Nordkap/Suncoast Reebok is your ‘A’ World Champion as they navigated a field of 9 stacked but evenly matched ‘A’ teams to win the tournament. Nordkap lost in the winner’s bracket semi-finals 29-25 to Red’s Astros before making a 5 game run to the title including wins over Sonnys, Line Drive, Albicocco, and Reds Astros twice! Red’s looked to be in the driver’s seat after besting third place Albicocco in the winner’s bracket championship in extra innings 27-23 but were unable to score when needed in the top of the 7th of the “if” game against Nordkap and lost the championship 22-21.
A great weekend of softball started on Friday night and under the threat of rain all 3 days. A few showers here and there delayed the tournament but all games were played in full in 90 degree heat and humidity on the bigger than normal 310-325-325-325-310 fenced fields. The wind blew in on diamonds #2 and #3 and blew out on field #1 and #4 consistently most of the weekend.
After Friday’s games all 9 ‘A’ teams remained undefeated as the lower class ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams fell to the loser’s bracket. On Saturday starting at 11 AM the heavy weight battles ‘A’ vs ‘A’ battles began as Albicocco beat GTL by one in a great game on the show field, Demarini won a low scoring 10-9 game over Sonnys with the wind blowing in, Red’s Astros jumped out to an 11-2 lead on Line Drive and held on 20-13, and Nordkap crushed Baugh Ford 27-9. In the semi-finals Albicocco’s Dan Sanchez hit a walk off homer to beat Demarini 29-27 and Red’s Astros beat Nordkap 29-24 in a spirited game with plenty of action and big home runs.
Then Red’s pulled off some huge defensive plays in the last two innings to beat Albicocco in the winner’s bracket championship 27-23 and Nordkap came through the loser’s bracket to meet Red’s again and pull off the impressive “double dip” with some aggressive offense scoring near double figure innings in all 4 of their Sunday wins.
The tournament featured a full set of Nationwide Conference USSSA umpires and used the Dudley ZN Classic M ball.
Final game highlites:
– Grand Slam by Nordkaps Jason Baxter bottom of the 1st. 6-1 Nordkap lead.
– Travis Dale 3 run HR top 2. Kingsolver 2 run homer 8-6 Reds lead. Nordkaps Brian Zirkle great catch.
– NordKap puts up a zero in bottom of 2nd.
– Ryan Joiner 2 run homer 10-8 Reds top 3rd.
– TJ Thompson rbi single for Nordkap ties at 10-10.
– Scott Zaciewski 3 run knuckleball bomb! 13-10 Kap.
– Reyna rbi triple 14-10 Kap.
– Top 4 Reds Chad Mullins 2 run HR 14-13.
– Bottom of 4th Brian Zirkle and and Andrew Collins rbi doubles 17-13.
– Scott Zaciewski rbi single 18-13. Travis Dale great play in the hole at SS.
– Chris Greinert 2 run HR 20-13. Reds Krider upended at 2B.
– Top 5th
– RBI Doug Martin
– Sac Travis Dale 20-15
– Sac Chad Mullins 20-16 Reds trailing.
– Bot 5th
– Ryan Joiner backhand play at pitcher.
– Andrew Collins 2 run HR, Kap up 22-16.
– Top 6th
– Justin Aldora RBI double
– Sacrifice fly by Ryan Joiner. 18-22
– Krider 2 run triple. 20-22
– Travis Dale RBI single 21-22.
– Bot 6th
– Diver by Travis at SS
– Top 7th double play by Reyna at SS ends it.
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!
