August 17, 2015

Elite World Series and NABC - Southern California Results

Every year, numerous Southern California head to Florida for the Elite World Series, and more often than not, perform very well against the best competition in the country.

8-Under:
After losing one game in Pool Play, the Chino Hills Thunder didn't look back in the playoffs.  Winning five games in a row, and outscoring teams 46-7, the Chino Hills Thunder showed why they were the best 8-Under team in the Country

9-Under:
Team MVP and Cali Gamers are two of Southern California's strongest programs.  They met once again in Florida in the second round of Playoffs Games.  MVP beat their California counterparts 3-1, moving them one step closer to the Championship.

After a tough quarter final game against Team Florida, MVP put their foot on the gas, moving to the Championship with a 12-4 victory before unloading in the Championship game, taking a 15-1 victory to 1st Place.

10-Under:
Three 10-Under teams from California made the trek to Florida for the Elite World Series.  Congrats to the Pico Pride, San Diego Show Black, and MVP for their 3rd, 5th, and 9th Place finishes respectively.

12-Under:
At the National Amateur Baseball Championship, MVP once again showed why they are the best program in the country.  Allowing only 8 runs in the entire tournament, they shut out opponents in the playoffs, including a domination 14-0 Championship victory.

Congratulations to all the Southern California teams that represented our state with pride against the best in the Country.  We are proud of your accomplishments and grateful that you play USSSA Tournaments.  We look forward to seeing your accomplishments continue into the 2016 Season

See you on the fields

-AC

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August 14, 2015

AA World Series - August 3-9, 2015

The second World Series of the summer kicked off with another busy Opening Ceremonies.  Pin Trading dominated the park before the opening ceremonies kicked off.  Teams from California, Nevada, Utah and Washington brought their talents to Big League Dreams looking take home the beautiful first place trophies.

Here are your Champions and Runner Ups in the Skills Competitions.


9-Under:
The South Bay Surf program is one of the most active programs in Southern California USSSA Baseball.  With multiple teams across all ages, you'll be sure to find a South Bay Surf team playing somewhere almost every week.  Two of those teams made their way into the AA World Series.  While the Gray team struggle over the course of the week, the Navy team came ready to play.  

Going undefeated in Pool Play, they entered the Championship Bracket as the 1st Seed.   Winning their first two playoff games, they entered the finals searching for a perfect weekend.  With the score 4-3 after two innings in favor of the Surf, they turned to Cameron O'Neil to take the hill.  The Sand Dawgs tied the game at 5-5 in the top of the 4th Inning, however the Surf found their stride in the bottom of the inning. Scoring three runs and not looking back, that was all Cameron needed.  Two more shut out innings gave the Surf the victory, and O'Neil the All Tournament MVP honors


1st Place South Bay Surf Navy
2nd Place Cal Sand Dawgs
Left to Right - Cameron O'Neil - Keaton Basso - Luc Iten

10-Under:
The key to a week long tournament is pitching.  The teams with the most pitchers tend to do the best.  The Jurupa Lugnuts were prepared for the Championship game.  Already undefeated, and having played two less games than their opponents the Brea Stars, Quinn Stewart took the hill looking for a win.

What the Lugnuts got instead was a stellar shutout performance by Stewart, and their bats did the rest.  Scoring 8 runs over 5 innings, the Lugnuts took Stewart's MVP pitching performance to a First Place finish


1st Place Jurupa Lugnuts
2nd Place Break Stars
Left to Right - Quinn Stewart - Tristan Chavira - Jacob McCombs
11-Under:
The Express and La Puente Heat developed quite a rivalry in the week long tournament.  They faced off on the first day of the tournament with the Heat coming out on top 11-5.  They wouldn't meet again however until four days later in the Semifinal game of the Winner's Bracket.  The Express got their revenge with a 3-1 victory, sending the heat to the Loser's Bracket.

The Heat won their first game in the Loser's Bracket to send them right back to the finals on Sunday where they would face Express yet again.  The Express jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but La Puente quickly tied the game in the Top of the 2nd Inning.  They broke the game open in the Top of the 3rd Inning with four runs.  Now nursing a 6-3 lead, the Heat pitching just needed to hold the Express to force an If Game.

Express did their best at the plate and in the field, but came up just short, falling 6-5 in the first game.  Ryan Palaskis threw a complete game for the Express, and while he was the losing pitcher, he did a great job keeping his team in the game, especially after a four run inning.

Now on to the only If Game of the tournament, the winner would take home the 1st Place Trophy.  The Express turned to Cole Forsyth to take the hill.  Forsyth not only took the hill, but complete control of the game.  Giving up just 1 run in four innings, he paved the way for the Express bats to come alive.   Not looking to take any chances, the Express sent 11 men across the plate, and took an 11-1 victory to 1st Place.  At the awards ceremony, both coaches couldn't single out a few players for MVP awards after such a hard fought tournament, so they awarded their respective MVPs to the entire team.


1st Place - Express
2nd Place - La Puente Heat
12-Under:
Some Championship games feel the strain on a team's bullpen.  A weeks worth of games can drain even the deepest bullpens.  The Temecula Toreros and Pomona Titans did not have that problem however.

With a scoreless game heading into the bottom of the fifth inning, the Toreros were able to break the scoreless tie and take a 2-0 lead.  The Toreros had faith in their starting pitcher Carter Garate.  Having thrown five shutout innings up until that point, he shut down the Titans in the top of the 6th, giving the Toreros the first place finish and Garate deservedly took home the Tournament MVP honors.


1st Place - Temecula Toreros
2nd Place - Pomona Titans
Tournament MVP - Carter Garate
13-Under:
In what became the wildest game of the tournament.  The South Utah Baseball Club and FCBA Titans had to battle for 7 long innings.  With the score 7-4 after the first inning in the Titans favor, no one was sure what to expect.  Utah got within 1 run in the top of the 2nd Inning, and the game was even tied 9-9 in the fifth inning.  With Titan's pitcher Andrew Zamora finding his rhythm, the Titans broke the game open late with a 5 run sixth inning.  That was all that Zamora needed.  He threw his sixth inning of the game, a shut out seventh to seal the victory for the Titans.


1st Place - FCBA Titans
2nd Place - So Utah Baseball Club
Thank you to all the teams that played in the 2015 AA World Series.  We look forward to seeing you in the 2016 Season.

See you on the fields

-AC

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August 4, 2015

2015 Global World Series

Thank you to all the teams that participated in the 2015 Global World Series.  95 teams participated in the tournament, some traveling all the way from Hawaii.  

The top brackets in each division saw some of the best baseball teams in the area duking it out for first place.  The top teams in each age went a collective 43-2 in the tournament.  However, with the playoffs splitting into multiple divisions, teams of similar strength were pitted together to vie for their own championships.

Here are your Champions and Runner Ups.


See you on the fields

-AC

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July 24, 2015

2015 Global World Series Opening Ceremonies

The 2015 Global World Series kicked off with a bang yet again.  Over 4,000 people from 6 different states filled Big League Dreams Chino Hills for one of our biggest Opening Ceremonies so far.


The generous folks at Sunrype provided us with over 3,000 Healthy Fruit Snacks to hand out for free.  This proved to be not nearly enough, as players and parents alike snacked on these delicious treats throughout the day.






Once the teams were checked in, and everyone was comfortable on Yankee Stadium, the team parade started.  Over 1000 players marched in front of a packed house, most tipping their hats and waving, some brought their team mascots, one team even threw t-shirts into the crowd.





After a free meal provided by USSSA Southern California, teams put on their cleats and grabbed their gloves to get ready for the Skills Competition.  The results for the Around the Horn and Base Running Relay are below:


After the Skills Competition, everyone headed home to get a good nights sleep and get ready for the busy four days ahead.

Thank you to all the teams for playing in the 2014-2015 Season, and we look forward to an exciting World Series.

See you on the fields

-AC

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