field in the bottom of the 6th for Juno, but Juno – out of homers – went down in order 1-2-3 in the top of the 7th and RoofX advanced 39-32. Arlis Miller and Austyn Dawe were each 6-6 in the win.
In the other semifinal over on the bigger field #17, Ataraxis scored 6 runs on a bunch of extra base hits vs Resmondo pitcher Brad Reckart and it was 6-6 after 1 inning with both teams making some critical errors. In the bottom of the 2nd Everett Williams hit a 3 run homer for Resmondo to tie the game at 10-10 and then Resmondo scored 4 more runs to go up 14-10. Both teams scored in every inning of this game. In the 3rd inning Ataraxis Brock Frentzel and Resmondos Everett Williams traded 3 run homers. In the top of the 4th Ataraxis Orlando Castillo hit a bases loaded double, in the top of the 5th Jason Martel hit a 3 run homer and Castillo a 2 runner, and Chris Greinert in the top of the 6th hit a 3 run no doubt homer. But Resmondo scored right along with them and Resmondo got a rare 4-10-2 double play in the top of the 6th and scored 11 on 4 HR in the bottom of the 6th as Bubba Mack hit 2 home runs in the inning and Phil Matte a grand slam. In the top of the 7th down 11, Ataraxis managed only 4 and lost 42-35. Bradley Jones and Everett Williams were each 6-6 on base in the win with Everett driving in 8 runs. Ataraxis played without 2nd baseman Marc Wik the rest of the tournament as a ball hit one of his fingers when covering a base on Friday night and swelled up. Ataraxis was also playing with two infield pickups.
Resmondo gets a key out at the plate in their semifinal win over Ataraxis.
Winner’s Final Recap
RoofX middle infielder Jeremy Fry makes another spectacular play in the winner’s final.
In the winner’s bracket finals, it was a high noon showdown between the #1 team in the country RoofX and the #2 team Resmondo. And whoever finished higher in this tournament would have the #1 seed for the Major World Series. RoofX right fielder Arlis Miller ran down a couple of balls in right field in the top of the 2nd holding Resmondo to 2 runs and a 7-4 lead. Both teams hit a bunch of solo homers and ground outs early on in this game. What was interesting about this tournament on this artificial turf at Berliner Park was the consistency of the infield defenses making play after play, especially the Resmondo infield. While a month ago at the Evansville turf with the strange bounces caused by its turf filler, it looked like the entire Conference didn’t know how to field a grounder. In the bottom of the 2nd RoofX came in and scored 9 runs on 2 homers as Arlis continued on his home run binge. Resmondo put up deadly zero’s in the 3rd and 5th innings while turning a 6-10-3 double play in the bottom of the 4th to hold RoofX in check. In the bottom of the 5th RoofX, up 19-13, looked like they made a conscious effort to try and leave Resmondo on the field by hitting solo homers but they came up 2 runs short leading 26-13. Sometimes this is a dangerous strategy to play but Resmondo only managed to outscore RoofX 13-4 down the stretch and RoofX won the game 30-26, out homering Resmondo 16-11. Austyn Dawe and Joe Bennett were each 5-5 in the win as Bennett hit for the cycle and they ruined Resmondo’s Kyle Pearson (KP23) offensive performance as he went 5-5 with 4 HR, a walk, and 10 RBI. KP23 hit a ball I estimated at 437 feet and Andrew Collins one that went 464 in this game.
Loser’s Bracket Recap
Proton’s Jeff Roxby walks off WestPoint early Saturday.
The loser’s bracket played out all day on Saturday as Sports Reach beat Primetime 20-14, Legendz 26-9, and Ataraxis 37-33 in the top part of the bracket to reach the 4th place game. In the bottom half of the bracket I-57 Roofing beat Fishers 26-10, Cheap Suits 21-18, and Proton 24-19 before Juno dropped down and beat them 30-29 by scoring 9 runs in the bottom of the 7th and winning on a base hit by Josh Riley. Then in the 4th place game Juno scored 10 runs in the bottom of the 3rd to go up 17-11 on Sports Reach before blanking in the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings? Sports Reach meanwhile pushed ahead of Juno 21-17 going into the bottom of the 7th. In the bottom of the 7th Juno “opened up” and got home runs from Erik Nevoso, Mitch Lendenski, and Josh Riley to pull to within 1 run before making 2 straight outs. Then Joe Boland and Michal Rainer hit clutch back to back home runs to tie and win the game 22-21. Sports Reach left 6 home runs on the table. In the losers final it was all Resmondo as they scored 11 in the bottom of the 2nd, 7 in the 3rd, and 8 in the bottom of the 4th to leave Juno on the field 30-10 after a little bit of a middle war. Tyler Marshburn at lead off, Everett Williams, and Phil Matte were all 4-4.
Juno’s Josh Riley walks off I-57 Roofing in the bottom of the 7th.
Juno’s Michal Rainer walks off Sports Reach in the 4th place game 22-21.
Championship Recap
Resmondo’s Bradley Jones hits a creature in the championship game.
The championship game was a rematch with Resmondo and RoofX as night fell and the temperatures cooled off into the upper 60’s. There was some crisp, hard hitting softball being played. Resmondo set the tone for the showdown by hitting RoofX pitcher Kyle Center twice in the 1st inning but Kyle made two spectacular plays on both shots and got the outs otherwise Resmondo would have had much more than 9 runs on 5 homers that they scored. In the top of the 2nd inning RoofX left fielder Chris Anninos robbed a homer but Resmondo scored 8 more runs in both the 2nd and 3rd innings to lead 25-7. Both teams scored in every inning in this game and the lights went out for 15 minutes at one point delaying the action? At one point, both teams traded double plays, but Resmondo slowly pulled away to a mercy rule 38-22 win in 6 innings, out homering RoofX 14-11 to force a late night “if” game. Steele Lewis and Heath Barnes were each 5-5 with 3 HR a piece.
RoofX left fielder Chris Anninos robs a homer in the championship.
I thought Jeremy was out of the baseline?
In the “if” game, they flipped a coin for home team and Resmondo won. A refocused RoofX team scored 9 runs on 3 homers to start the game in the top of the 1st inning. In the bottom of the 1st RoofX center fielder Brandon Yoder robbed Tyler Marshburn’s leadoff home run bid and the Fry brothers combined to turn a double play as they held Resmondo to their 1st zero. There was no real wind to speak of so they played what I like to call “pure” softball. In the bottom of the 3rd with Resmondo down 18-3 they batted around the order, scoring 9 runs to get back in the game. But RoofX went off for 16 runs in the top of the 4th after Austyn Dawe hit a 2 run triple to get it started and they led Resmondo 34-12. The middle war escalated in the bottom of the 4th when Marshburn slid through 2nd base and appeared to hit Faron Fry covering on a fielder’s choice with Faron not looking to happy. In my opinion players should slide hard to the base at second and not through it… Resmondo did extend the game in the bottom of the 4th on a Bubba Mack homer to avoid the run rule but it was all about the middle shots after that. The benches cleared at one point with non-players being ejected from both teams. In the top of the 5th Austyn Dawe who apparently told Resmondo he was going middle, was egged on by Travis Clark (who was not playing this tournament) who said to Dawe, “you said you were going middle, you better do it”. And Dawe hit an absolute seed right past pitcher Brad Reckart to stir the pot even more. In the bottom of the 5th down 39-18, Resmondo took 3 retaliation shots at RoofX pitcher Kyle Center but he snapped off two of them for outs and Jeremy Fry in the middle made a play on the 3rd to finish the game 39-21. And that was that. To be continued at the Major World Series? RoofX out homered Resmondo 14-10 as the first 4 batters in the RoofX lineup all went 5-6 and Arlis Miller hit for the cycle. RoofX will be the #1 seed for the USSSA Major World Series October 8-11 at the Spacecoast Stadium in Viera, Florida. Resmondo however as the #2 seed will be on the side of the bracket with no other Major teams because of the way the seeding worked out.
Benches clear in the “if” game after middle war and slide at 2nd base.
Long Bomber of the Week!
RoofX’s Andrew Collins pictured above and Resmondo’s Kyle Pearson (KP23) pictured below were the Long Bombers of the Week! These two shots were both over 430 feet.
Results and Awards
MVP – RoofX 1st Baseman Austyn Dawe .800, 9 HR, 24 RBI
Defensive MVP – RoofX middle infielder Jeremy Fry
Offensive MVP – Resmondo middle infielder Heath Barnes .821, 12 HR, 29 RBI
Team by Team Notes
1st Place – RoofX/Thunder/BD/CE/Chosen/RF/Pure
IN-Major Record 5-1
RoofX is the #1 seed for the Major and they get Tyler Ervine back for that tournament October 8-11. They added power to the team this year but still had the best defense in the league. On paper it appears they are positioned to give Resmondo the best run that RoofX has ever given them at the Major and that group has given Resmondo a run for their money every year since they entered the Conference as a ‘B’ team called Silverbacks!
Tyler Ervine will be back for the Major World Series!
2nd Place – Resmondo-SIS-Skoni-StubTerm-RDD-S&S
FL-Major Record 5-2
Resmondo came up a game short of winning the points standings but they rested a lot of their players who had nagging injuries including pitcher Travis Clark. Brad Reckart pitched all of the games and got them to that “if” game where the offense disappeared or was distracted by the middle war? Look for Resmondo to try and avoid an upset bid from the non-major teams in their half of the Major World Series bracket while using those games to “tweak” their lineup and find out which 10 players are mashing home runs before they play RoofX/Juno/Proton in the winner’s final that Friday night.
SS Tyler Marshburn has led the Resmondo defense all year.
Everett Williams led Resmondo with a .862 on base percentage in Columbus.
3rd Place – Juno Athletics / LSR
NJ-Major Record 4-2
Juno won enough games at the Conference Championship to move up to 4th in the points standings just ahead of Proton. They played without pitcher Mason Farmer and power hitter Donnie Walsh. Sport Williams was picked up to pitch and did a great job. Juno is built for the Major World Series but doesn’t have the power hitting depth of Resmondo to be able to have anyone of their main home run hitters struggle at the show.
Sport Williams pitched, hit, and stabbed line drives in Mason Farmer’s absence.
4th Place – Reach/Demarini/Worshams/RedAthlete
KY-AA Record 4-2
Sports Reach came on strong at the end of the year after changing their lineup to be more about hitting than defense. Can the momentum carry through at the ‘AA’ Worlds?
Jordan Robinson robs a hit on the fence.
Faces in the Crowd / More Pictures
Conference Commissioner Strojan Kennison.
A small softball playing crowd was on hand. The GSL C, D, and E Worlds were going on in the park.
Conference USSSA had 11 different winning teams in 23 tournaments.
The pre-post season computer rankings.
