Added Best Defensive Plays —> 2025 Las Vegas Major tournament report!

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2025 Las Vegas Major

Las Vegas, Nevada

March 28-30

Ataraxis pitcher Brian Garner stabs a missile headed for his facemask.

Las Vegas Team List

Las Vegas Video and Article Links

Las Vegas Bracket and Results link

Conference YouTube Videos link

Completed Las Vegas Picture Album link

Las Vegas Archived Games link

Las Vegas Stats link (Updating throughout the week)

CutThroatSports vs Cheyenne Swenson condensed game link

Cheap Suits vs Bay Area Legends condensed game link

CutThroatSports vs Proton condensed game link

Ataraxis vs Hybrid 2 Go condensed game link

Friday Recap

The 15th “Sin City” Classic opened the 2025 Conference USSSA season at the Big League Dreams park in Las Vegas, Nevada. There were 38 men’s teams from 9 different states including Strictly Aloha from Hawaii. 11 of the teams were from the Conference USSSA league and they were fighting for the 224 points that went to the winner. The tournament began on Friday morning at 8 am with 6 “play in” games and then the “Round of 32” where the 11 Conference teams began play, started around noon. The weather was near perfect for slow pitch with some wind at times and then it cooled off a little bit in the evenings. They used the Dudley Pro-M ball with normal Conference home run limits on the smaller than normal MLB replica softball fields with artificial turf infields and grass/dirt outfields.

In the “Round of 32” there was an upset as Hybrid2Go/Franchise Athletics a ‘C’ team out of California tied at 19-19 with Dirty Vegas/BDC/Ark Concepts (TX-A) going into the 7th scored 3 and then held Dirty to 2 to win 22-21. Meanwhile the 10 other Conference teams all advanced, most by the run rule, except for Cheyenne Swenson OF/Vivid/Payeload a new Conference ‘A’ team from Arizona who held off SOB’s/Horton Air/TCLF/G&S Auto/Drip (AZ-C) 29-28 in the bottom of the 7th when SOB had the tying run on 3rd and the winning run on 2nd.

Cheyenne’s LF Daniel Larson makes a leaping catch.

The “Round of 16” was also played later on Friday night as the sun went down, the temperatures cooled off, and the scoring went up. BeHappy/Proton/Standard (AZ-A) beat the new Conference ‘C’ team NOVVA/TallonPainting/Marucci/AS from Utah 41-31 overcoming an early 21-11 deficit. Danny Higa was on base 6-6, Jagger Harjo and Zach Walters each drove in 7 runs, and Dustin Wager hit for the cycle in the win. Ataraxis/Sonny’s/JBL/Newbreed/Koval/BAF (MD-AA) the old Nitro Circus team run ruled NSG another Bay Area ‘B’ team in 4 innings 54-17 as leadoff hitter Brock Frentzel was on base 7-7 with 7 runs scored. Hybrid2Go who had beaten Dirty Vegas in their opener then beat I-Stone, a new conference ‘C’ team from Utah 30-15. The rumor was that Hybrid2Go has a number of former pro and college baseball players on the team. WestPoint won their 2nd game 36-23 over DTS/MAJ. In the lower half of the bracket Bay Area Legends (CA-A) knocked off KC Lending/SZN Athletics/Pitbull (CA-B) 27-15. Cheap Suits/Republic Realty/ESP (CA-A) jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the 1st inning but ended up going 7 innings in a 35-31 win over D2/Brush Masters (UT-B) as Daniel Cayton, Fred Heiser, Carlos Abrigo, and Brent McClure all were on base 4-5 and they had 23 extra base hits as a team. Proton/Str8play/Rebel (CA-Major) the new Major team in softball and the 2024 ‘AA’ World Champs beat Standard Plumbing/GHPC (AZ-B) 37-30 after leading just 28-23 going into the 7th inning. Daniel Herren, Brandon Streets, Anthony Acevedo, and Jeff Roxby were all on base 5-6 and Ryan Harvey drove in 8 runs in the victory. And CutThroatSports/EliteSEC/Soares/Coursey (CA-B) played Cheyenne Swenson OF in what I felt was the matchup of the night and you can watch that condensed game here before reading about it. CutThroatSports led an entertaining game 23-20 going into the bottom of the 4th with both teams hitting 8 of their 12 home runs. One of the fastest players in Conference USSSA, center fielder Sa-Mory Collier, was putting on a show hitting doubles, triples, making home run robbing catches, and getting an outfield assist. In the bottom of the 5th Cheyenne’s Charlie Cano homered to tie the game at 28-28. But at this point Cheyenne had two runner’s thrown out on the bases. In the top of the 7th CutThroat used their last homer to separate from Chyenne by 5 runs and with no homers left in the bottom of the 7th, Cheyenne came up a run short 29-28 with the bats in their hands.

CutThroatSports CF Sa-Mory Collier was everywhere!

Mike Brown did step in front of home plate and was correctly called out.

Saturday Recap

The “Final 8” of the winner’s bracket started on Yankee field and the show field Fenway at 11 AM. Ataraxis made quick work of BeHappy 33-8 on Yankee field as Brock Frentzel went 4-5 and Cabot Van Til 4-4. Cheap Suits scored 7 runs on 3 home runs in the top of the 1st against rival Bay Area Legends but less than stellar defense by Cheap Suits in the bottom half of the inning led to 13 Bay Area runs. In the top of the 2nd Cheap Suits grabbed a 17-14 lead but was at a 7-4 home run disadvantage with a 12 home run limit. Throughout the game Cheap Suits did not make Bay Area pay for errors like Bay Area made Cheap Suits pay and that was probably the difference. In the bottom of the 3rd inning Bay Area had an inning that never seemed to end as they scored 15 runs and went up 32-23. In the top of the 4th Cheap Suits went down in order 1-2-3 and Bay Area went on to win 39-31 as neither team could score many runs when the home runs were gone. John Franklin was 5-6 with 7 RBI, Misael Tavarez 6-6, and Nick Day 5-6 in the win. For the most part every team was in the tournament were using their home run limits in every game. Back over on Yankee at 12:00 PM Hybrid2Go kept their Cinderella run going with another upset, this time beating WestPoint (IN-AA) by the run rule 32-12! And on Fenway at noon, CutThroatSports scored 5 on 2 in the top of the 1st and used some good defense to hold Proton to just 2 runs in the bottom half of the inning. In the bottom of the 2nd though Proton scored 16 runs on 6 homers to take an 18-10 lead. CutThroat wasn’t done though and answered with 8 in the top of the 3rd to tie the game and they scored in every inning but Proton had better home run management and ended up leaving CutThroat on the field in the bottom of the 5th 37-22 and still had 1 of their 14 home runs left. For Proton Dan Herren, Bryan Dezern, and Dan Kirkwood were all perfect on base and Anthony Acevedo drove in 6 runs.

Left Fielders on Fenway had trouble with the sun in the morning games.

Final 4 Recap

The semifinals and winner’s final can all be viewed in condensed form on the USSSALive YouTube Channel when they come out this week. The games were all played back to back to back on the show field Fenway starting at 4 PM with the upset minded Hybrid2Go taking on one of the favorites Ataraxis to start. H2G played some good defense and hit a grand slam in the 1st inning but trailed 10-5 after one complete and 23-5 going into the bottom of the 2nd. In the bottom of the 4th H2G put up a zero against veteran pitcher Justin Mucciarelli and lost in 5 innings 36-19. Brock Frentzel was again 5-5 in the win. In the other semifinal game Proton scored 16 on 6 against Bay Area Legends in the top of the 1st and led 22-6 on 10 home runs total going into the bottom of the 2nd. But Bay Area responded by scoring 13 runs in the bottom of the 2nd to get back into the game, grabbed a 30-26 lead in the bottom of the 3rd on a Daryl Yoder grand slam, and played some good defense in the top of the 4th to lead 30-29. In the bottom of the 4th Proton shortstop Tyler Dickens made the best diving play of the tournament to hold Bay Area scoreless and Proton grabbed the lead on their last home run in the top of the 5th. To end the inning Bay Area Legends actually went with 6 infielders against Ryan Harvey and a nice play by shortstop Daryl Yoder got them out of the inning. The gimmick defense worked! In the bottom of the 5th Bay Area grabbed the lead 34-32 on a Bradley Scott inside the park homer and neither team could really score without homers and Bay Area held on to win 34-32!

Proton’s Tyler Dickens makes a spectacular diving stop.

Winner’s Final Recap

Mooch injures his shoulder covering 1st base.

The winner’s final was the best game of the day. As the lights went down Bay Area Legends had 4 players that had to leave for their “red eye” flights home including veteran pitcher Shawn Jones. So they had to go with 21 year old Gavin Lambright (Terry from RoofX’s younger brother) at pitcher. In the top of the 2nd Bay Area left the bases loaded after a long inning scoring 8 on 2 to go up 13-7. In the bottom of the 2nd Ataraxis used a bunch of their 14 home runs to score 9 and go up 16-13. The lead seesawed back and forth as Bay Area scored 10 runs in the top of the 3rd to go up 23-16 and they maintained a 25-22 lead after 4 innings getting a double play in the 4th. Bay Area got another double play in the bottom of the 5th and held a 4 homer advantage but Ataraxis still managed to have a 34-30 lead when Lambright at pitcher was drilled in the forearm and going into the 6th inning had to come out of the game. In the top of the 6th Ataraxis 3rd baseman Josh Cardwell made a great diving catch in the 5-6 hole and in the bottom of the 6th Mark Wik made Bay Area pay for all the walks they were giving up without a pitcher, as he hit a 2 run triple to go up 39-34. In the top of the 7th Bay Area made one last run getting a go ahead hit from John Franklin to go up 40-38. But in the bottom of the 7th Adam Ussery for Ataraxis drew a walk and Fred Lattimore hit a walk off homer to win the game 41-40. Marc Wik was 6-6 in the victory for Ataraxis.

Freddie Lattimore hits a walk off homer in the winner’s final.

Loser’s Bracket Recap

In the loser’s bracket which played out all day on Saturday, Dirty Vegas led by the offense of Zach Goleniak (22-23, .957, 11 HR, 32 RBI) won 3 straight games before losing to NOVVA who had won 4 straight. D2 Brush Masters and Standard Plumbing also had some success in the loser’s bracket. But at the end of a long day it was WestPoint scoring double digits in the bottom of the 4th and 5th innings to leave Proton on the field 32-17, and Cheap Suits beating NOVVA by 1 with neither team scoring in the 7th, then scoring 21 runs in the top of the 1st and run ruling Hybrid2Go 34-12 to make it to Sunday.

WestPoint’s Ryan Ramirez finishes off Proton by the run rule with this grand slam late Saturday night.

Sunday Morning

WestPoint’s Drew Smith hits a grand slam against Cheap Suits.

On a crisp cool Sunday morning it was Cheap Suits and WestPoint in the 4th place game. In the top of the 1st inning Cheap Suits scored 8 on 4 leaving 2 on base. In the bottom of the 2nd WestPoint came to life in a big way as Kyle Fisher’s grand slam led to a 30 minute long half inning where WestPoint scored 18 runs on 7 home runs and 5 doubles and it was 24-17 WestPoint after 2 complete innings with the teams tied in home runs hitting 9 of their 14 limit. In the bottom of the 4th WestPoint had a base runner hit by Filip Washington’s batted ball and a great catch by Bay Area 2nd baseman Nico Guillen held WestPoint in check. In the bottom of the 5th though WestPoint’s Tyler Cowles hit a bases loaded double to go up 36-26, WestPoint got a double play after a timeout in the top of the 6th, and then Drew Smith hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 6th and WestPoint won 42-33. Westpoint had superior home run management. Kyle Fisher was 6-6, Drew Smith 5-6, and Adam Kaminkski 5-6 with 4 walks in the win.

WestPoint’s Kyle Fisher laces another liner in the loser’s final vs Bay Area.

In the loser’s bracket finals Bay Area scored 5 on 1 in the top of the 1st and hit 3 straight solo’s in the top of the 2nd taking advantage of some poor WestPoint defense to grab an early lead. But WestPoint went up 15-11 going into the 3rd inning as both teams were giving up extra runs with too many misplays on potential outs. In the top of the 3rd Bay Area grabbed a 16-14 lead but had hit 8 of their 14 HR while WestPoint had hit only 6. In the bottom of the 3rd WestPoint had a huge inning with a bunch of multi run home runs and doubles and scored 19 runs to separate 33-16. In the top of the 5th Bay Area scored 10 runs to extend the game but lost 42-29.

Championship Recap

WestPoint’s Tyler Cowles with a big hit in the championship.

The winner’s bracket finals started just before noon on Sunday in perfect weather with the wind blowing out slightly. In the top of the 1st inning Ataraxis got a double play which led to a WestPoint zero. In the bottom of the 1st Ataraxis scored 5 on 3 but got doubled off first base on a line drive to end the inning. In the top of the 2nd WestPoint’s Adam Kaminski drew yet another walk and they scored 10 runs to go up 10-5. In the bottom of the 2nd led by the base hitting of Marc Wik, Ataraxis went up 12-10. In the top of the 4th Ataraxis pitcher Brian Garner, getting the start in place of Mooch who was out with a shoulder injury from his tumble covering 1st base the night before, got hit on a line drive up the middle but recovered and hit the ball on the ground with his mitt, rolling it to 1st base for an out. Also in the 4th a couple of WestPoint players including center fielder Joey Kampfer had to leave for flights. In the bottom of the 4th Josh Cardwell from Ataraxis hit a grand slam, Brock Frentzel a 2 run triple to tie the game at 31, and Marc Wik hit their last homer to put them up 36-32. In the top of the 5th Ataraxis shortstop Adam Ussery turned a big double play but Ataraxis came in and hit 3 homers for outs in the bottom half of the inning. In the top of the 6th Garner stabbed a nasty line drive aimed at his head in self defense to maintain a 37-35 lead. In the top of the 7th WestPoint needed 2 runs to extend the game and they hit 2 home runs for outs to start the inning, then drew 2 walks with the bases loaded to tie the game, and grabbed a one run lead on a Stevie Hendrickson single. In the bottom of the 7th Ataraxis hit a homer for an out to start the inning, then drew 2 walks, and Chris Greinert then singled off of the shortstops glove to tie the game. WestPoint intentionally walked Josh Kirsten to load the bases and the next batter hit a double play ball to 2nd which should have ended the inning but the 2nd baseman threw the ball home for the force out, out #2, and the next batter made an out anyways so they went to extra innings. In the top of the 8th WestPoint grounded out, hit a homer for an out, singled on a catch/no catch in right field, hit an RBI single, and then a homer for an out to take a 1 run lead. In the bottom of the 8th Ataraxis hit a ground out, and a lineout to start the inning and it looked like we would have an “if” game. But Fred Lattimore doubled, Cabot Van Til walked, then a throwing error on a groundball force play attempt at second went wide and the bases were loaded. With 2 outs and the bases loaded down 1 run, pitcher Brian Garner hit a clutch single up the middle scoring 2 and Ataraxis won 41-40 and with it the tournament victory. Chris Greinert who built the Ataraxis team and is one of the sponsors was 7-7 with 10 RBI in the win!

I want to give a special thanks to the umpires who were short handed all weekend and worked an unprecedented amount of games each day.

Filip Washington makes a game saving tag out at the plate.

Ataraxis pitcher Brian Garner hits the game winning single in the bottom of the 8th.

Long Bomber of the Week!

The Long Bomber of the week was Bay Area’s Misael Tavarez!

Las Vegas Results and Awards

MVP – Josh Cardwell – Ataraxis (.844, 13 HR, 26 RBI)

Defensive MVP – Josh Kirsten – Ataraxis

Offensive MVP – Adam Kaminski – WestPoint

Team by Team Notes

1st Place – Ataraxis/Sonny’s/JBL/Newbreed/Koval/BAF

MD-AA Record 6-0

Ataraxis and Greinert win Las Vegas for the 2nd year in a row. Mooch who was headed for an MVP type weekend shared the pitching duties with Brian Garner who came through in the championship with that game winning hit and a couple of great defensive plays up the middle. Lead off hitter Brock Frentzel, Chris Greinert, and MVP Josh Cardwell were all over .800 on base and Greinert hit 15 HR while Cardwell hit 13. The defense may be improved this year with Cardwell at 3rd, Ussery at SS, Castillo in the middle, and Wik at 2nd. The steady Lattimore is in left, with Defensive MVP Josh Kirsten in center, and Cabot Van Til in right. They have 7 players that have played on Major teams in the last 4 years so they have lots of high level experience. And Jason Martel who was Offensive MVP of the ‘AA’ Worlds last year and is not officially on the roster is waiting in the wings to see if his shoulder heals up properly before joining the team. Pitcher’s Jon Dombrowski and Kevin Miller were not there.

Chris Greinert put up some big numbers .824, 15 HR, 35 RBI

Mooch was headed for an MVP type weekend until the shoulder sidelined him.

2nd Place – WestPoint

IN-AA Record 7-2

WestPoint lost their 3rd game to the Hybrid2Go ‘C’ team by the run rule and then beat D2 Brush Masters, BeHappy, knocked off the Proton Major team late Saturday in a 5 inning run rule, then beat Cheap Suits and Bay Area Legends back to back Sunday morning before losing the championship to Ataraxis in the 8th inning. I don’t believe they would have had enough players to play the “if” game anyways because of flights. A nice comeback from what many think is the most improved team in the Conference. Kyle Johnson did most of the pitching with Roger Fields as the backup. They have veterans Rich Racobaldo and Filip Washington at the top of the order. Kyle Fisher was showing great range at shortstop and hitting laser’s. Joey Kampfer came over from Sports Reach to play center field. They picked up infielder Greg Popatak from Van Wert Frickers, middle infielder Steve Hendrickson, John Radich, and Adam Kaminksi from JBL, Ryan Ramirez from Classic Glass, and CJ Shepherd from NFM Lending. And they are giving potential power hitter Billy Pearson a shot. Alisha has put together an interesting mix of players and a team that could push the Major teams on any given weekend.

Westpoint – P Kevin Johnson, MI Steve Hendrickson, SS Kyle Fisher, LF Tyler Cowles

3rd Place – Bay Area Legends

CA-A Record 4-2

Bay Area Legends returns to the Conference with an improved roster. Joey Gonzalez the player/sponsor has picked up Nick Day, Jared Hunt, William Scott, Misael Tavarez, Terence Curry, former WestPoint shortstop Daryl Yoder, and a couple of players from Weather Pro who finished 3rd at ‘B’ Worlds last year. Returning are Brady Bate who was slinging line drives all over the field in the leadoff spot, Joe Dorton, Isaac Gonzalez (who wasn’t in Vegas), Chente Granados, pitcher Shawn Jones, Zack Smith, Cooper Thorpe, Joseph Valdez, and Braxton Argyle. They made a nice run beating Proton to get to the winner’s final Saturday night before dropping two in a row when 4 of their players had to catch flights.

Daryl Yoder makes another spectacular play against his old team.

Rookie Gavin Lambright pitched Sunday even though he would later find out his left forearm was broken.

P Lambright. 2B Jared Hunt. MI Chente Granados.

4th Place – Cheap Suits/Republic Realty/ESP

CA-A Record 5-2

Cheap Suits finished 3rd and was led on offense by Demario Boyd .861, 9 HR, 26 RBI. Daniel Cayton their big pickup to replace the 2024 Rookie of the Year Matt Valencia was .784, 13 HR, and 35 RBI while playing shortstop. And Fred Heiser the EH was .750, 13 HR, and 34 RBI. The pitching was done by Billy Malovrh who was the ‘B’ World MVP last year with Ely Reel and his backup Tanner Westmoreland. And Nico Guillen was flashing some leather at 2nd base for manager Darrell Leonor and sponsor Sonny Aguilera. They played without Juan Castenada (shoulder).

Traylor celebrating life.

2024 ‘B’ World Champ Billy Malovrh is doing the pitching for Cheap Suits

Tied 5th – Hybrid2Go/Franchise Athletics

CA-C Record 5-2

We don’t know much about Hybrid2Go but they have some young baseball talent and they upset 3 Conference teams – Dirty Vegas, I-Stone, and WestPoint to start the tournament before dropping two games to Ataraxis and Cheap Suits. Reminds me of what The Product did in Las Vegas back in 2018 when they pulled off some great upsets.

H2G played some D.

1st Inning Grand Slam!

Tied 5th – Proton/Str8play/Rebel

CA-Major Record 3-2

If Proton players were interviewed after the tournament I’m sure they would say “this wasn’t the start to the season that we wanted.” Proton lost in the semifinals to Bay Area and then to WestPoint by the run rule late Saturday night leaving 10 HR on the table. Proton returns almost their entire ‘AA’ Championship team from 2024 and they picked up Ryan Harvey, Dan Kirkwood, Conner Murray, and Tyler Storey. Kirkwood did the pitching as Josh Jones their pitcher the last two years was on vacation. And Brandon Streets had a back injury and didn’t play Saturday. Streets had a .917 on base percentage on Friday. Kirkwood led the team at .824. Ryan Harvey and Dan Herren each hit 8 home runs. And Harvey drove in 20 for manager Danny Hakker. The quest for 3 World Championships in a row is off to a slow start.