The 2010 version of the Conference Championships was played this past weekend in Kissimmee, Florida. The tourna¬ments were played in extreme heat most of the weekend. The Championships consisted of 3 separate tournaments:
The 1st tournament featured the ‘Major’ bracket and consisted of Resmondo/Specialty Tank/Phonemasters and Dan Smith/Menosse in a best of 5 series. The games were played at Osceola County Stadium, which is the home of the Houston Astros (of major league baseball) spring training games. The facility is also home to the USSSA offices and Hall of Fame.
Game #1 (Friday night): BJ Fulk hammered 4 homers for Resmondo as they batted around once and shut down Dan Smith late to take the first game 27-24.
Game #2 (Saturday morning): Dan Smith pounded Resmondo 30-12.
Game #3 (Saturday after¬noon): Dan Smith knocks off Resmondo 15-11.
Game #4 (Sunday morning): Resmondo scored the first 7 runs of the game but failed to score the rest of the way as Dan Smith loaded the bases in the bottom of the 5th and scored with a walk-off single by Jeremy Isenhower, which gave them a run rule victory (22-7) and the Conference Championship 3 games to 1.
Dan Smith wins their 2nd tournament in a row and powered their way to the Conference Championship by outscoring Resmondo 91-57. Their defense played solid and their supreme stadium power “shell shocked” Resmondo and kept them down most of the weekend.
The second tournament, the ‘A’ division, was for the top 12 non-Major Conference teams and used a 3 game guarantee bracket. Surprisingly the ‘A’ bracket finals actu¬ally came down to two ‘B’ classed teams, as EWS out of Chicago, Illinois outlasted AJS from Florida in 2 of their 3 meetings to win the ‘A’ Conference Championship. The tournament was filled with spectacular catches from the likes of Brandon Riese (EWS), Ryan Parfitt (Wood Law), Gary Farrar (FBI), Adam Rockoff (AJS), Pat Hastings (EWS), David
Kessler (AJS), Blake Williams (AJS), Sal Formosa (NW Combat), and those are just the ones I witnessed in person! ‘B’ classed teams finished 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 7th out of 12 teams.
The third and final tournament, the ‘B’ division, was for the next 6 highest finishing Conference ‘B’ teams ordered by points. This tournament was won by Darkside/TYJA from New York as they knocked off Elite Sports/USA/ Combat from California in the winner’s bracket championship. Then Darkside lost to Elite in the first game of the championship but secured the title when Elite was unable to play the “if” game due to flight obligations. The ‘B’ division was played at the Fortune Road complex which will host the ‘B’ Worlds in mid September. The ‘B’ bracket teams also voted for and used the regular Conference softball instead of the stadium ZN, so they could prepare for the upcoming worlds. Blitz/ Watanabe/Weller/Minges/Easton from Ohio was 3rd and Art Explosion/Drash from was 4th.
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!
