Kissimmee, FL- Laservision/Desert Falls/Boombah/Easton came back from a nasty beating at the hands of Shoppe/TYJA/Louisville Slugger in the winner’s bracket championship on Saturday night of the 1st Annual Ohio Major to win three straight games on Sunday by a combined score of 111-80 and “double dipped” Shoppe for the championship! Laservision wins their 2nd tournament of the year as the strong field of 17 Nationwide Conference USSSA clubs teamed up to knock out the previously undefeated Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth.
The weekends hottest teams were Shoppe and GTL and the two of them met the top ranked Resmondo and second ranked Laservision respectively in the winner’s bracket semi-finals. Early on, both teams looked like they would pull the upset but only Shoppe was able to hang on at the end beating Resmondo 42-39 on the strength of some great defensive plays by substitute shortstop Jonathan Lenz and some great team offense. GTL however lost a late lead when Laservision hit a pair of grand slam homers and won 26-19. Then in the winner’s bracket finals Shoppe crushed Laservision 37-15 when they had an incredible 22 run 4th inning.
The tournament was played under the threat of rain storms but rain only hit briefly on Friday night and again briefly on Saturday night and did not really affect the games. Many of the teams struggled to adjust to the strong winds which blew in the same direction the entire tournament and reduced scores on field #15 and especially on field #16 to single digits at times. There was also some confusion with the game balls as not all games were played with the stadium ZN. The lesser conference ball was used for a number of games on Saturday and it was fun to see the teams try to manufacture runs and group hits together with that ball on the big fields.
The tournament was well run and the fields played perfect with the big artificial turf infields and the longer fence distances. Now all the Columbus tournament needs are scoreboards and the ability to set the base distances further back to 75 feet.
The fans were treated to some great defense by GTL’s Kevin Bazat, Resmondo CF Nick Santana, Shoppe SS Jonathan Lenz, and LineDrive 2B Sal Formosa among many others. And there were a few fans in attendance including appearances by the legendary Tommy Thompson and former Hague sponsor Jeff Hague both from the Columbus area. The fans also got to see some long balls hit at the home run derby on Friday night which was won by Lee Powers, who beat out Kevin Filby and others.
About USSSA:
The United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA), headquartered in Osceola County, Florida, USSSA is the World’s Largest Multi-sport Athletic Organization. Founded in 1968, USSSA has grown to over 3.7 million participants, competing in 13 nationally sanctioned sports including Baseball, Fastpitch, Slow Pitch, Karate, Basketball, Soccer and more! For more information on USSSA and to register your team visit USSSA.com. Also be sure to visit USSSAToday.com for the latest USSSA News!
