USSSA Hall of Fame Tournament #1 info and bracket link
USSSA Hall of Fame Tournament #2 info and bracket link
Kissimmee, FL- The 2014 edition of the annual Hall of Fame Classic “dual” tournament is over and Laservision/H. Auto/JJ’s/Easton won both! Laservision went 12-0 and defeated Resmondo-Specialty Tank/Worth in the winner’s bracket final and also the championship of each tournament. Laservision used great defense, sound pitching, and timely offense, often making the most of their opponents mistakes and outlasted the record breaking field of 41 Nationwide Conference USSSA teams. Laservision takes a commanding lead in the seasons point standings much like Resmondo did a year ago after this event.
The 5 day long softball event began on Wednesday night as the power hitters of the Conference met to hit in the charity Home Run Derby at the beautiful Osceola County Stadium. The winner was Resmondo’s Bubba Mack. Then on Thursday morning bright and early at 8 AM, the first Dual tournament began with action on 7 fields every hour and a half. The big upsets of the first tournament came in the second round where Above All Landscaping a ‘C’ team beat Slattery Logistics an ‘A’ team 11-9. This game and most of the upsets occurred on the larger baseball fields where scores were low and defensive mistakes led to losses. OI Livingston a ‘B’ team out of Georgia knocked off Line Drive Sportz a top ‘A’ team 12-7, and a ‘C’ team from Kansas B&B Drywall knocked off an ‘A’ team 4 The Fallen/Miken 18-14. The 4th upset of the second round was yet another shocker as Broughton/Turks (B) dropped Red’s Astros (A) 16-13. In the third round the top seeds all won except for Taylormade as Broughton an ‘A’ team won for the second game in a row 19-14. In the quarter finals Laservision used a walk off homer by Scott Kirby to beat Albicocco 22-20 back on field #1 which is probably the most difficult place for a right hander to hit a homer with that 40 foot high net on top of the long fence distances. Backman/Shoppe run ruled a hot hitting OI Livingston team 39-24. Baugh/Doerflinger beat major Team Combat 20-12, and Resmondo squeaked by Broughton 22-17 with a late inning offensive surge. In the semi-finals Laservision run ruled Backman/Shoppe on Friday night 33-18, and Resmondo beat BaughFord/Doerflinger 18-12 after Baugh failed to take the lead down 2 with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 6th. In the 7th inning Resmondo put up 5 runs and an incredible diving catch of a Dan Bean line drive by Resmondo third baseman Jimmy Salas all but sealed the game in the bottom of the 7th.
In the finals Friday afternoon Laservision knocked off Resmondo in the winners championship 26-13 and the championship game Friday night 15-13 to win their first dual event in team history. Resmondo had kept the games close with some great defensive plays themselves and the pitching of Andy Purcell, but Laservision had more offense and some great defense of their own to go undefeated.
The second tournament began on Saturday morning at 8 AM with 10 fields playing every hour and a half. BaughFord (A) barely squeaked by Above All Landscaping (C) 19-16, and Laservision (M) got past ChecKing (B) 19-8 after the score had been just 9-8 in the 6th inning. Classic Glass (B) knocked off Taylormade (A) with their hit and run style 31-14, Diamond & Ice Sports (B) smoked 4 The Fallen (A) 21-10, and Pure Romance (B) held Line Drive Sportz (A) to just 5 runs to win 9-5! In the 3rd round all of the higher seeds won except for Albicocco (A) who was upset bigtime by TG Brand 29-28! In the quarter finals it was the same big 4 teams winning as it was in the first tournament with Laservision, Baugh Ford, Backman, and Resmondo winning fairly easily. The final results of the second tournament would be the exact same as the first. Laservision capitalized on Resmondo errors and beat them 23-8 in the winner’s final on Saturday night and again in the finals on Sunday afternoon 25-17. Baugh Ford was 3rd after beating Backman/Shoppe impressively 25-15 at 8 AM in the morning after both teams had played late into the night the previous night and were on their 13th and 12th games respectively.
The tournaments were long and grueling but well played and you have to be impressed with the level of hustle and effort all of the teams were giving after playing as many as 14 games over 4 days. There were 160 games where conference teams played conference teams, a new record. And Saturday alone 77 games were played in one day! WOW.
The tournament had no rain delays, the evenings were spectacular, the days were sunny and in the 80′s with high humidity. Scores were lower for the most part and home run hitters earned their pay. Stadium ZN’s – 47 core 500 compression were used on the baseball fields which are the biggest in softball. The 24 umpires who came from all around the country did a good job and games were on time except for the late ones Saturday night.
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!
