MANSFIELD, TX – North Texas state champions were crowned in four divisions at the WORTH Lone Star Shootout Series NTX Finals, held June 27-28 at Big League Dreams in Mansfield.
The WORTH Lone Star Shootout State Championship Series is the most popular adult slowpitch event in Texas. Qualifiers are held throughout the Lone Star State, leading up to the State Finals. This year, for the first time ever, two State Finals were held – one in North Texas and one in South Texas. The first place teams in each division at those events will meet Aug. 22 to determine the winner of the coveted Super Bowl-style state champion rings.
North Texas champions were determined at the NTX State Finals, although any qualified team was allowed to enter regardless of their hometown.
In the Men’s C Division, an Arkansas team and a couple from South Texas joined the best teams from North Texas for a small-but-competitive 12-team bracket. Color Station from Ft. Worth rolled to the championship game undefeated by knocking of the SRS/Broncos from Dallas (17-2), West Coastal from Houston (12-8) and SA Hitmen/DPS/Worth from San Antonio (17-12). After losing in the King Seat game, the SA Hitmen dropped to the loser’s bracket and narrowly defeated SaveSecond.com from Pantego (15-14) to get another shot at Color Station. The SA Hitmen then beat Color Station (24-18) to set up a winner-take-all “if” game, and threatened to take the North Texas title back to the Alamo City. But it was not to be, as Color Station rode the crafty pitching of veteran Rene Basaldu to a 13-1 victory to capture the crown.
Color Station finished the tournament with a 4-1 record, while runnerup SA Hitmen was 4-2.. SaveSecond.com came in third, followed by West Coastal in fourth, and LTB/ASM from Arkansas and Vivid from Dallas tied for fifth.
Johnny Reyes of Color Station was named Most Valuable Player of the division, while Chris Riley of the SA Hitmen was tabbed the Gold Glove winner. Other members of the All-State team were: Jeremy Craft, Stuart Therrien, Loy Rodriguez and Angel Castillo, of Color Station; Josepth Farias, Sammy Paez and Ralph Perez, of the SA Hitmen; Dave Jiminez, Brad Eubank and Brandon Goodwin, of SaveSecond.com; and Scott Marquardt and Mike Jacquet, of West Coastal.
In the Men’s D Division, KG’s Sports Grill/Natty D’s from Ft. Worth took an unconventional path to the championship. Manager Paul Wheat’s crew won their opening game over rival Norman Radiator (14-8), before losing their second game to West Texas powerhouse F.T.P. from Odessa in a thriller (14-13). That sent KG’s to the loser’s bracket where they reeled off nine consec¬utive wins in mostly 100-degree heat to capture the crown. KG’s Sports Grill/Natty D’s defeated Powerhouse/H&W Logging from Arkansas (11-7), Pyramid Softball from Midland (14-10); North Texas Hype from Grand Prairie (16-5); Lethal Assault from Ft. Worth (14-10); Outlawz from Dallas (16-6); Prodigy Softball from Odessa (10-9); and Louisiana’s Finest from Bossier City, La. (12-11) to reach the championship game. Then, KG’s Sports Grill/Natty D’s proceeded to double-dip Famous Softball from Ft. Worth in a pair of close games (11-8) and (9-7) to win first place with an amazing 10-1 record.
It had to be a disappointing turn of events for Famous Softball, who was bidding to win improbable back-to-back Lone Star Shootout championships. In 2008, Famous was the Men’s E state champion before getting moved up to Class D for 2009. Instead, they settled for second place in the higher division with a 4-2 record. Louisiana’s Finest represented their home state well by placing third in the 28-team bracket. Prodigy Softball took the fourth place trophy back to West Texas, while the Outlaws from Dallas and Woodpeckers from Galveston tied for fifth place. The rest of the top 10 consisted of Lethal Assault and Jokers/GKI Travel/Solis, both from Ft. Worth, tied for seventh place; and CSI from Plano, North Texas Hype from Grand Prairie, Five Star from Tyler and F.T.P. from Odessa tied for ninth place.
Toby Bradshaw of KG’s Sports Grill/Natty D’s was named Most Valuable Player of the division, and he was joined on the All-State team by teammates Michael Borah, Clint Felts, Jerad Gabbert and Benjamin Powell. Other members of the All-State team included Andrew Hogan, Luis Hernandez and Pedro Tagle, of Famous Softball; Brandon Belcher and Brady Bascle, of Louisiana’s Finest; and Maurice Martinez and Chad Windham, of Prodigy Softball.
In the Men’s E Division, Texas Turbulence of Greenville continued their dominance of the WORTH Lone Star Shootout Series by capturing the North Texas State Finals. It marked their eighth first-place finish of the season and four of those were Lone Star events – North Texas Shootout, Mansfield NIT, Budweiser Festival and NTX State Finals.
Texas Turbulence posted consecutive wins over Express from Texarkana (17-3); Southern Attitude of Magnolia, Ark. (13-6); Goodfellas of Dallas (11-3), Batesville Bandits from South Texas (11-7); and Hostility from Ft. Worth (20-2) to reach the champi¬onship game undefeated.
Hostility dropped to the loser’s bracket, where they faced the red-hot Texas Sawx from Mansfield. Texas Sawx had gone undefeated to win first place at the Last Chance Shootout just two weeks prior to the State Finals. Texas Sawx posted a 14-4 victory over Hostility to advance to the championship, where they beat Texas Turbulence (12-9) to force an “if” game. It looked like the hometown favorite might pull of the upset. But both teams appeared to be gassed by the late Sunday afternoon finale and it resulted in a low-scoring affair that was won by Texas Turbulence (5-2).
Texas Turbulence topped the 36-team bracket with a 6-1 record, while Texas Sawx settled for second place at 7-2. Hostility was the third place team at 4-2 and the Batesville Bandits were fourth, also at 4-2. Goodfellas and Southern Attitude tied for fifth place with identical 5-2 record, while Relentless and Disruption, both from Euless, tied for seventh place. The rest of the top 10 consisted of M.R.T. Consulting from Monroe, La., Texas Smoke from Dallas, Rehab from Seguin in South Texas, and High Ridge Church from Ft. Worth, all tied for ninth place.
Kyle Dykes of Texas Turbulence was named Most Valuable Player of the division, while Marvin Hazen of Texas Sawx was picked as Gold Glove winner. The rest of the All-State team consisted of Colt Trammell, Robert Nail, James Long and Jason Trammell, of Texas Turbulence; Will Smith, Tim Wallis and William Long, of Texas Sawx; Kevin Schilling, Matthew Sandoval and Chad Caldwell, of Hostility; and Guillermo Campos and Anthony Maldonado, of the Batesville Bandits.
The Co-ed Division was the only one of the four divisions to not go to an “if” game – but it never had a chance. After playing four games in a span of six hours in scorching heat on Sunday, Powerhouse from Euless declined to play the championship game which gave the crown to Driven from Dallas.
Driven finished the tournament with a perfect 4-0 record, while Powerhouse settled for second at 3-2. Escobar/Ronoco from DeSoto came in third place with a 3-2 record, followed by SaveSecond.com from Pantego in fourth place, and Chaos II from Wichita Falls and The Tribe from Ft. Worth tied for fifth place.
Ami Gresham and Cody Lacy, both from Driven, were named Co-MVP’s of the division, while Harvey Bass of Powerhouse was named Gold Glove winner. Other members of the All-State team included Stuart Therrien, Joshua Trimm, Monica Garza and Joseph Urbanek, of Driven; Rachael Leviner, Dwane Tockey and Erik Buxton, of Powerhouse; Kyle Wagner, Chad Stewart and Gregory Jones, of Escobar/Ronoco; and Jared Ridge and Candace Felts, of SaveSecond.com.
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