Caitlin Lowe - USSSA.com

Winter 2012 

Meet the 2012 

USSSA National 

Hall of Fame 

Inductees 

USSSA Pride’s 

Caitlin Lowe 

recognized as 

2012 National 

Pro Fastpitch’s 

MVP 

Watley, Sandberg 

Celebrate NPF 

Finch & Rookie 

of the Year Awards 

LaserVision/Easton Claims USSSA’s Most Coveted 

Achievement: The 2012 Major World Series Championship

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6028 Rayburn Dr. • Fort Worth,TX 76133 

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Executive Director, CEO USSSA 

Don DeDonatis 

Publisher, USSSA Today 

Stafford Connor 

Managing Editor, USSSA Today 

Greg Huchingson 

Communications Director, USSSA 

Tom O’Hara 

Design / Printing 

REEDESIGN 

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Contributing Writers 

David Brasher 

Mike Cornell 

Jared Dan 

Adrian Ellis 

Don Eminizer 

Van Galeon 

Rachel Goossens 

Bernie Guenther 

Brett Helmer 

Jeremy Isenhower 

Scott Kuhnen 

Equipment Logistics 

Roy “Heavy Peanut” Dean 

Photographers 

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Scott Duffy 

Rachel Goossens 

Q Ball 

Brian Ragan 

Pete Spatula 

Mike Macenko 

Larry Meraz 

Matt O’Hara 

Paul O’Leary 

Rick Phillips 

Craig Scriven 

Kaylen Shimoda 

Matt Trebuchon 

Dennis Turner 

Ken Weimer 

Dale Weiser 

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CONTENTS 

6 2012 NPF Regular Season 

Champions- USSSA Pride 

9 USSSA Pride’s Caitlin 

Lowe named 2012 Player 

of the Year by NPF 

12 LaserVision/Easton 

captures Men’s Major 

World Series 

22 TYJA-Suncoast Reebok 

uses defense to claim 

2012 Conference USSSA 

Championships 

32 USSSA honors inductees 

into the National Hall of 

Fame 

38 

Softball players that have 

helped pave the way 

USSSA College 40 Scholarship Program 

Continues To Grow 

42 

44 

50 

USSSA - A Dominating 

Presence Not Just on the 

Field, But Online 

USSSA Martial Arts 

Striking Hard 

Bandits Repeat... 

Stingrays Threepeat - 

Astros Add One for the 

Thumb 

54 

56 

58 

60 

66 

68 

Fast Pitch On Fire 

America’s Finest City 

Showcase Thriving in San 

Diego, CA 

USSSA Soccer Reaches All 

Time High in Teams and 

Participants 

Volleyball Grows To Be 

USSSA’s Sixth Largest 

Sport 

Worth® Adds Jeff Hall to 

Slowpitch Advisory Staff 

R&M Metals Walks 

Off with A World 

Championship 

72 Worth-Sponsored Teams 

Finish One and Two at B 

World 

76 

81 

86 

91 

Historic Brownsville 

serves as site of 

USSSA Hispanic World 

Tournament 

Reds Astros/TPS make 

big splash in first year of 

Conference USSSA 

Top Texas teams crowned 

at ‘Battle for the Rings’ 

The Whole Enchilada 

Invades Las Cruces 

USSSA TODAY 5

2012 NPF Regular Season Champion 

Cowles Cup Play Cancelled 

by Matt O’Hara 

2012 NPF Regular Season Champions- USSSA Pride. 

The USSSA Pride enjoyed an extremely successful 2012 Regular Season in 

the National Pro Fastpitch League, going 31-12 to be declared the Regular 

Season Champions by 6 games over opponents, the Chicago Bandits. 

2012 was not a normal year for the 

NPF as the circumstances that took 

place this year in Rosemont, IL for the 

Championship Series meant that no 

champion was declared due to adverse 

weather conditions. This means that the 

Regular Season champion carried more 

significance for this year than ever. 

Ending without a champion was a first 

in the nine-year history of the Women’s 

Professional Softball League. The decision 

to cancel the championship game 

was made due to severe weather delays 

at the field and what the league cited as 

scheduling conflicts for players on both 

teams barring the chance of a rescheduled 

game. Since no champion was 

declared, for a fan, the Regular season 

champion could and would be the next 

best thing. The USSSA Pride ended their 

impressive season on an 8-game winning 

streak tear and was 15-1 in their last 16 

games. The chemistry that was created 

6 

USSSA TODAY 

between the players to develop this 

kind of success was indeed exceptional. 

While not having a 2012 Champion is a 

black spot in the NPF’s history, there was 

much to learn by League Commissioner 

Cheri Kempf. In the coming week after 

the NPF Championship mishap, Kempf 

announced the “planned formation 

of a committee to look at the league’s 

post-season policies and procedures. 

The new committee will examine the 

rules and guidelines in place in other 

leagues, as well as the unique conditions 

under which NPF operates” so that 

changes can be made to NPF policies to 

help prevent the situation seen this year 

in the future. She then issued a statement 

to the fans and the owners of 

the league: 

“I deeply regret our inability 

to complete the Championship 

Series. Like all of you, I am a 

Head Coach Beth Torino and Assistant GM Gordon 

Glennie. 

Pride pitcher, Danielle Lawrie

Francesca Enea 

#10 

Jessica Mendoza 

#2 Ashley Charters 

#11

softball fan at heart and was eager, after seeing the first 3 days 

of spectacular competition showcased by our talented players, 

to see the final day of action unfold. I was also eager to share 

the experience with a worldwide audience through ESPN2. It 

is a great loss to our teams, players, owners, and of course all 

of you, the fans of professional softball, to lose our final day 

of competition due to rain. I understand the disappointment 

of so many, including players, fans, coaches and staff. I assure 

you we are working on planning that will improve this situation 

and the outcome in the future. I hope you will join me in 

looking forward to the 2013 season being bigger and better 

than ever.” 

Sadly, instead of finishing with a nationally televised championship 

game on ESPN, the season ended in confusion for the 

four-team league. Players on both sides including Pride Utility 

player Lauren Lappin were open in expressing their frustration 

at not having an opportunity to settle matters on the field. 

“It’s really tough to end a season like that,” Lappin said. “I 

don’t think anyone in that dugout, and I know no one in our 

dugout, wanted to finish things like this. We want to play. 

That’s why we do this; we want to play to be a champion. And 

that’s done on the field. I don’t really know what to say about 

the final result, final decision. I definitely think there will be 

things done differently in the future to prevent anything like 

this from happening again. If we want to be taken seriously, 

I think this needs to have a final result for our fans, for the 

players in the league, for the owners in the league who invest 

so much in this.” 

Despite a bitter sweet end to the NPF season, playing the game 

of softball for the professional athletes did not end there for 

many players each of the teams coming together to form 

“Team NPF” for the post season “Back to School Tour”. 

The NPF Back To school Tour, sponsored by USSSA, with support 

from Major League Baseball started soon after the end of the 

NPF Championship Series, marking the third consecutive year 

the NPF has placed a team made up of all-stars from all 4 NPF 

teams, on the road to compete in exhibition games against 

colleges all across the U.S. 

This year’s Tour will make 21 stops across 16 states, and compete 

against 22 different schools in a 40 day span. The 22 university 

programs include 8 who were ranked in the Top 20, and 

2 ranked in the Top 10, on the final USA Today/NFCA college 

softball poll. This year those programs in the 2012 NPF Back 

to School Tour schedule are: Oklahoma (2), LSU (7), Louisiana 

Lafayette (12), Arizona (13), Washington (14), Michigan (15), 

Florida (18), and UCLA (20). In addition to the rankings, 14 

of the 22 scheduled Tour teams qualified for the 2012 NCAA 

Tournament. 

Over the two year history of the NPF Back to School Tour, the 

team of professional All-Stars has a 41-1 record, with the only 

loss coming at the hands of the University of Oklahoma on the 

Fall 2011 Tour. Oklahoma would go onto finish runner-up in 

the 2012 WCWS. This year Oklahoma will be the finale of the 

Tour, taking place on November 1. 

The National Pro Fastpitch League star players on its teams are 

8 

USSSA TODAY 

USSSA Pride players (left to right) Jamee Juarez, Andrea Duran and Ashley 

Charters 

Pride outfielder, Jessica Mendoza 

Assistant Executive Director Jim Swint, CEO/GM Don DeDonatis and Assistant 

Executive Director Danny Brown enjoy a moment at U.S. Cellular Field, Home of 

the Chicago White Sox, with the US Olympians that play for the Pride (left to right): 

Andrea Duran, Jessica Mendoza, Leah O’Brien-Amico (coach), Natasha Watley, 

Lauren Lappin, Caitlin Lowe, Cat Osterman and Kelly Kretschman. 

definitely a great role model for youth Fastpitch softball players 

to inspire them to live their dream of playing professional ball 

when they are older. For college athletes, programs like the 

Back to School tour showcase the game and prove the athletes 

that they can continue to play softball beyond college at the 

pro level. Stay tuned for the upcoming 2013 NPF Draft and be 

ready for the start of the 2013 NPF regular season next year.

USSSA Pride’s Caitlin Lowe named 

2012 Player of the Year by NPF 

by Co-Contributing Writers, Rachel Goossens and Kaylen Shimoda 

Caitlin Lowe was named the 2012 Player of the Year by the National Pro Fastpitch league, 

after leading the USSSA Pride to the regular season championship. The 5-foot-7, left-handed 

hitting outfielder led the league with a .440 batting average. She also led the league in hits 

with 52, was third in stolen bases with 12, and tied for third in runs scored with 32. 

Lowe’s prowess led the Pride to a 31-12 

regular season record, which was a 

whopping 6.5 games ahead of the 

league runnerup Chicago Bandits at 

25-19. Lowe is joined in the formidable 

Pride lineup by seven former American 

Olympians and two former Canadian 

Olympians, in addition to numerous 

former collegiate All-Americans. 

Other Pride players were also recognized 

at the annual National Pro 

Fastpitch Awards Banquet, which was 

held just days before the Championship 

Series in Rosemont, IL. First-year Pride 

player Kristyn Sandberg was presented 

with the Rookie of the Year Award for 

finishing fourth in the league with a 

.355 batting average, first in RBI’s with 

33, second in on-base percentage at 

.504, and second in slugging percentage 

at .624. Pride shortstop Natasha Watley 

was the recipient of the Jennie Finch 

Award, which is presented to the player 

who shows excellence in sportsmanship, 

leadership and humility both on and off 

the field. In all, seven Pride players were 

selected as All-NPF Team members. 

Lowe, who hails from Tustin, CA, joined 

the Pride for her first NPF season in 

2009 and has since set the bar for 

many players in the league. Lowe is no 

stranger to success, as she is a former 

Olympian and collegiate All-American 

at the University of Arizona. In her time 

at Arizona, she won two NCAA National 

Championship titles (2006 & 2007) 

and was a Lowe’s Senior Class Award 

winner. She also was a USA Softball 

Player of the Year finalist three times 

USSSA Pride’s Caitlin Lowe was selected 2012 NPF 

MVP. Caitlin’s speed, good eye at the plate, glove and 

work ethic makes her the best at what she does. 

(2005, 2006 & 2007) and was also recognized 

as the Pac-10 Defensive Player of 

the Year in her senior season. While at 

Arizona, Caitlin was a member of the 

USA National Team. She won a Silver 

Medal at the 2008 Bejing Olympics, a 

Gold Medal at the Pan-American Games 

in 2007, and has won three World Cup 

Championships (2006, 2007 & 2010). 

Lowe has established a phenomenal 

Caitlin’s parents, 

Dave and Dawn 

Lowe, taught her 

the love of the 

game at an early 

age. 

career already, having received some 

noteworthy awards which she humbly 

says could not have happened without 

her amazing teammates and coaches. 

Her most recent accomplishment is 

one for the record books, as she was 

inducted into the University of Arizona 

Hall of Fame. 

“It’s a huge honor to even be associated 

with some of the names in our Hall of 


Caitlin believes in paying her wonderful softball experiences forward. She is very 

active in Triple Threat Camps. 

Always looking to advance a base (third in NPF with 12 stolen bases), Caitlin is 

forced to dive back into first on this play. 

Lowe credits her success to her teammates and coaches over the years. 

10 USSSA TODAY 

Fame,” said Lowe. “I really owe everything to my teammates 

and coaches. I couldn’t have been surrounded by a better 

group of individuals. Bear down!” 

Lowe, who is the current Director of Softball Operations at the 

University of Arizona, is continuing to stay involved and carry 

out her passion for the game. While handling recruiting visits 

and team travel, she also travels with the team throughout the 

season. In addition to her work with the softball team, Caitlin 

hosts slap-hitting clinics as well as Triple Threat Camps with 

her fellow teammate Kelly Kretschman and Chicago Bandits 

pitcher Monica Abbott. 

Lowe is excited and honored to be a representative of 

UnderArmour as well as Wilson/Demarini, where she played 

a key role in the design of her signature glove, the A2KCL26. 

“UnderArmour has really redefined what it means to be a 

female athlete and I’m honored to be a part of their vision,” 

said Lowe. “And with Wilson/DeMarini, I wanted to design 

something specifically for the outfield as well as a female 

hand.” 

Lowe explains that both companies have played major roles in 

the development of the fastpitch game, as well as the women’s 

professional league. 

When asked about her inspiration, Lowe says it’s hard to 

pinpoint just one. “My idols growing up were Laura Berg and 

Alison Johnsen, and one of the best experiences of my career 

was playing with ‘Bergy’ on the Olympic Team,” Lowe said. 

She specifically notes that her parents have been a major inspiration 

to her ever since she was a little girl. “My parents taught 

me to love the game from a very young age and pushed me 

to get better every day,” and that is something she has taken 

with her to every game as well as within her everyday life. 

Lowe also wanted to thank Don DeDonatis and USSSA, as 

her professional achievements would not have been possible 

without the hard work and passion that DeDonatis has for the 

sport and the league. 

“Thank you, Don, and the entire USSSA family for everything 

you do for us,” said Lowe. 

With all that Lowe has been recognized for, she is still one of 

the hardest working athletes you will ever meet. She knows 

the league is full of talent, and is amazed by the quality of 

players she has the opportunity to compete against. 

“It’s not just one through nine, but you look at one through 

20 on every roster and it’s insanity,” said Lowe. “In a Pac-10 

game, you’d have Natasha Watley at shortstop. But in the NPF, 

we also have Jenn Salling as a shortstop and Lauren Lappin as 

a shortstop, all on the same team. The depth of these lineups 

is incredible. You’re not pinch-hitting Joe Schmo, you’re pinchhitting 

someone that would hit .400 in the Pac-10. Nobody is 

an easy out in this league and nobody has an off day as a hitter 

in this league. You have to be on your ‘A’ game every day.” 

Lowe knows how to bring her “A” game and that has definitely 

been reflected in her numerous titles and awards she has 

received throughout her career.

LaserVision/Easton captures 

Men’s Major World Series 

By Greg Huchingson, Managing Editor 

LaserVision/Annihilation/Supreme/D2E/Easton 2012 USSSA Major World Series Champions 

LaserVision/Easton’s Brett Helmer (left) and Alfred Pierre accept the 2012 USSSA 

Major World Series Championship trophy from Elliot C. Clark. 


LaserVision’s Jason Kendrick slides in home safely. 

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL – New England eye surgeon Dr. Pierre 

Alfred corrects other people’s vision for a living. 

But pardon him for rubbing his own eyes these days, as he 

can hardly believe what he sees sitting on his desk – the 2012 

USSSA Men’s Major World Series championship trophy. 

“When I first started playing softball, I never dreamed something 

like this was possible,” said Alfred. “It wasn’t even an 

ambition. But as time progressed, anything seemed attainable. 

After a lot of hard work and perseverance, everything finally 

paid off.” 

Dr. Alfred is the lead sponsor of LaserVision/Annihilation/ 

Supreme/D2E/Easton, which won its first ever world championship 

at the Men’s Major World Series played Sept. 19-23 at the

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2012 USSSA Major World Series All-World Team 

DeMarini/Dirty/3N2 2012 USSSA Major World Series- Third Place 

LaserVision/Easton’s coaching staff (l to r) Pierre Alfred, Dan Fruwirth and Bill “Taz” Tasinari 

visits with National UIC, Rick Robertson. 

DeMarini/Dirty’s mgr. George Quinones (left) and sponsor/mgr. Mike West accept the third 

place trophy from Elliot C. Clark. 


ESPN Wide World of Sports Champions Stadium located 

at Disney World. 

“We’ve been close several times before, finishing 

second in both the B and A (World Tournament), but 

for the first time winning a ring to come on the biggest 

stage in softball has been simply amazing,” said Alfred. 

The ophthalmologist, who owns several Eye & Lasik 

Centers in western Massachusetts, began playing slowpitch 

softball 30 years ago while in the military. He later 

got involved in local USSSA tournaments as a player, 

coach and then sponsor. 

“As I developed professionally, I also developed my 

hobby,” said Alfred. “Our teams always had a need for 

more money, and when I got in a position to be able to 

support the game, that’s what I wanted to do.” 

LaserVision had come close to the crown in the past. 

In 2011, the team run-ruled their first three opponents 

at the Major World Series, before getting crushed by 

Resmondo/Worth, 27-7, in the winner’s bracket finals. 

Then, LaserVision came out flat Sunday morning and 

lost to B team TaylorMade/Mizuno, 18-3, to settle for 

third place. 

The year before, after finishing second at the Class A 

World Tournament, LaserVision lost its first game at the 

Major World Series, before battling back to win four 

games in the loser’s bracket to finish fourth. Prior to 

that, LaserVision went 2-2 at the 2007 Major World 

Series, and 0-2 at the 2008 Major World Series. 

After the 2011 season, Alfred broke ties with his West 

Coast partner and revamped the team with input from 

manager Dan Fruwirth and captain Brett Helmer, a Hall 

of Fame player. 

“We had been with Combat the past couple of years, 

and decided it was time to do something different 

this year,” said Alfred. “So when situation with Brett 

and Easton became an opportunity, we decided to go 

with it. Brett was very instrumental in pulling this team 

together.” 

Helmer, a 41-year-old left-handed slugger, has had an 

illustrious career as one of the greatest power hitters of 

all-time. He was the anchor of the Dan Smith teams that 

won world championships in 2004 and 2008, as well as 

numerous runnerup and other high finishes. Helmer is 

third on the All-Time USSSA World Series Home Run list 

with 104 and is by far the leader during the Disney Era 

(2000-present). The huge yellow wall across the parking 

lot from the right field home run fence has been unofficially 

dubbed “Helmer’s Wall” because of his propensity 

for clearing the structure with mammoth home runs. 

In selecting the 2012 squad, LaserVision focused on 

veterans Helmer had gone to battle with in the past. 

They started by luring infielder Bryan Baker and 

outfielder Brian Rainwater away from 2011 world 

champion Resmondo. Added to the mix were longtime 

teammates Jason Kendrick, Dal Beggs and Brian

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Christan Dowling, Derby Girls, thrilled the crowd, during the Home Run Derby, with several 

blasts over the stadium’s wall. 

Runner-ups in the HR Derby were Dirty DeMarini’s Chris Larsen and 2012 All-World 

selection, Resmondo/Worth’s Greg Connell. 

All-World selection, LaserVision/Easton’s Brian Wegman. Wegs had a very solid 2012 season. 

Easton’s Brett Helmer, a true ambassador for the game of softball, was according to sponsor, 

Pierre Alfred, “very instrumental in pulling LaserVision/Easton team together.” 


Wegman, along with others from the 2011 LaserVision 

squad such as pitcher Geno Buck, speedy centerfielder 

Spike Baker and versatile Scott Kirby. Rounding out the 

team were the additions of shortstop Kevin Kennington 

from TaylorMade, third-baseman Sam Lopez from R&M 

Metals, and first-baseman Ryan Theide from EWS. 

Among the backups on the team was pitcher Billy 

Messina, who will be joining Helmer in the USSSA Hall 

of Fame this November. 

The team was certainly loaded with experienced players 

with proven track records, but some wondered if the 

veteran group could be the best in the new era, where 

there is more of an emphasis speed, defense and athleticism 

than just brute power. LaserVision opened the year 

as the favorite at the Sin City Classic in Las Vegas, but 

stumbled to a fifth place tie. The team bounced back 

at the Hall of Fame Dual in Florida, going 14-4 to finish 

second in both events. Laser Vision then went 5-0 to 

win the Mike Turney Memorial in Kansas City in what 

would be their only championship of the Conference 

USSSA season. 

At the end of the regular season, with the one championship 

and six runner-ups among their 11 tournaments, 

LaserVision/Easton was a distance second 

behind Resmondo/Worth in the Conference USSSA Final 

Standings. Then, the unthinkable happened – BOTH 

LaserVision and Resmondo went 0-2 at the Conference 

Championships! Suddenly, the race at the World Series 

was thrown wide open. 

“I was extremely concerned (after the Conference 

Championships),” said Alfred. “There is so much parity 

in the game these days. The so-called A teams are just 

as good as the Major teams. And because the A teams 

have more playing opportunities late in the year, they 

are what I call ‘tournament-tough’ at the end. Our 

confidence was certainly not as high as it needed to 

be.” 

On the opening night of the World Series, both of the 

powerhouses put to rest any thought of a repeat from 

the Conference Championships, as Resmondo/Worth 

blasted Primetime/Easton, 23-3, while LaserVision/ 

Easton had a tougher time with scrappy BuziniSports. 

com/BWW/Worth, with a narrow 17-13 win. 

The following night, after LaserVision snuck past 

Conference Championships winner Tyja/Suncoast/ 

Reebok, 25-24, Resmondo was upset by Class A world 

champion R&M Metals/Easton, 25-18. That turn of 

events left LaserVision as the lone Major team left in 

the winner’s bracket along with three A teams, while 

their nemesis Resmondo was sent to the shark-infested 

loser’s bracket that included the two other Major 

teams, plus Class A powerhouses such as Tyja/Suncoast, 

Shoppe/Team TPS and Team 454/Worth, among others. 

Suddenly, Resmondo was facing the challenge of having 

to win seven games in a row in a span of just over 24 

hours if they wanted to claim their fourth world championship 

in a row.

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Tournament director, Elliot C. Clark, presents HR Derby Champion, Chad Durick, Team 454/ 

Worth, his trophy and a check. 

2012 Major All-World, HR Champion and World Series co-MVP, Resmondo/Worth’s Andy 

Purcell. Andy’s pitching and defensive skills have been well-proven over the years and now he 

has honed his hitting talent. His World Series stats......... .738 average, 15 HRs and 31 RBIs. 

All-World selection, Resmondo’s Jeremy Isenhower. Miken Sports has recently released an 

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In the semi-finals of the winner’s bracket on Friday 

night, LaserVision/Easton throttled Reds Astros/TPS, 

29-5, in the bottom half of the bracket, before local 

favorite DeMarini/Dirty/3n2 edged out R&M Metals/ 

Easton, 17-15. Then, in the all-important winner’s 

bracket finals on Saturday night, LaserVision/Easton 

knocked off DeMarini/Dirty, 18-13, to put themselves in 

the enviable position of having to win just one more 

game on Sunday. 

Meanwhile, Resmondo/Worth began its run through 

the wretched loser’s bracket by beating BuziniSports. 

com/BWW/Worth, 22-6, on Saturday morning. They 

came back later the same day to defeat Shoppe/Team 

TPS, 21-17; Reds Astros/TPS, and R&M Metals/Easton, 

17-8, to make it to Sunday morning. In the finals of the 

loser’s bracket, Resmondo put up 15 runs in the first 

inning on their way to a 31-12 win over DeMarini/Dirty 

to make it back to the championship. 

Needing a pair of wins over well-rested LaserVision 

to win the crown, Resmondo got off on the wrong 

foot by losing the coin toss and having to be visitors. 

LaserVision got out to a lead in the first inning, and 

added to it over the next three frames. Resmondo was 

actually in danger of being run-ruled in the fifth inning, 

before an 11-run outburst put them right back in the 

game. The prospects of Resmondo pulling it out and 

forcing a winner-take-all “if” games seemed like a real 

possibility. But LaserVision clung to their narrow lead 

heading into the seventh. After the bottom three of the 

Resmondo lineup all reached base, the team was soon 

faced with two outs and the tying run at the plate. But 

LaserVision pitcher Geno Buck enticed an infield fly to 

end the game with a 27-25 victory, and the LaserVision 

celebration erupted. 

“I want to thank all the sponsors, fans and players of 

LaserVision that made this happen,” said manager 

Dan Fruwirth. “It was a long year with a lot of ups and 

downs, and we all climbed the mountain but never 

reached the top (during the regular season).” 

Fruwirth added, “We finally put it all together at the 

right time by playing one game at a time by beating 

whoever they put in front of us. And we beat the best 

program in softball history, Resmondo, and that alone 

is a huge task. For me, Pierre and Taz (statistician Bill 

Tasinari), it’s our first ring and it feels great.” 

LaserVision/Easton, based in Helmer’s hometown of 

Cicero, NY, averaged 23.2 runs per game during their 

5-0 run. Resmondo/Worth, based in Winter Haven, 

FL, averaged the exact same number in compiling a 

6-2 record to finish second. DeMarini/Derty/3n2 from 

Orlando capped a breakthrough year by placing third 

with a 3-2 mark. R&M Metals/Easton, from Waterloo, 

Iowa, added icing to their Class A world championship 

season by finishing fourth at the Major World Series. 

Reds Astros/TPS, a B team from Indianapolis, and Team 

454/Worth, an A team from Glen Allen, VA, tied for fifth

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LaserVision’s pitcher, Geno Buck, was an All-World selection. 

LaserVision/Easton’s Brian Rainwater was selected the Outstanding Offensive Player of the 

tournament. Presenting him with his award is USSSA VP, Gerry Turnberg. 

LaserVision/Easton’s Scott Kirby receiving his co-MVP award from Assistant Executive 

Director Danny Brown. 

Resmondo/Worth’s Don DeDonatis III receiving the Outstanding Defensive Player award from 

USSSA VP, Bob Holland. 


place, while Tyja/Suncoast/Reebok from Great Neck, 

NY and Shoppe/Team TPS from McKenzie, TN tied for 

seventh. Buzinisports.com/BWW/Worth, a B team from 

Jackson, MS, capped their first season of Conference ball 

tied for ninth, but their one win came over the team that 

beat them in the championship of the Men’s B World 

Tournament, Down2earthsports, and their two losses 

came to the two teams who finished first and second in 

the Major World Series. Other teams tying for ninth place 

were Line Drive Sportz, a B team from Detroit; West Coast 

Doerflinger/Easton, an A team from Los Angeles; and 

Team Combat, a Major team from Seattle. 

Andy Purcell of Resmondo/Worth had one of the 

greatest individual performances in USSSA Major 

World Series history. In addition to being the best 

pitcher and most dominant presence in the game, 

Purcell was magical at the plate as well – hitting.738 

with 15 home runs and 31 RBIs. In the championship 

game, Purcell was 5-for-6 with five home runs to help 

keep his team in the running until the very end. Purcell 

shared Co-Most Valuable Player honors with infielder 

Scott Kirby of world champion LaserVision/Easton. 

Kirby’s tournament was highlighted by a mammoth 

home run well over the 400-foot sign in straight-away 

center-field, reminiscent of the blast he hit completely 

over the scoreboard at the 2008 World Series. For the 

tournament, Kirby batted .773 with seven home runs 

and 13 RBIs. 

Brian Rainwater of LaserVision/Easton batted .667 

with six home runs and 15 RBIs and was named the 

Outstanding Offensive Player of the World Series, 

while Resmondo shortstop Don DeDonatis III was 

tabbed the Outstanding Defensive Player. Dan Fruwirth 

of LaserVision/Easton was named the Outstanding 

Manager. Rainwater was actually the Co-MVP of the 

2011 World Series, while DeDonatis was the MVP of the 

2010 World Series. Rainwater, DeDonatis and Purcell 

are the only players to ever win the MVP Awards more 

than once. 

Players named to the All-Tournament team were Kirby, 

Kennington, Rainwater, Wegman, Lopez, Buck and 

Bryson Baker, of LaserVision/Easton; Purcell, DeDonatis, 

Bobby Hughes, Bubba Mack, Greg Connell and Jeremy 

Isenhower, of Resmondo/Worth; Adam Rockoff, 

Andrew Collins and Terry Baggs, of DeMarini/Dirty; 

Mike Umscheid and Reggie Schulte, of R&M Metals/ 

Easton; Wally Maybrier, of Reds Astros/TPS; and Chad 

Durick, of Team 454/Worth. 

Durick was also the first place winner of the Home Run 

Derby held Friday night. The event was for the top 

power hitters in the sport, and was broadcast by ESPN3. 

The event was held as scheduled, despite almost continuous 

rainfall at Champions Stadium. The most popular 

hitter in the contest was Christan Dowling, from 

Women’s B world champion Derby Girls. Dowling actually 

hit several balls over the fence and was rewarded 

with an ovation from the large crowd.

TYJA-Suncoast Reebok 2012 Nationwide 

Conference USSSA Champions 


TYJA-Suncoast Reebok uses 

defense to claim 2012 Conference 

USSSA Championships 

by Dale Weiser 

The 2012 Conference Championship 

were held in their traditional location, 

the Osceola County Stadium, home of 

the Houston Astros spring training. The 

tournament featured the top 16 teams 

in the Conference according to the 

league point standings which earned 

throughout the season at 22 separate 

events. The Conference Championships 

R&M Metals/Easton 2012 Nationwide Conference USSSA Second Place 

are broken up into 3 brackets. The top 

16 teams in the Conference, regardless 

of team classification, start in the 

“Open” division on Friday night. Seeds 

9-16 begin in round 1. The 4 winners 

move on to round 2 to face seeds 5-8. 

The 4 winners from round 2 move on to 

face seeds 1-4. The loser’s of round 1 

and 2 drop into the “Lower” bracket and

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AFF-0101FP (4/11)

Lee Trotter(left) and Mark Weber(right) with 

championship trophy. 

2012 Conference USSSA outstanding defensive player, 

Resmondo’s Don DeDonatis III 


TYJA-Suncoast Reebok’s Luis Reyna, the acrobat. 

First team all-conference 2B Dirty DeMarini’s Adam 

Rockoff 

start a new double elimination tournament 

of their own over at the Fortune 

Road softball complex on Saturday. The 

top 4 seeds in the “Open” division and 

the 4 teams that win their way into the 

“Open” division “final 8”, square off 

in a double elimination tournament to 

determine the Conference Champion! 

The third bracket is the ‘B’ Conference 

Championship and that consisted of 5 

‘B’ teams squaring off in a 3 game guarantee 

bracket at Fortune Road. 

The weekend was hot and humid but 

it never did rain. The ball used on the 

baseball fields was the stadium ZN and 

it was not flying all that well on the 

stadium or on field #1 where the wind 

was blowing in. It flew a little better 

and scores were higher on field #2 

where the wind was blowing out. On 

Friday night the upsets were early and 

often as 3 major teams all lost their first 

game. Team Combat, Resmondo, and 

Laservision all lost and Nordkap/Desert 

Falls just barely pulled out a late inning 

win against Team 454. 

It quickly became evident that infield 

defense was the key to winning and one 

team stood out in that category - TYJA- 

Suncoast Reebok. With Dennis Rulli at 

third, Luis “The Acrobat” Reyna at short, 

Matt Crawford up the middle, Victor 

Cordova at second base, and Jason 

Baxter at first, they were holding teams 

to less than 10 runs on a regular basis. 

The pitching combo of TJ Thompson 

and Perry Hensley along with their 3 left 

handed and speedy outfielders David 

Kessler, Sid Stephany, and Neil Haglund 

chipped in to hold their opponents to 

just 58 runs over 6 games. Less than 10 

runs a game! 

When the games finished on Saturday 

night, Nordkap/Desert Falls was the only 

top 4 seed left in the winner’s bracket 

and they were joined by the 3 best 

‘A’ teams in the game TYJA-Suncoast 

Reebok, R&M Metals (who recently won 

the ‘A’ Worlds), and Shoppe. 

On Saturday morning TYJA and 

Nordkap both advanced behind some 

big defensive plays and TYJA came out 

in the winner’s bracket finals and beat 

Nordkap 27-16 to be the undefeated 

team. 

Meanwhile R&M Metals ran through

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the losers bracket and held off Nordkap 27-22 to make it 

to the championship where they scored 3 runs in the top of 

the 7th and held TYJA scoreless to force an “if” game 9-8. 

In the final game, R&M Metals scored on a 2 run homer by 

Keith Anderson in the first inning and a 2 run homer by 

Reggie Schulte in the 2nd to take a 4-3 lead. Then TYJA 

was sparked by run scoring triples by Neil Haglund and Sid 

Stephany which led to a 9 run bottom of the 2nd and a 12-5 

lead. David Kessler then hit a home run in the bottom of 

the 4th for TYJA which led to a 6 run 4th and TYJA went on 

to win the Conference Championships by the run rule over 

R&M Metals 24-9! 

TYJA-Suncoast Reebok becomes the first ‘A’ team to win 

the Conference Championships in its 7 year history! 

First team all-conference OF Nordkap’s Donovan Pokraka 

First team all-conference 1B Nordkap’s Brett McCollum 2012 Nationwide Conference USSSA batting champion, TYJA-Suncoast Reebok’s 

Dennis Rulli. 


First team all-conference 3B and John Glidewell Award recipient, Shoppe/TPS’s Lee 

Powers. 

TYJA-Suncoast Reebok’s Vic Cordova (left) and Dustin Roberts (right).

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Here is a list of past Conference Champions: 

n 2012 TYJA-Suncoast Reebok 

n 2011 Resmondo-Specialty Tank / Worth 

n 2010 Dan Smith/Menosse 

n 2009 Resmondo/Specialty Tank/Worth 

n 2008 Resmondo/Specialty Tank/Worth 

n 2007 Resmondo Softball 

n 2006 Bell Corp/Taylor/Belcher/Easton 

Meanwhile in the “Lower” bracket Linedrive Sportz/SSS 

Softball out of Michigan beat Down2EarthSports, Buzinisports, 

and Reds Astros to make it to the Championship game undefeated. 

Reds Astros came out of the losers bracket and beat 

Linedrive on Sunday morning to force an “if” game where 

Linedrive won the Championship of the “Lower” bracket 15-9. 

In the ‘B’ Division Magic / S&S / TYJA / Easton defeated B&B / Sears 

/ N&N Finishing 24-13 in the “if” game to win it. 

Some interesting notes on the tournament: 

n The visiting team in each game was automatically the lower 

ranked team in conference points. 

n 85% of the wins on the stadium field were upsets. 

n Major teams had a 2-9 record on the weekend. 

n There were only 4 run rule games out of 38 games in the 

“Open” and “Lower” brackets. 

Outstanding co-outstanding offensive player, Laservision/Easton’s Brian Wegman 

receives his award from USSSA’s Kevin Naegele and Danny Brown. 

2012 Nationwide Conference USSSA’s co-MVP, Resmondo’s Jimmy Salas. 


R&M Metals/Easton’s Kyle Yerkes 

2012 Nationwide Conference USSSA’s co-MVP, Resmondo’s Andy Purcell. 

Shoppe/TPS’s Tim Cocco receives his co-outstanding offensive player award from 

Louisville Slugger’s Dennis Turner.

Proud Member and finalist in the

Nordkap celebrates a grand slam by Ryan Robbins 

Conference USSSA continues to increase 

teams and events in its seven year history 

The Nationwide Conference USSSA men’s slow-pitch softball 

league just completed another successful season of growth 

and unprecedented parity! The league began back in 2006 

and was formed by USSSA in an effort to save the Major level 

of softball which was suffering from a lack of organized tournaments 

and tournaments that were seeing a diminishing 

number of quality teams participating. Sponsors were tired 

of flying their Major teams into tournaments that had 4 or 5 

teams in them and others that would be cancelled at the last 

minute due to a lack of teams. So the Nationwide Conference 

USSSA was formed. In its inaugural year, 2006, the league 

had 18 teams from 13 different states and played a 14 tournament 

schedule. The teams earn points based on their finishing 

position in each tournament and the standings at the end of 

the season “seeds” the teams into the USSSA Major World 

Series! That first year BellCorp/Taylor/Belcher/Easton won the 

Conference Championship and Resmondo-KME Softball won 

the Major World Series. 

Each year since 2006, the Nationwide Conference USSSA teams 

and tournaments have grown in both quantity and quality. 

2006 - 18 Teams - 20 Tournaments with 8 different winners 







The 2013 season looks to build upon the unprecedented parity 

of competition that the Conference witnessed in 2012. The 

best tournament in the nation on any given weekend is the 

Conference USSSA tournament wherever that happens to be 

held - starting at the end of March with the Las Vegas “Sin 


City Classic”, through the “Music City Classic” in Nashville in 

May, the “Windy City Classic” in Chicago, to the famous 31st 

Dudley in Minnesota in June, and the 45th annual Smoky 

Mountain Classic in Maryville, Tennessee in July. And all of 

these great tournaments in between lead up to the Conference 

Championships, ‘A’ and ‘B’ World Tournaments, and finally 

culminate in the USSSA Major World Series which is played 

at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Kissimmee, Florida in 

September of each year. That tournament crowns the best 

team in softball! 

The league uses some unique rules for slow pitch softball. If 

a Major classified team plays another Major classified team, 

each team can hit 16 home runs. In Major vs non-Major games, 

both teams can hit 12 home runs. And in non-Major vs non- 

Major games, the teams can hit 8 home runs apiece. There is 

no foul ball allowed after the first strike in Conference play. 

The pitchers have to be touching the rubber when they pitch. 

And the league uses a group of “conference” umpires that 

travel the nation in order to give players a uniform and consistent 

strike zone and quality game management. 

The Conference USSSA is covered by live broadcasts on 

USSSALive.com and covered by reports in magazines like 

USSSAToday, and websites like ConferenceUSSSA.com and 

SoftballCenter.com. You can follow all of the action, statistics, 

league standings, and tournament brackets in these websites 

and publications. The Major World Series was even broadcast 

in its entirety online, including a couple of games and the prestigious 

home run derby which were on ESPN! 

In 2013 the Conference USSSA looks to expand its team base 

and the number of Major level teams that are in the program. 

They will also add some new events in the west and east coasts, 

and add some new corporate sponsorship as well as more ESPN 

coverage!

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USSSA honors inductees into 

the National Hall of Fame 

by Kaylen Shimoda 

Looking back in time, USSSA has come a long way in securing itself as one of the most prestigious and well-known slow-pitch softball 

organizations in the United States. Founded in the spring of 1968, USSSA provided amateur athletes with an avenue to play the 

sport they love and also laid the foundation for an organization that would grow exponentially in years to come. In 1979, USSSA 

hosted its first Hall of Fame induction ceremony though it wasn’t until 1984 that the Hall of Fame Museum was born. Headquartered 

in Petersburg, Virginia, the Hall of Fame Museum was introduced to the world and the association continued to blossom. 

Billy Messina 

Charles Wright 


In 1998, Don DeDonatis was named the 

new CEO and during his first few years, 

he created change that would help the 

organization spread its wings across the 

country. He implemented the relocation 

of USSSA’s Hall of Fame to Osceola 

County Heritage Park in Florida. The 

move wasn’t complete until 2005, but 

when it was done, they couldn’t have 

asked for a better turn out. 

The move and current setup was orchestrated 

by Robert Still under the watchful 

eye of DeDonatis. 

Currently, USSSA governs 13 amateur 

sports and over the past 40 years has 

grown from a couple thousand to over 

3.7 million participants. This organization 

would not be where it is today 

without the growing sponsorship of 

some great organizations as well as 

the directors, coaches, and players who 

manage and play the sports they love. 

Today, the museum is home to some of 

USSSA’s most prominent artifacts and 

memorabilia related to its proud history 

and the evolution of softball and it’s 

other affiliated sports. This year, USSSA 

will be hosting the 45th annual National 

Meeting from November 11th to 17th 

at the Pechanga Resort and Casino in 

Temecula, California. Following the 

National Meeting is the Hall of Fame 

induction ceremony where a group of 

talented inductees will be recognized 

for their tremendous achievements and 

contributions to USSSA throughout the 

years. Here is a list of our inductees: 

Billy Messina 

Billy started playing softball in 1981 and 

played his first USSSA Softball tournament 

in 1983. In 1992, he was part of 

Dan Smith’s AA team and played in his 

first Major World Series, an experience 

that he will never forget. In 2002, Billy 

pitched for Chase Reece Roosters who 

won the USSSA Men’s Major World Series 

Championship and his ERA during the 

series was 8 runs per game. His mental 

toughness shined through and the 

victory was ever-so sweet. In 2007, Billy 

remembers winning against Resmondo 

at the Smoky’s with KME, only their 3rd 

loss of the year! Just last year, he pitched 

for Combat Laservision and remembers 

holding GTL (ranked 2nd in the USA) to 

only 2 runs. They came out of the game 

victorious. 

This year, Billy’s team won the Men’s 

Major World Series for the second time, 

which was such a major accomplishment. 

“I felt all year long that our team, 

Laservision/Easton/Annihilation, had 

a chance to win the World Series, but 

throughout the season we were falling 

short at the tournaments we attended. 

When we won, it was amazing and it 

didn’t matter that I wasn’t on the field for 

the last pitch. What mattered was that 

our team never stopped reaching for our 

goal and I got to share the moment with 

my wife, Cheryl. This was the 21st Men’s 

Major World Series that I played in.” A 

proud moment it was, Billy has made 

tremendous contributions to the game. 

Charles Wright 

Charles Wright was known in the softball 

world as the “Georgia Peach”. He just 

loved the game. Some of his greatest softball 

accomplishments include; in 1986, 

he broke the world record hitting 503 

home runs in one season and that same 

year he was the National Softball player 

of the year. In 1993, he was selected as 

the player of the year for both Softball 

USA and Slow-Pitch News. Throughout 

his years of playing softball, Charles won 

33 All-World Series Championships, 4 of 

which he was selected the MVP. Today, 

he is listed as the 5th best softball player 

of all time. 

Charles’ wife, Tammy, reminisces on his 

softball days, “Charles truly enjoyed

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Mike Shenk 

Jeff Hague 

Mary Crechiolo Papiersky 


talking about sports and reminiscing 

about the good old days, but it was 

never about his accomplishments. He 

was very humble when it came to talking 

about his athletic abilities.” Tammy 

adds, “Charles not only impacted his 

generation, but many generations to 

come. At his funeral, I had fathers that 

played ball with Charles introduce me to 

their sons who had also played with him. 

They talked about how he was a man 

of integrity, compassion and with such 

a selfless heart. His legacy will live on 

for years in the hearts and lives of many 

generations of ball players.” 

Mike Shenk 

Mike Shenk is a 2-time USSSA Major 

World Series Champion, a 4-time 

All-World Series Selection, the 1998 

World Series MVP and now, a USSSA 

Hall of Fame member. A third basemen 

who has been affiliated with the association 

since 1990, Mike remembers 

the World Series of 1998 like it was 

yesterday. “I was playing for TPS and 

we were told on Saturday that we were 

part of the leaders bracket playing 

Sunday morning,” he reminisces, “We 

headed out to a 7am batting practice 

for an 8am game and after playing 

five games in a row, we didn’t step off 

of that field until 9 at night. We came 

back and became the 1998 World Series 

Champions, winning the final game on a 

walk off walk. I’ll never forget it.” With 

an impressive career behind him, Mike 

has made his mark on USSSA history. 

Bob Holland, USSSA’s Atlantic Coast 

Vice President for 30 years running, 

re-iterates Mike’s accomplishments and 

athletic talents, “Mike Shenk was the 

best slow pitch player to come out of 

Pennsylvania.” Bob adds, “I had the pleasure 

to watch him grow as a young raw 

talent, to one of the best that slow pitch 

has seen in his era.” When asked what 

it means to be inducted into the Hall 

of Fame, Mike said “This means everything 

to me. I was fortunate enough to 

play for some of the best teams to ever 

play. Throughout my career, the goal 

was to be there and give 110% to my 

team. That’s why it’s hard to go into the 

Hall of Fame, because without my team 

this wouldn’t be possible.” His advice to 

young and aspiring baseball and softball 

players, “You can never take enough 

batting practice and always be prepared 

and there for your teammates.” 

Jeff Hague 

Jeff began playing softball in 1976 and 

three years later, was running his own 

team; Hague Softball. By 1993, he and 

his team were playing at the AA level, 

which at the time was the highest 

amateur level in USSSA. Jeff’s team won 

6 USSSA Championships from 1991 to 

2003, two of which were USSSA Major 

World Series Championships, in 1995 

and 2003. They were the first and only 

non-major team to ever win a major 

world series. 

Over the past 20 years, there have been 

more than 25 major championships won 

by teams sponsored and/or based out 

of the Central Ohio area. Jeff adds, “It 

means a lot to be the first person from 

Columbus, Ohio to be inducted into the 

USSSA Hall of Fame.” Currently, Jeff 

owns and operates a water treatment 

business (Hague Water Conditioning), in 

Groveport, Ohio. 

Mary Crechiolo Papiersky 

Mary was part of Women’s Class A 

Softball from 1976 to 1989. She was a 

part of 3 world championship teams; 

the Stingers in 1980 and Little Caesars 

in 1983 and 1984. Mary remembers 

winning each world championship; they 

were exciting and memorable accomplishments 

for a number of reasons. 

The 1980 championship was a dream 

come true and in 1983, she remembers 

her team coming back to win 6 games 

in a row on the last day of play, to win 

the tournament. In 1984, she played 

in Southgate, Michigan in front of her 

family and friends; this was so important 

to her and a day that she will never 

forget. In 1991, Mary was inducted into 

the Michigan USSSA Hall of Fame and 

she was also part of the 1980’s Team of 

the Decade. 

“I would like to thank my family, friends, 

teammates and coaches for all of their 

support, friendships and life-long memories,” 

Mary said. She also adds, “Thank 

you to Don DeDonatis and USSSA for 

giving so many of us an opportunity to 

play the great game of softball at such 

a competitive level.” Long time fellow 

teammate and friend, Kim Schwartz- 

Alexander, will be speaking on behalf of 

Mary at the induction ceremony. 

Rick Brockwell 

Rick has been an integral part of USSSA 

for many years. In 1994, he received the 

Virginia USSSA Director Achievement

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Rick Brockwell 

Larry Brushett 

Gordon Glennie 


Award and in 2002 he was named the 

National USSSA Baseball Director of 

the Year. In 2009 he was inducted into 

the USSSA Virginia Hall Of Fame and 

throughout his career with the association, 

he played in numerous softball 

leagues and tournaments, church 

softball leagues and tournaments, 

directed softball and baseball tournaments 

and managed successful softball 

teams. Since Rick has taken over as 

State Director of Baseball in Virginia, 

they have experienced major growth. In 

2000, there were six tournaments with 

33 teams participating and in 2012 there 

were 520 tournaments with 3,745 teams 

involved. Bob Holland adds, “Rick is one 

of the nicest people I have ever met. 

He is an outstanding director and more 

importantly, an outstanding person.” 

Rick is also known for starting up a USSSA 

sanctioned Instructional League for 4 to 6 

year olds in his community and expanded 

these leagues throughout communities 

within Virginia. He and his wife have 

attended every National Convention 

since 1986 and are looking forward to 

continuing the tradition. Rick adds, “My 

proudest achievement is that I have never 

played, managed, or directed any other 

sport association other than USSSA,” and 

what a career it’s been. His family has 

even played a part in helping to run tournaments, 

whether it’s his wife working 

concessions, selling t-shirts or keeping 

stats or his son working as a ball-chaser 

or in the score box announcing games. 

Larry Brushett 

As Softball Promotions Manager for 

Mizuno, Larry partners closely with 

USSSA within the softball and fast-pitch 

markets. He has been working with the 

organization for a number of years and 

was elected to initiate a fast-pitch footprint 

for USSSA within the market. Larry 

also participated in the development of 

Comfort Lite Protective Equipment, the 

first protective catcher’s gear that was 

specifically designed and created for the 

female athlete. He also worked on the 

development of female specific batters 

helmets and has sponsored and worked 

with the Women’s Professional Softball 

League since it’s creation. Larry assisted 

with the development of the USA 

Olympic Team batter helmets in 2000, 

2004 and 2008 and worked with the 

development of the Hollywood Impact 

Base used by Parks and Recreation 

departments throughout the country. 

Larry pitched fast-pitch competitively 

until the age of 50 and has won the 

USSSA Achievement Award. 

When asked how it feels to be a USSSA 

Hall of Fame inductee, Larry adds, “It is 

an incredible honor and truly humbling 

to be considered, and then nominated 

and chosen. When you look at the Hall 

of Fame, you look at players and statistics 

so it’s humbling to be an inductee 

since I’ve dedicated my career to help 

players and organizations achieve their 

goals.” Larry also tells us that it makes 

him happy to be a part of USSSA and 

help give advice and direct efforts 

towards the sport. “For me, it’s really 

been the mindset of getting out of life, 

what you can help others achieve too.” 

Gordon Glennie 

Currently the Assistant General 

Manager of the USSSA Florida Pride, 

Gordon Glennie has been involved with 

USSSA since 1986. He has played an integral 

role in implementing the fast-pitch 

program within the organization, a feat 

he will never forget. “It was interesting 

because up until that point, USSSA was 

the United States Slow Pitch Softball 

Association, they really didn’t have fastpitch. 

We found some loopholes in the 

rule book and were able to implement 

fast-pitch, it was great.” 

After implementing fast-pitch, it’s taken 

off like a rocket. At first, there were 11 

teams in the Michigan program and 

today there are about 130 teams in the 

state tournament. Gordon is now part 

of USSSA Pride fast pitch team as the 

Assistant General Manager. In order to 

be in this position, he gave up his role as 

the VP of Fast-Pitch within USSSA and it 

has been an exciting time watching them 

grow. Gordon adds, “Since then, we’ve 

taken the USSSA Pride and have formed 

some junior teams as well, it’s great to 

see 10+ kids at every game worship our 

players, they are idols to these kids.” On 

being inducted into the Hall of Fame, 

Gordon says, “It’s an awesome feeling; a 

reward for hard work and perseverance, 

it’s a very select group of people and I 

consider this a prestigious honor.” 

USSSA is excited and thrilled to host its 

45th Annual National Meeting and is 

looking forward to a wonderful week 

in Temecula, California. Come and be a 

part of this spectacular event and watch 

as our new USSSA honorees are inducted 

into the Hall of Fame. We’re excited to 

see you there!

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Softball players that have 

helped pave the way 

by Mighty Mike Macenko 

Stan Harvey BIG 

Another softball season is winding down 

and we have new champions crowned 

all around. Softball has been in my 

blood since I was 16 years old. I am 56 

today, so that is 40 years of some great 

memories and friendships. . Memories 

that I will always cherish and hopefully I 

will be able to take them with me when 

I leave this world. The friendships are 

second to none and I always said that 

softball was just like a big fraternity on 

a college campus. It is tough to get into 

the upper level of softballs fraternity, 

but once you make it there then the rest 

is up to you. How long you stay on the 

upper level will be up to you. To this day, 

players are still asking me “ how do I get 

to the upper level of softball”?. So, if 

you are one of the few that get to make 

it there, remember to work your butt off 

and you should do just fine and don’t 

forget about the players from the past! 

I am writing this article to talk a little 

bit about some of the players that in the 

last couple of years have gone to the 

playing field in the sky. These players 

helped pave the way for future softball 

players. They set the bar with their play.. 

First there is Stan, the Man, Harvey. Stan 

passed away on January 5th 2012, at the 

age 69 of a stroke. Stan was one of a 

kind as a person and as a softball player. 

I don’t think I ever heard him swear but 

I am sure he might have. He was like a 

gentle giant who could wheel a big stick 

game after game after game. In 1978, in 

Sacramento, he put on one of the best 

displays of hitting I ever saw. He set the 


Bert Smith Charles Wright 

record with 23 homers in ASA championship 

play. He was part of 2 way punch 

that kept Howard’s Furniture at the 

top of the heap for a long time when 

it came to Big Time Softball. He had 

one of the smoothest swings you will 

see. Today, Denny Crine reminds me of 

him. He has the same swing every time. 

He knows his pitch and when it comes 

in he would let you know it. Stan was 

your ultimate softball player…. could 

run, could throw, played the outfield, 

1st base and he would come in and try 

to help Don Arndt with the pitching. My 

man, Stan…. 

Bert Smith, 66, passed away on Feb. 

25, 2012 from injuries suffered in an 

auto wreck. Bert had a unique style 

when he played, but he could back 

up his words on the softball field by 

becoming one of the best players of 

his era. Softball seems to be separated 

in different eras. The different eras 

pertain to the field sizes and equipment. 

Bert played when the fences were 

275 and they used aluminum along with 

wooden bats. Four times he earned ASA 

All-America honors, including being 

named the tourney MVP a record three 

times. He played in nine ASA National 

Championships and compiled a .619 

batting average, hitting 74 homers and 

driving in 160 runs. He was a member of 

four national championship teams.. Bert 

was inducted in the ASA Hall Of Fame 

in 1994 after a stellar career. Bert also 

played for the Detroit Caesars in the Pro 

Softball League in 1977 and hit over 50 

homeruns his first year. 

CAT 

STILL PROWLING THE SOFTBALL FIELDS 

Charles Wright, we lost Charles a year 

and a half ago at the age of 59. He was 

doing what he loved to do best and that 

was hitting softballs. Charles really loved 

to hit softballs a long way. He really got 

into trying to perfect his swing at a young 

age. .At 6’5 and weighting 240 lbs., he 

was your ultimate athlete. He had a big 

frame and could play basketball better 

than anybody in the county. Charlie is 

going into the USSSA Hall Of Fame this 

year. He will be inducted in California at 

the USSSA Convention along with teammates 

Mike Shenk (Ritch’s Superior) and 

Dave Steffen (Ritch’s Superior). Charles 

played with such teams as Nationwide 

Advertising (81),York/Sanders (82), Elite 

(83, 84), Steele’s (86), Marlton, (88), 

and Ritch’s-Superior (91, 92)…. He was 

known as the Georgia Peach throughout 

the softball circles. I feel Charles did a lot 

for softball helping to promote it over 

the years. He hated losing and did not 

want anything but 1st place. In 1985 he 

left his team’s runner up trophy on top 

of the hotel they stayed at. Whenever 

he did hit a homerun he had the same 

trot every time. He always had a certain 

look about him when he hit a home 

run. He was that good. Pair of the best 

hands you could ever want to see. Top 5 

all time player. 

Next issue I will remember Jacques 

Millier, Kenny Carver and Ken Loeri. 

Remember to work hard in the off 

season. It is the old lesson, hard work 

pays off. Good Luck.

(800) 327-0074

USSSA College Scholarship 

Program Continues To Grow 

by Scott Kuhnen 

“What a great list of candidates!” 

says Scott Kuhnen, chairperson for the 

USSSA A.E. Ramsey College Scholarship 

Program. 

“This year we took applications 

from five sports in 22 different states,” 

explains Kuhnen, “and narrowing the 

list of winners to meet our budget allotment 

gets harder every year. The evaluation 

of college scholarship applications 

is accomplished by vice-presidents from 

each of these five sports, include Joey 

Odom, V-P for Baseball, Bill Dowell and 

Jeremy McDowell, V-Ps for fast pitch, 

Robert Boudreaux, V-P for Junior Golf; 

and Conrad Foss, V-P for Basketball. 

This year, with continuing support 

from USSSA CEO, Don DeDonatis, and 

the entire USSSA Board of Directors, 

USSSA has awarded more than $15,000 in 

college scholarship money to loyal USSSA 

participants. 

“This is one of the finest programs 

USSSA has to offer,” says DeDonatis. 

“Not only do we reward student-athletes 


Scott Kuhnen- chairperson for the USSSA A.E. 

Ramsey College Scholarship Program 

for participating in USSSA sports and 

excelling at academics, but we also honor 

one of the association’s founding fathers 

and our former CEO, Al Ramsey.” 

The A.E. Ramsey USSSA College 

Scholarship Program is named for one 

of the founders of USSSA and former 

National President, Al Ramsey 

SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS 

Baseball 

Nicholas Laber Ovideo FL University of Central Florida 

Jack Sanchez Kansas City MO Ellsworth Community College 

Austin Daus Peoria AZ University of Arizona 

Quentin Moore Maxton NC North Carolina State 

George Mitchell Crosby TX Southwestern University 

Jacob Krehbiel 

Fast Pitch 

Bixby OK Independence Community College 

Carson Catasus Palm Beach Gardens FL St. Thomas University 

Naomi Posada Midland TX Midland College 

Jesse Rocha Simsbury CT Western Connecticut State University 

Caroline Johnson Firestone CO Chadrin State College 

Courtney Bristow Bradenton FL Stetson University 

Madison McDowell Parkville MO Truman State University 

Jessica Ramos El Paso TX University of Minnesota at Crookston 

Kayla Sory Bryant AR Henderson State Univ. 

Haley McDonald Greenley CO Adams State College 

Avery Cranford Whitewright TX Eastern Oklahoma State College 

Amber Oxford Huntington AR Ouachita Baptist University 

Chrystal Reese Pilot Point TX Cisco Jr College 

Makenzie Rome Kansas City MO Johnson County Community College 

Laura Erickson Sioux Falls SD Dakota Wesleyan University 

Danielle Johnson Fountain CO Trinadad State Junior College 

Taylor DeBoer Broomfield CO Lamar Community College 

Ciara Kimminau Arvada CO William Penn University 

Brooklyn Colvin Stillwell OK University of Arkansas-Montichello 

Anna Corch Emmaus PA Lehigh University 

Nicole Krebs 

Slow Pitch 

Eudora KS Ottawa University 

Lacy Painter Manchester TN Motlow State Community College 

Emily Maloney 

Golf 

Middletown OH Miami University-Middletown 

Joseph Fruge 

Basketball 

Lafayette LA University of Louisiana at Lafayette 

Jessica Hundley Palm Beach Gardens FL University of Florida 

Christopher Walker Fort Lauderdale FL Bethune Cookman University 

This year’s scholarship money goes 

to 31 student-athletes in fast pitch and 

slow pitch softball, basketball, golf, and 

baseball. Each scholarship recipient was 

awarded $500 and, unlike many scholarships 

which are awarded to the schools 

to defray solely tuition costs, the USSSA 

scholarship funds are sent directly to the 

students and their families and can be 

used for tuition, books, housing, or just a 

living allowance. 

According to Mr. DeDonatis, scholarships 

have been available for some years 

now to our youth softball programs 

(slow pitch and fast pitch), baseball, and 

basketball. Starting just three years ago, 

the popular USSSA Junior Golf program 

was added to the list of recipients, and 

as additional sports begin to grow and 

our involvement by high school students 

begins to expand in those sports, USSSA 

will award even more scholarships. 

“We look forward to receiving more 

and more applications from our participants,” 

says DeDonatis. “While we 

hate turning some applicants down, we 

appreciate that our Directors and our 

participants recognize the value of this 

program. We are anxious to help those 

student-athletes who have participated 

in our USSSA programs.” 

Interested student-athletes should 

go to www.USSSA.com to download an 

application form and begin the process 

of applying today. The application form 

can be found on the various home pages 

for slow pitch, fast pitch, baseball, and 

basketball. 

The application must be endorsed 

by a USSSA Sponsor (manager/coach, 

State Director, National Board Member), 

forwarded to the State Director in the 

sport for which you are applying, must 

be accompanied by a letter of acceptance 

from the college you are attending, a 

photo, and a brief essay (200-300 words) 

explaining how USSSA sports helped you 

prepare for college and future endeavors. 

USSSA College Scholarship applications 

are due to the USSSA National 

Headquarters by 15 August of each 

year. If there are any questions, please 

direct them to your USSSA State Director 

or Scott Kuhnen, So/Central Ohio State 

Director, (937) 429-0029 or e-mail: 

dayton_softball@hotmail.com.

USSSA - A Dominating Presence 

Not Just on the Field, But Online 

by Paul O’Leary 

Back in 1998 the web was a very 

different place than it is today. There 

were only just over 3.5 million websites 

online, AOL, Yahoo, Geocities and MSN 

were the kings of the information superhighway. 

Google? Well the now giant 

Google was incorporated as business in a 

garage in Menlo Park, California. USSSA 

at that time had teamed up with ISTS to 

launch a new kind of sports statistics and 

management system for the association; 

USSSA.com. More than just a website, 

USSSA.com revolutionized the way the 

industry and the association was able to 

organize tournaments, share data and 

statistics as well as provide information 

to its fast growing membership base 

and the public. 

Fast forward to 2012 and Geocities is 

defunct, Yahoo, MSN and AOL are way 

behind Google in product offerings, 

rankings and are constantly working 

to play catch up. As for the number 

of websites worldwide, figures are 

changing all the time but the current 

estimate puts the number of sites at over 

half a billion - more than 650 million 

to be more precise! USSSA in this time 

period has continued to grow exponentially 

with USSSA.com being the toolkit 

that helped aid much of the growth. 

Visitor numbers to the site have grown 

year over year from over 26 million hits 

in 2003 to more than 261 million hits 

today. What is even more impressive is 

that 303 million hits are estimated for 

2013. With so many websites in the 

world, it is hard for any organization to 

be on top in search rankings but USSSA 

does just that through it’s use of unique 

and fresh content on its sites. Beyond 

that, the national site is also within the 

top 4,000 sites worldwide during the 

summer months and frequently averages 

in excess of a million hits a day. 

The growth and visitor numbers online 

don’t stop with USSSA.com – broadcasting 

of tournaments online by USSSA 

Live has increased this year with a total 

of 1664 hours being consumed– that’s 


Making things happen online for USSSA are (left 

to right): Paul O’Leary, Bernie Guenther, Brittany 

Wiegert and Matt O’Hara. Not pictured staff 

members include: Steve Celuch, Rachel Goossens and 

A.R. Pallab. 

just over 69 days of video! For the 

second year that USSSA Live broadcast 

the Men’s Major World series live 

on the new Nationwide Conference 

USSSA website, rather than on the old 

USSSA Live webpage. Just as in 2011, 

we saw more than 100,000 page views 

for those watching the tournament 

this year. Along with the Men’s Major 

USSSA Live broadcast the Hall of Fame 

Classic, Conference Championship and 

the Men’s A and Men’s B World Series 

to several thousand more viewers. The 

USSSA Pride, National Professional 

Fastpitch team website has also seen 

many thousands of people throughout 

the year visit the site – with over 430,000 

page views to the present date for 

2012. Traffic levels on each of the USSSA 

National websites 

increased during 

times of increased 

publicity and awareness, 

such as broadcasts 

on ESPN. Other 

new national sites 

like USSSASoccer.com 

and USSSAToday.com 

are also seeing rising 

levels of traffic as 

more members in the 

association become 

aware of all that the 

organization does 

to promote your 

sports. 

USSSA’s YouTube Channel - youtube.com/ 

usssatoday - has also seen great results 

and is the official archive of USSSA Live 

video. The channel is just over a year old 

and already has had more than half a 

million video views. This new method 

of archiving not only saves USSSA bandwidth 

and storage space, it also allows 

videos to be viewed in different quality 

levels – including full HD video, just like 

the broadcast. Meaning that fans can 

relive their favorite games over and 

over again. This has definitely made the 

archives easily viewable by more people 

from more devices, including a phone, 

tablet, PC and internet enabled TV, all 

aiding to the online presence of USSSA. 

This doesn’t even touch on the amount 

of Facebook and Twitter activity this 

year for USSSA. The USSSA Slow Pitch 

page is approaching 15,000 fans and 

is growing steadily, while other sports 

grow the number of likes and followers 

on their pages. 

USSSA has more than 3.9 million 

members across 13 nationally sanctioned 

sports. Every day as players, 

managers, coaches and fans discover 

what USSSA online has to offer, USSSA 

dominates the online sports world in 

the same way as we do on the field.

We Welcome you to 

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is a USSSA preferred hotel partner 

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alike. With an ideal location to 

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• 3 pools, basketball court, 

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• Free Coaches room with 10 or 

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• Visiting fan & family rates 

• Free high-speed internet 

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For more information or to book your teams 

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USSSA Martial Arts Striking Hard 

By Don Eminizer / Adrian Ellis 

USSSA Karate’s Adrian Ellis 

Who doesn’t want to be a part of 

the fastest growing Martial Arts 

Organization in the world? Who doesn’t 

want to get fit, to compete, to gain selfesteem 

and enjoy themselves while they 

learn the art of self defense? Who in 

the world doesn’t want to be the best 

that they can be, to learn the biggest 

and best secrets that the Martial Arts 

world has to offer? It’s one thing to 

think about learning Martial arts, of 

taking the time and effort and discipline 

to better yourself, it’s another to actually 

do it. Anyone can want, but it takes 

winners to try. And if you do decide to 

try, where do you start? Where do you 


go? Why learn from just anyone or 

compete against just anyone or waste 

all your valuable time learning Martial 

Arts or practicing Martial Arts in just any 

organization? 

Do the best in the world want to work 

together, to help people enjoy the true 

fruits that the Martial Arts tree has to 

offer? 

There are certainly plenty of people, 

plenty of extremely talented people, 

some of the best Martial Artists and 

Martial Arts teachers and coaches in the 

world, who do want to be part of such 

an organization. 

What about Mahmoud Bambouyani 

Sensei, known worldwide as a master 

instructor? Mahmoud Bambouyani 

Sensei has been seen talking the finer 

points of karate almost everywhere on 

television, from CBS, NBC and ABC Cable 

Networks and local TV. What about 

Hanshi Ricardo John, a highly respected 

USA Karate National Team coach? All 

of these people and many more Karate 

Masters and novices want to be a part of 

the biggest and best Martial Arts organization 

in the world, and they are. 

Because they’re part of USSSA Martial 

Arts Program, one the most innovative 

and explosive martial arts organizations

From great sporting events 

to waterslides to shopping, 

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on the country and one of the fastest 

growing. But these aren’t the only 

people affiliated with USSSA Karate, 

and they aren’t the only reason that the 

organization is growing so fast. 

Welcome to USSSA MARTIAL 

ARTS 

USSSA Karate is attracting some of the 

best known martial artist aficionados 

from around the country, and that is 

one of the many reasons that organization 

is filling out its membership. They 

also have developed an excellent track 

record in a very short period of time. 

Some of the supporter that have championed 

USSSA martial arts accomplishments 

in its first few years are some 

of the biggest names in martial arts 

community 

“We have our challenges but we 

are fully committed to the group of 

martial arts and providing opportunities 

for families to participate under our 

umbrella in a safe, fun environment”. 

States Ellis, National Director of Martial 

Artist Adrian Ellis. We have attracted 

martial arts veterans, rookies and kids 

alike because of the name USSSA. 

USSSA is expanding so rapidly, and is set 

to blow up on the International scene, 

because of what they are doing now 

and what they are preparing to do in 

the future. 

Why USSSA Martial Arts 

USSSA Martial Arts is about more than 

just kicking and punching or a particular 

style or system. They accept free 

style martial artists, traditional martial 

artists Chinese martial artists, Tae Kwon 

Do organizations and Jujitsu, among 

others. Ellis states, “Our diversity is part 

of our appeal, but the inclusion that we 

provide coaches, teachers and members 

has been key to, now we ready to move 

forward, having established our brand 

in the Martial Arts community, our 

coaching standards, referee standards 

throughout our ranks. We are finalizing 

key appointments to prepare for 

growth. 

Recently, USSSA has appointed Bob 

Leiker as National Director of Open 

/ Freestyle Martial Arts, Bob is from 

Kansas City, MO, and is the owner of 

AmericKick Martial Arts studio, Bob has 


host one of the most successful Martial 

arts tournaments in the history of the 

United States, so he understands the 

nuances and complexities of organizing 

large events and mobilizing leaders 

on state and regional levels. He has 4 

decades of experience in Martial Arts 

and was a very successful competitor 

himself during his career. 

“ Ellis states, Bob’s participation and 

leadership in the USSSA martial arts 

program will actively promotes martial 

arts tournaments at every level, from 

elite competitions on down. These 

tournaments are extremely successful, 

drawing thousands of athletes from all 

over the Nation, and I look forward to 

working with him.” 

But USSSA hasn’t stopped with Bob’s 

appointment. They have appointed 

Grant Campbell as National Director of 

sports Jujitsu, Grant Campbell’s dedication 

to the martial arts is an inspiration 

to all. One of the few American martial 

artists to be fully trained in Japan, he 

has successfully undergone the most 

demanding and rigorous training in the 

world, studying under the best teachers 

in Asia, and he fully understands 

the standards of the International 

governing body. Grant has taught thousands 

of students the art of Karate in his 

many years of teaching and coaching 

experience. He is another International 

Karate Hall of Fame Inductee, a 7th 

Degree Black Belt Master Teacher, and 

has 35 years’ experience under his belt. 

He is also the youngest American to be 

awarded the acclaimed Master level of 

Karate in Japan. Grant even earned his 

Master’s Degree in Japan. 

USSSA martial arts is happy to have Mr. 

John Emmons is National Director of 

Tae Kwon Do, not only is he a full time 

martial arts instructor, a successful business 

owner he has lead one of the most 

successful Martial Arts organizations in 

the United States, with a very strong 

membership base and a loyal following. 

“John is a visionary and no nonsense 

individual and knows exactly what we 

wants so it only makes since that we 

align ourselves with people whom we 

have synergy with and can share the 

vision of the USSSA, states Adrian Ellis,” 

Adrian Ellis, states,”We are not simply 

a collection of some of the most 

talented Martial Arts leaders in the 

country, We have leaders on all levels 

state and regional, instructors/coaches 

who understand that martial arts help 

youth in every aspect of their lives from 

academics, self-confidence, self-esteem, 

and it’s a great cross training program 

for kids who participate in other sports 

during the off season. These martial art 

instructors/coaches have a passion for 

the martial arts and the personal development 

of its participants.” 

Some of our goals for 2012-13 is to grow 

our membership by 50%, double the 

number of events sanctioned under the 

USSSA umbrella and develop alliances 

with other organization that share 

the vision and mission of the USSSA 

National Headquarters and the Martial 

Arts Program. 

They’re also implementing plans, policies 

and programs that will push them 

even further forward. As of now, USSSA 

Karate program has: 

n Appointed 9 of 15 regional directors 

of the Karate committee, covering 44 

of the State’s zones in the US 

n We have filled approximately 50% of 

our state/zone directors positions 

n Implemented an Anti-Bullying 

Program, wherein Martial Arts 

instructors offer seminars in school 

systems 

n Implemented a Child-Safety Program, 

teaching awareness and basic selfdefense 

to children 

n Hosted fifteen successful, exclusive 

USSSA martial arts events around the 

country 

n Hosted six seminars/training (one 

every two months) under the USSSA 

banner 

n Appoint a national Director of 

Freestyle Martial Arts 

n Appointed national Director of Tae 

Kwon Do Martial Arts 

n Appointed national Director of Sport 

Jujitsu Martial Arts 

Ellis states, “I am excited about the 

direction and the individuals involved 

and we look forward to a great year and 

fun exciting competition.

presents 

28th 

In Bryan/College Station on 

May 4th & 5th, 2013 

Brought to you by 

Jack Hilliard Distributing, 

Bryan/College Station,TX 

To enter your team, 

contact Greg Huchingson 

at (979) 774-9408 

Annual Budweiser 

Softball Festival

TWO USSSA WINTER 

Start your 2013 season off with a Big Ban 

DIVISIONS OF PLAY (for both weekends): Men’s B, 

South Texas Winter Worlds 

January 12-13, 2013 

Big League Dreams 

League City, TX 

(Houston area) 

January 12-13, 2013 

BIG LEAGUE DREAMS / LEAGUE CITY 

HOST 

HOTEL 

(281) 724-6091 

Ask for Chenille 

To Enter Either Tournament 

or Get More Information: 

Info@LoneStarSoftball.com 

(979) 774-9408

WORLDS IN TEXAS 

g of National Tournament Level Points 

Men’s C, Men’s D, Men’s E, Women’s C, Women’s D 

North Texas Winter Worlds 

January 19-20, 2013 

Big League Dreams 

Mansfi eld, TX 

(Dallas-Ft.Worth) 

★ Field Turf Infi elds 

★ Major League Replicas 

★ Professional Lighting 

★ In-ground Dugouts 

★ Multiple Batting Cages 

★ 2 Sports Bars on Premises 

January 19-20, 2013 

BIG LEAGUE DREAMS / MANSFIELD 

HOST 

HOTEL 

(817) 453-8722 

Ask for Kim

Bandits Repeat...Stingrays Threepeat 

Astros Add One for the Thumb 

by Matt Trebuchon 

Team Manager Dave Roberts receives a congratulatory hug from Cam Shepherd after the 14U East Cobb Astros win their unprecedented fifth Elite World Series Championship. 

As in years past, the USSSA Baseball 

Elite World Series did not disappoint 

and remains the absolute best amateur 

baseball championship in the world… 

period! The 2012 installment saw repeat 

winners, threepeat winners, and one 

club securing its fifth title. Nothing 

short of another two incredible weeks 

of baseball played at the highest level 

on the grandest of all stages! 

Session I (July 14 - 21) was represented 

by ninety-six 10U, 12U and 14U teams 

playing 330+ games in Florida’s sweltering 

summer heat, humidity and 

afternoon showers and in the end, the 

10U Central Florida Wolverines, 12U 

Southern California Phenom and the 

14U East Cobb Astros prevailed. 

The Wolverines went 2-1 in pool play 

securing the five seed heading into the 

double elimination tournament bracket. 

After knocking off the Slammers from 

Lakewood, Colorado; Triad, North 

Carolina’s Evoshield Canes and the RBI 

Rangers from Knoxville, Tennessee, 15-6, 

9-7 and 12-0, it was time to again face the 

revenge minded Evoshield team looking 

to take down the Wolverines and even 

the score. The North Carolina based 

Canes did just that in a 9-6 bout forcing 

the two squads to the “if” game. In the 


“Loser Go Home” game the Wolverines 

showed no mercy outscoring their foe 

7-1 to advance to the semi-finals and 

face the undefeated (7-0) 10U East Cobb 

Astros of Marietta, Georgia. With all 

teams fresh on Saturday, the Wolverines 

first took down the Astros 11-5 ending 

their quest for a championship and then 

topped the BPA Rawlings Elite from 

Southern California 6-3 to earn the 

Central Florida squad its Elite crown. For 

the week, the Wolverines played to an 

8-2 record scoring 84 runs. BPA Rawlings 

Elite wrapped up their World Series with 

an 8-1 record scoring 85 runs while the 

10U East Cobb Astros finished 7-1. The 

Rawlings team’s Harrison Owen was 

named 10U Elite World Series MVP. 

In the 12U division, Team Phenom ran 

the table with a perfect 8-0 record 

outscoring their opponents 86-7 and 

winning seven of their eight games by 

mercy run rule. In Elite World Series 

history no team has ever so completely 

out shinned the competition as Team 

Phenom did. After winning 3 pool play 

games 37-2 and advancing to bracket play 

as the #1 seed, the Southern California 

squad continued their assault by 

knocking off Oklahoma City’s Oklahoma 

Elite, Perfect Game from Cedar Rapids, 

Iowa; Gallagher Select from Hamilton, 

New Jersey; Perfect Game again and 

finally the Next Level Tornados from 

Plainfield, Illinois by an amazing 49-5 

total combined score. Phenom’s Michael 

Montes DeOca and Kewin Ledesma 

were named Co-Offensive Most 

Valuable Players while teammate Emilio 

Vasquez was awarded the Elite World 

Series Most Valuable Player. Next Level 

Tornado, Clayton Thompson was named 

Defensive MVP. 

This year’s 14U division was all about the 

older East Cobb Astros and their quest for 

a fifth Elite World Series Championship 

under manager Dave Roberts. His squad 

played a perfect 3-0 in pool play out 

scoring their competition 29-5 but only 

managed the three seed for bracket 

play and what a wild ride that was! 

After dropping the Louisville Longhorns 

of Kentucky in the opening round 

with a nail biting 2-0 final, the Astros 

rolled over the Sacramento Showcase 

of Northern California 12-0 setting up 

the natural Georgia – Florida rivalry 

with the Tampa Crush. In a true pitcher’s 

duel that accounted for a combined 29 

strike outs between the two staffs, the 

Crush came out on top 2-1 sending the 

Astros to the loser’s bracket. East Cobb’s 

first elimination contest aligned them 

with the Detroit Bees. The squad from

thank you 

for a suCcessful 

2012 season! 

Thank you to the 

teams for coming, to 

the fans for showing your 

support and to the players, 

for the memories! 

The Southwest Louisiana Convention 

& Visitors Bureau makes planning 

your 2013 sporting event or 

tournament a breeze. 

The only question is, Are You Game? 

To book your next tournament, contact 

Eric Zartler, at 

ezartler@visitlakecharles.org 

VisitLakeCharLes.org/sports 

800-456-SWLA

Cooper Krause awaits the pitch in a 9U Elite World 

Series elimination game versus the Motor City Hitdogs. 

East Cobb’s Cade Roberts stretches his lead on the 

pitch. 

East Cobb Astros’ first baseman Connor Davis holds 

Dion Henderson of the Midland Tomahawks close to 

the bag during a 14U Elite contest played at Disney’s 

Champions Stadium. 


Michigan gave the Georgia boys all they 

could handle but the Astros pulled off 

a late inning rally to win 7-4 and reset 

the showdown with Tampa. The Crush, 

being the undefeated team, had to be 

beaten twice by the Astros and that’s 

exactly what East Cobb did, 4-2 and 10-2 

in the “if” game. In the semi-finals the 

Astros matched up with Team Reebok of 

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and wasted 

no time jumping out to an early 4-0 lead 

before settling on a final 5-2 victory. 

Their championship opponent was the 

undefeated (8-0) Lamorinda Monarchs 

from Northern California. The East Cobb 

team scored early and often in what 

ended as a very lopsided 14-3 championship 

contest securing Dave Roberts and 

his 14U East Cobb Astros’ fifth (2006, 

2007, 2009, 2010, 2012) USSSA Baseball 

Elite World Series Championship! MVP 

honors were bestowed upon Reginald 

Pruitt of the Astros. 

Session II (August 4 - 11) was on par with 

the prior with ninety-eight 9U, 11U and 

13U teams playing 340+ games in the 

same sweltering summer heat, humidity 

and afternoon showers however this 

time the Elite produced a threepeat 

champion, a repeat champion and for 

the first time in USSSA history, saw both 

11U semi-final and the championship 

game televised live on ESPN3. 

In the always exciting 9U division, the 

Sand Diego Show ran away with the 

show (no pun intended) going a perfect 

9-0 while plating 57 runs for the week. 

In route to their perfect week they 

knocked off in order, Ankeny Iowa’s 

Warhawks 7-5; Eagle Lake Florida’s 

Team Avalanche 8-3; the Alabama Elite 

from McCalla 9-7, Iowa’s Des Moines 

Yankees 4-2, Whittier California’s So 

Cal Outlaws Elite 8-4, the Atlanta 

Angels from Georgia 6-4, again the So 

Cal Outlaws Elite 4-3, the 9U Oakley 

Stingrays from Norwalk California 

3-0 and in the championship game a 

rematch against Team Avalanche with a 

final 8-2 score. The Avalanche’s Ty Evans 

was named Defensive MVP while San 

Diego’s Julian Nunez and Kyle Carr were 

awarded Offensive MVP and Elite World 

Series Most Valuable Player honors 

respectively. 

In a threepeat performance, this year’s 

11U Oakley Stingrays picked up right 

where they left off in previous years 

by continuing their onslaught of domination! 

In 2010, the 9 year old team 

won its first Elite title with an impressive 

7-1 record outscoring the competition 

78-33. In 2011, the 10 year old 

squad won its second Elite crown with 

a perfect 9-0 record outscoring the field 

71-25. This year’s group showed no 

mercy playing yet another perfect tournament 

going 9-0 and this time topping 

their opponents 82-21 in the runs category. 

Victims included the Farmington 

Hill Warriors from Michigan 10-3, 

Jacksonville, Florida’s CBC Riverhawks 

8-2, Florida’s Pembroke Pines Bengals 

5-2, the JTB Tigers out of Auburn 

Hills, Michigan 16-3, Union County 

North Carolina’s Waxhaw Vipers 13-0, 

Alabaster, Alabama’s Outlaw Baseball 

10-1, Russellville, Arkansas’ Mighty 

Ducks 7-5, an ESPN3 televised semi-final 

clash with Jackson, Mississippi’s Athletics 

Gold 10-5 and the televised championship 

versus Southern California rival 

Santa Ynez Titans 3-0. Moises Guzman 

was honored as the Offensive MVP 

and Chase Adkison was awarded the 

Elite World Series Most Valuable Player. 

Santa Ynez standout Conagher Sands 

was awarded Defensive MVP. 

The 13U division scored a repeat title 

holder in the Georgia Bandits. In 2011, 

the Bandits won the 12U division by 

going 10-1 while averaging 8.8 runs 

per contest for a total of 97 runs scores. 

This year’s 13U squad one-upped itself 

by playing 8-1 baseball, scoring 94 runs 

(10.4 runs per game average)!!! The 

Bandits dropped their first pool game to 

a very scrappy Mission Viejo, California 

So Cal Rebels squad 4-2, and then never 

looked back. The next eight casualties 

were the Blue Water Attack out of 

St. Clair, Michigan 15-2 & 7-5, Hialeah, 

Florida’s Fire Line and Des Moines, Iowa’s 

Knights both 17-3, South Florida’s MBA 

Pride Elite (the only team to beat the 

2011 championship squad) twice, 12-3 & 

9-1, Pembroke Lakes, Florida’s Bulldogs 

10-9 and in the final, undefeated 

South Florida Giants of Miramar 5-3. 

Superlatives were awarded to the Giants’ 

John Merrill as Defensive MVP while the 

Georgia Bandits’ William Lumpkin was 

Offensive MVP and teammate Tucker 

Bradley was awarded with Elite World 

Series Most Valuable Player honors.

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The timeline was November of 2009, the 

place was Temecula Ca. and the gathering 

was the opening meeting at the 

USSSA convention. 

Hundreds of Directors from many 

different sports were in attendance and 

were about to witness a statement and 

prediction from our CEO Don DeDonatis. 

At that time Mr. DeDonatis had just 

introduced the top Softball players in 

the world as our USSSA Pride was born! 

There was a buzz in the arena as a new 

change was in store as all USSSA Fast 

Pitch Directors were challenged by these 

words, “In five years USSSA Fast Pitch 

will be #1, I guarantee it “. 

This plan had been put in place a few 

months earlier as Vice-Presidents Jeremy 

McDowell (KS), Bryan Sage (IA) and 

Bill Dowell (MD) were appointed and 

briefed to begin the change in the new 

philosophy for Fast Pitch and by starting 

at the State levels. 

As the VP’s met individually with all 

Fast Pitch State Directors numbers were 

discussed as to where you are now and 

where you will be in twelve months. 

Goals were set, idea’s developed and off 

we went. 


Fast Pitch On Fire 

By Rick Phillips 

To start was the idea for more recreational 

league registrations. This ultimately 

leads to more USSSA visibility 

which always turns into club teams 

who now turn to USSSA Fast Pitch 

Tournaments and guess what, it worked! 

In 2010 our team registrations were 

13,538 compared to 2012 where we 

amazed 17,200 teams; this is a 27% 

increase. What happened almost simultaneously 

was that teams participating 

in tournaments grew in that same time 

frame from 25,942 teams to 41,222 

teams, a staggering 59% growth. 

In order to account for as many teams 

playing USSSA we need to recognize 

that the number of events/tournaments 

held throughout the U.S. went from 794 

events in 2010 to 1148 events in 2012, 

another impressive increase of 45%. 

Accordingly, with more events being 

played the need for more NIT’s were 

developed and again the numbers rose 

from 48 to 85, up 77%. 

As this domino effect continues some 

have asked, what about Official’s. Once 

again, from 2010 to 2012 Official’s registrations 

went from 2576 to 3325, up 

29%. This number speaks volumes and 

here is why. These are individuals who 

register for Fast Pitch specifically. Very 

profound statistic as many official’s who 

register for other sports can and do 

cross over to Fast Pitch. More officials 

have gravitated to Fast Pitch because 

of the speed of the game as well as 

the competitive nature of these young 

ladies’! 

As we move into the 2013 season 

the pressure is on to continue the 

momentum and growth set forth. From 

our VP’s to the State Director’s our quest 

to improve remains intact. As other 

organizations unravel under poor leadership 

or out dated arrogance, USSSA is 

now the association leading from the 

front. We have bounced our numbers 

every year since 2009 in every category 

including a 29% hike at our World Series 

in the 2012 season. 

The giant step has been taken by all 

committed to USSSA Fast Pitch, no 

mercy can be had on any one person or 

association who tries to derail, instigate, 

or harm what so many have worked for! 

The time is now, the heat is on, the shift 

is in place, and USSSA Fast Pitch is on 

FIRE!

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America’s Finest City Showcase 

Thriving in San Diego, CA 

by Ken Weimer 

The America’s Finest City Showcase 

Tournaments was started 11 years ago 

drawing some of the top teams in the 

country to San Diego. It has become 

one of the “must” enter Fall Showcases 

along with the Surf City and So Cal’s 

Finest Tournaments. Over the past 

decade they have done their best to 

turn their events into something a little 

different than most of the other showcase 

events. 

Friday nights consist of the four 

main fields hosting the local San Diego 

teams in games that allows family and 

friends to all come out and root for their 

favorite local players. This year will mark 

the second year that they are giving out 

scholarships to seniors attending the 

tournament...last year they gave out 

a total of $3,000 to four tournament 

participants...this year they will raise 

that to $4,000 to six players. 

Four years ago America’s Finest City 

Showcase started the Unsigned Games 

which are provided at no charge to 

the players in the tournament and are 

made up of the top unisgned players 

from each participating team. This gives 

college coaches an easy way to find 

high quality athletes in the class and 

position they are looking for to fill out 

their roster needs. Teams are coached by 

USSSA Pride players as well as NAIA and 

JuCo coaches...after the games are over 

the coaches bring the teams together to 

discuss recruiting and answer any questions 

the players may have about the 

process. 

America’s Finest City Showcase 

continues to strive to improve the tournament 

every year and looks to add a 

Summer Showcase in the next year or 

two. 


Ken Weimer with scholarship winner. 

Unsigned games prep.

The largest city on the Mississippi 

River, Memphis serves up a warm 

welcome and plenty of good times. And 

it’s not just the live music of historic 

Beale Street, world-famous barbecue or 

award-winning zoo that brings people 

to town – Memphis is home to 

Gameday’s First Tennessee Fields, a 

premier youth sports destination and 

host of the HotelPlanner.com National 

Youth Baseball Championships. 

From pristine T-10 Bermuda fields to 

unbeatable amenities, Gameday makes 

every event a winner. 

GAMEDAYBASEBALL.COM 

MEMPHISTRAVEL.COM 

In August, Gameday proudly hosted the 

National Youth Baseball Championships 

for the fifth time, televised on the 

CBS Sports Network. Former Yankees 

pitcher Jeff Nelson, color commentator 

for the tournament, welcomed other 

MLB legends: White Sox hitter Frank 

“The Big Hurt” Thomas, White Sox Vice 

Chairman Eddie Einhorn, and retired 

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. 

Fans of Gameday, L-R: Frank Thomas, Eddie 

Einhorn, and Jeff Nelson. Far left: Tony La Russa 

greets the crowd at the 2012 NYBC. 

Gameday, named 2011 USSSA Complex 

of the Year, draws teams from across 

the country for youth baseball and girls 

fastpitch league and tournament play. 

For more information about Gameday: 

gamedaybaseball.com or call 

(901) 531-7410.

USSSA Soccer Reaches All Time 

High in Teams and Participants 

by Jared Dan 

2012 has been another successful year for USSSA Soccer as the 

continued growth of the program hit an all time high, which 

continues from 2009, 2010 and 2011. Last year (2011) a strategic 

plan was developed to reach 75,000 members by 2013 

and a revamp of the national committee saw Erick French 

appointed Adult Director and Ross Paule taking on the role 

of Youth Director. Erick and Ross both work closely with Craig 

Scriven in creating programs for members to continue playing 

the game of soccer in competitive and fun formats. 

This year (2012) has seen two new programs created for youth 

soccer players in the country. One of the programs will be 

piloted in spring 2013 and is aimed at providing structured 

development for both boys and girls aged 6-13 years of age. 

“Both Ross and I see a worrying trend in the country right now 

with the players that programs are currently developing. The 

focus has moved towards relying on physical attributes of naturally 

gifted athletes instead of training a strong technical base 

to help all players attain a higher level” Craig Scriven said. “The 

program we are currently developing will be a unique curriculum 

for our members who will teach players to be creative, 

more technically proficient and develop a fun relationship with 

soccer from a young age.” 

Outside of the training program which will be followed at 

least twice a month by the USSSA members, there will be an 

annual festival tournament where members will play smaller 

formatted games in a unique environment. “We want to 

develop an environment which rewards risk takers, encourages 

creativity and helps children to fall in love with the game.” 

Ross said. 


In 2013 US Soccer will celebrate their centennial and USSSA 

through our membership with the federation will be involved 

heavily. Craig Scriven has been named to the centennial 

committee to help with the input of how US Soccer will celebrate 

this landmark. It has also been agreed that USSSA will 

receive 0.5 of a bid to the oldest soccer tournament in the 

country, The US Open Cup. This year’s winners were Major 

League Soccer side Sporting KC who are coached by Peter 

Vermes. 

The champions of USSSA National Tournament Elite Bracket 

will advance to a play in game with another team represented 

from a member of US Soccer. The winner of the play in game 

will then compete in the first round with teams from amateur 

to the highest level professional in the country. “This is a major 

milestone for USSSA and the teams that compete in our championships.” 

Adult Director Erick French said. “We now have the 

possibility of seeing a USSSA team play against a major MLS 

team in the coming years. This will help build our registration 

base and make the Elite bracket at our events something very 

special.” 

In September 18 teams competed for the title of USSSA 

National Champions and in the hunt for that history making 

bid to the US Open Cup. Rovers FC (Denver, CO) took advantage 

of home field as they won at Dicks Sporting Goods Park 

in Colorado which is the home of MLS team Colorado Rapids. 

With the win Rovers FC now have the chance to be playing in 

the same tournament as the Rapids next year, what a story it 

would be if they ended up being pitted against each other in 

the draw.

Volleyball Grows To Be 

USSSA’s Sixth Largest Sport 

by David Brasher 

USSSA Volleyball provides recreational 

opportunities for youth and adult 

players of all ages and ability levels. 

There are different variations of USSSA 

Volleyball including indoor, sand, grass, 

and differing combinations of play, 

including varying number of players ( 6, 

4, 2) and sex ( male, female, coed). By the 

end of the past year, USSSA Volleyball 

was the 6th largest USSSA sport. 

USSSA Volleyball offers opportunities 

for play from the most competitive club 

team to the most laid back recreational 

player. USSSA Volleyball registers teams 

for $25 per year, and insures teams for 

$66 per year for youth teams and $118 

per year for adult teams. Volleyball officials 

register for $65 per year. To find 

USSSA Volleyball tournaments, go to 

www.usssa.com and click on volleyball, 

look on left tool bar for the tournament/ 

league link. New tournaments are being 

added on a regular basis. By registering 

with USSSA Volleyball teams not only 

have the ability to participate in USSSA 

Volleyball events but, with approval of 

their state director, may host their own 


USSSA Volleyball events to raise money 

for their programs or any other cause 

they may have an interest in furthering. 

USSSA Volleyball has grown to include 

activities in 14 states with projected 

growth in 2013 to include an additional 

12 states for a total of 26 states participating 

in the program. The 2013 USSSA 

World indoor Adult Tournament will be 

held in New Orleans for the first time. 

This event will offer divisions of play for 

all ability levels for adult teams in Men’s, 

Women’s, and Coed play. Bids for the 

2013 Youth Indoor World, Youth Beach 

World, and Adult Beach World will be 

accepted through November 30th with 

those locations to be announced before 

the first of the year. Local and State 

tournaments will be held in various 

locations around the country preceding 

these events. 

Anyone interested in becoming a part 

of USSSA Volleyball as a director or 

player and anyone having questions 

about USSSA Volleyball, should contact 

David Brasher USSSA Volleyball National 

Chairman at usssavb@aol.com. 

Photos by Kirk Tarabokia

2012 USSSA World Champions 

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Corny’s 

Corner 

Softball fans, the season is finally 

coming to a close. It’s been one crazy 

year, and seems like only yesterday we 

were kicking things off in Las Vegas. 

In 2012, the Conference USSSA 

season did not disappoint. It was full 

of comebacks, upsets and the immergence 

of some real good teams that had 

flown under the radar for most of the 

year. It was quite an exciting year when 

you consider the competition level and 

parody that made this season one to 

remember. 

The 2012 Worth teams all had a 

pretty successful year. First, I would like 

to congratulate Travis Resmondo and his 

fine organization for another solid year. 

The Sod boys’ had a remarkable run in 

2012, winning a conference-high seven 

events. Resmondo had 10 players with a 

.700 OBP or higher to finish out the year. 

This is quite remarkable considering the 

level of competition and great pitchers 

they face each weekend. 

It was also a great year for a veteran 

player who had spent a year away from 

the game. Resmondo’s Jeff Hall finished 

second-overall in regular season OBP, 

hitting .805 just behind Tyja’s Dennis 

Rulli. 

The Resmondo team made a strong 

run during the regular season and 

came into the postseason hitting fullstride. 

It was a bittersweet end as the 


Mike Cornell 

number-one seed finished second in this 

year’s USSSA Men’s Major, fighting hard 

out of the loser’s bracket and finally 

succumbing to a veteran squad from 

Laser Vision in the championship round. 

Andy Purcell had a great tournament, 

and was the event’s co-MVP. Purcell was 

locked in at the Men’s Major, blasting 

15 home runs to lead the tournament 

in that category. Pretty impressive 

considering the veteran pitcher from 

Kissimmee, Florida, also had to pitch 

eight games in the heat and humidity to 

keep his team’s march to the finals alive. 

Resmondo’s slick-fielding shortstop Don 

DeDonatis III was the tournament’s 

defensive MVP. 

Worth’s top “A” class squad Team 

454/Worth also had a pretty solid 

year. Bill Rhew and his crew won two 

conference events and took third at the 

Smoky Mountain Classic as the highestfinishing 

A class team in this prestigious 

event. 454’s Chad Durick had one heck 

of a year, finishing in the top ten of total 

OBP for the conference, and winning 

the Men’s Major Home Run Derby held 

on Friday night that was televised for 

the first time on ESPN3. 

D2E/Worth also had a great finish 

to the 2012 season. Drew Dubberly 

and his crew from Baxley, Georgia, won 

the USSSA “B” class world, defeating 

a scrappy group from Buzini/BWW/ 

Worth. The championship game came 

down to one swing off the bat of Geno 

Burdick as the big man from Minnesota 

blasted a 3-run walkoff to win the game 

and the title for D2E. 

Worth teams taking first and second 

in what is considered as one of the 

toughest tournaments of the year was 

quite a tribute to these two squads. 

Overall it was another strong year 

for the Worth teams. I would like to 

thank all the sponsors, coaches and 

players that represented our brand in 

2012. It was a great summer and I am 

already looking forward to fall. This is 

my favorite time of year. College football 

is in full swing, and Worth has a 

new line up of bats on the way. There’s 

nothing better than going to play in a 

local fall tournament playing some softball 

and then getting to hang out with 

your buddies at a sports bar watching 

football. Thanks to all you softball 

geeks out there for an eventful 2012. I 

hope all of you have a great winter and 

we will talk again next spring! 

Corny 

Down 2 Earth’s Drew Dubberly’s team won the 

B World and Drew was recognized as the 2012 

Nationwide Conference USSSA Class B Manager of 

the Year. 

Travis Resmondo holds the crystal bowl trophy 

representing the 2012 Nationwide Conference USSSA 

Regular Season Champion based on overall points. 

Team 454/Worth’s Kyle Moyer was a first team 

all-conference performer. Team 454 was Worth’s 

highest finishing A team with NIT Championships at 

the Texas Legends and Windy City and a third place 

finish at the prestigious Smoky Mountain Classic. 

Resmondo/Worth’s slick 

fielding shortstop, Don 

DeDonatis III, was the 

2012 Major World Series 

Defensive Player. 

Resmondo/Worth’s 

pitcher, Andy Purcell, 

was the 2012 USSSA 

Major World Series 

co-MVP.

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GASTONIA, NC – October 12, 2012 – Worth today announced 

the signing of one of slowpitch softball’s marquee players, Jeff 

Hall, to its advisory staff. Hall is currently the first baseman 

for the top-ranked Men’s Major slowpitch team, Resmondo/ 

Worth. 

Other Worth Advisory Staff players on the Resmondo roster 

include Travis Resmondo, Andy Purcell, BJ Fulk, Don DeDonatis 

III, and Greg Connell. 

Hall has been a member of four USSSA Men’s Major World 

Championship teams, and was the most valuable player of the 

2000 event. In addition, Hall has been selected to 13 Men’s 

Major All Tournament teams, and is also a member of the 

All-Disney team. Hall was the first and only player in USSSA 

major softball to win the Triple Crown. Hall was inducted into 

the USSSA National Hall of Fame in 2006. 

This signing continues St. Louis-based Worth’s aggressive 

initiative to add the best players and coaches to its roster of 

product development advisors. Worth’s fastpitch advisory 

team includes: Patti Gasso, head softball coach University of 

Oklahoma; Ralph and Karen Weekly, co-head softball coaches 

at University of Tennessee; Deana Gumpf, head softball coach 

University of Notre Dame; and Sharon Perkin, head softball 

coach at Georgia Tech. 

About Worth 

Worth® is a leading marketer and manufacturer of softball 

and baseball equipment and part of the Jarden Corporation 

portfolio of brands. Worth is the official softball of the NCAA® 

and NAIA® softball championships, the official helmet and 


Worth ® Adds Jeff Hall to 

Slowpitch Advisory Staff 

USSSA Hall of Famer, Jeff Hall, signs on to Worth’s Slowpitch Advisory Staff as 

Worth’s Sports Marketing Manager, Mike Cornell, looks on. 

Jeff receiving his MVP awards at the 2012 44th Annual Smoky Mountain Classic 

from Joe Huff and Chris Clark. 

Always a threat at the plate, Hall was an 

all-tournament selection at the Space City 

Classic at Big League Dreams-League City, 

TX. 

official bat of National 

Pro Fastpitch, and the 

official bat and ball of 

USSSA. For more information, 

please visit www. 

worthsports.com, find us 

on Facebook, or by phone 

at (314) 819-2800. 

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2012 USSSA Men’s ‘A’ World Tournament • Kissimmee, FL • August 17-19 

R&M Metals Walks Off with 

A World Championship 


R&M Metals/Troupe/Pipac/S&R/Easton, Champions 

The 2012 USSSA Men’s ‘A’ World tournament 

was full of drama from the start 

with close games, and walk off homers 

being the norm. The scores were low 

because of the hot and humid air 

which kept the ball from flying out of 

the extra-large 325 foot fenced fields. 

The team that won all of their close 

games in the end was R&M Metals/ 

Troupe/Pipac/S&R/Easton based out of 

Waterloo, Iowa! They went an undefeated 

5-0 to win the tournament! R&M 

trailed Taylormade/TM Sports/Mizuno 

on Saturday night in the winner’s 

bracket championship game 7-3 most 

of the game. In the bottom of the 7th 

they rallied and capped off a comeback 

win with a walk off grand slam homer 

with one out by middle infielder Steve 

Whaley. On Sunday around noon, R&M 

met Taylormade again in the finals and 

jumped out to a big early lead and won 

the game and the title 25-5 in just 4 

innings. 


There were 17 teams from 11 different 

states in the tournament. 9 ‘A’ teams, 

5 ‘B’ teams, and 3 ‘C’ teams. 14 of 

the teams were from the Nationwide 

Conference USSSA. The tournament 

had 11 games decided by 4 runs or less, 

and 9 of the games were decided in the 

last at bat including 5 walk off home 

runs! 

The tournament began on Friday night at 

7 PM and the games Friday and Saturday 

were played under overcast skies and a 

very real threat of rain. The tournament 

was only delayed once however, for two 

hours on Saturday afternoon by a downpour 

and lightning. On Friday night 

those first 3 games of the tournament 

at 7 PM were decided in the last at bat 

on each field. Headhunter/Cancooker/ 

SHSsports.com used a walk off homer 

by second baseman Robert Canceran 

to beat their in state Georgia rivals 

Down2EarthSports.com/SBC/Worth 

19-17. R&M Metals/Troupe/Pipac/S&R/ 

Easton overcame an early 13-0 deficit to 

beat Blitz/Weller/Watanabe/K&G/Easton 

19-16 on a walk off homer by third 

baseman Joe Gordon. And Taylormade/ 

TM Sports/Mizuno used a walk off gap 

shot by shortstop Branden Blake and 

the subsequent steal of home by second 

baseman Billy Moran on an errant throw 

to beat Primetime/Easton 15-14. 

The Friday night upsets continued as 

Line Drive Sportz/SSS Softball knocked 

off West Coast Doerflinger - Easton 

24-14, and Westshore Pizza/TPS capped 

the night with a walk off homer by 

Dan Dillingham to beat Shoppe/Team 

TPS/Elite 22-20. Team 454 also run 

ruled local Florida ‘C’ team Demarini 

Headbangers. TYJA - Suncoast Reebok 

run ruled Sonny’s / Louisville Slugger 

and Demarini/Dirty/3n2/ATWLDesigns 

came from a 19-13 deficit on the power 

of two Adam Rockoff homer’s late in the 

game to beat upstart Jolt 25-19.

Taylormade/TM Sports/Mizuno - Second Place 

With the first round over and the typical 

Friday night upsets occurring, the tournament 

moved to Saturday where it 

became quickly evident that with the 

heat index hovering around 100 degrees 

and the home runs and scores very low, 

each game became just a “flip of the 

coin”. It didn’t matter if you were a top 

‘A’ team, a lower ‘A’ team, or a ‘B’ team. 

With the 325 foot fences and a soft ball 

it was a “small ball” game with teams 

having to earn their home runs. 

The top 4 seeds were all knocked to 

the loser’s bracket early on in this tournament. 

The highlight of the day on 

Tournament CO-MVP Brendt Newbill R&M Metals / Troupe / Pipac / S&R / EASTON 

Tournament CO-MVP Brandon Dillon R&M Metals / Troupe / Pipac / S&R / EASTON 

Offensive Tournament MVP Jeremy Yates TaylorMade / TM Sports / Mizuno 

Defensive Tournament MVP Steven Whaley R&M Metals / Troupe / Pipac / S&R / EASTON 

All Tournament Team Joel Ramos Line Drive Sportz / sSs Softball 

All Tournament Team Billy Barrett Line Drive Sportz / sSs Softball 

All Tournament Team Christopher Kirian TaylorMade / TM Sports / Mizuno 

All Tournament Team Thomas Luna Line Drive Sportz / sSs Softball 

All Tournament Team Kyle Yerkes R&M Metals / Troupe / Pipac / S&R / EASTON 

All Tournament Team Kevin Lucas R&M Metals / Troupe / Pipac / S&R / EASTON 

All Tournament Team Brandon Jonas TaylorMade / TM Sports / Mizuno 

All Tournament Team Dustin Roberts TYJA - Suncoast Reebok 

All Tournament Team Brian Logan TaylorMade / TM Sports / Mizuno 

All Tournament Team Joseph Gordon R&M Metals / Troupe / Pipac / S&R / EASTON 

All Tournament Team Keith Anderson R&M Metals / Troupe / Pipac / S&R / EASTON 

All Tournament Team William Moran TaylorMade / TM Sports / Mizuno 

All Tournament Team Luis Reyna TYJA - Suncoast Reebok 

All Tournament Team Michael Umscheid R&M Metals / Troupe / Pipac / S&R / EASTON 

All Tournament Team Richard Salazar Jr. R&M Metals / Troupe / Pipac / S&R / EASTON 


Saturday was a loser’s bracket game 

where Team 454/Emerald/Worth scored 

14 runs in the bottom of the 7th against 

Sonny’s to win 21-19 on a walk off homer 

by Jason Branch with two outs. 

On Sunday morning in the final 4, TYJA 

lost to Line Drive Sportz 11-10 with 

the bats in their hands in the bottom 

of the 7th, and Taylormade then sent 

Line Drive Sportz home 15-9 with the 

help of a big pinch hit homer by Nate 

Holcomb setting up the re-match with 

R&M Metals who ended up run ruling 

Taylormade for the title. 

Top 4 Teams: 

1 R&M Metals/Troupe/Pipac/S&R/Easton Iowa 

2 Taylormade/TM Sports/Mizuno Virginia 

3 Line Drive Sportz/SSS Softball Michigan 

4 TYJA - Suncoast Reebok New York 

(left to right) All-Tournament Richard Salazar, Jr., 

All-Tournament Keith Anderson and Defensive MVP/ 

All-Tournament Steve Whaley. 

Co-MVPs OF Brandon Dillon (left) and P Brendt 

Newbill receiving their awards from tournament 

director, Eliot C. Clark.

Hey Softballers, It’s hard to believe 

but we have put another softball season 

in the books! The 2012 USSSA Conference 

season proved to be the best we have had 

in its seven year existence. Never have so 

many different teams won conference 

events. I look for that trend to continue 

for the 2013 season and beyond. The 

talent pool has become deep and spread 

out over a number of solid programs, 

and that my friends is really good for the 

game. 

Congratulations are in order for a 

number of our Easton Sponsored teams 

that had tremendous finishes to the 

2012 season. Led by veteran player 

Josh Wiggs the American Legion/Easton 

armed forces team won the A division 

of their Worlds in Panama City Beach. I 

have watched our armed forces teams 

play many times and the competition 

is fierce and the skill level high. At 

the same time this was happening the 

USSSA Men’s A world series was being 

played at the Fortune Road Complex in 

Kissimmee, FL. This was one of the better 

tournaments I have watched in some 

time. Many games were decided by 

walk off hits and great defensive plays. 

R&M/Easton ran the table in a perfect 

5-0 record to win this prestigious event. 

Two world titles in one weekend! Nice. 

As it turns out our Easton Teams would 

end up having an even better weekend 

at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports. This was 

the site of the USSSA Men’s C, Women’s, 

and Men’s Major World Series. Enough 

Said/Easton after a slow start came 

all the way back through to capture 

the Women’s A Worlds. This group of 

women has been the cream of the crop 

at the Women’s game for years and has 

amassed a record and winning tradition 

that would easily rival that of any Men’s 

team in history. A true dynasty they have 

become! The competition was fierce in 

the men’s C and when the dust settled 

it was Manhattan Beer/Easton that held 

on for the title in a hard fought if game. 

A special shout out to my BP partner 

Brian Titus for taking the MVP honors 

in the C. That leaves the Super Bowl of 

softball! The USSSA Men’s Major World 

Series. The 16 teams this year were as 

deep with talent as I can remember. 

This lead to a bunch of great games and 

close finishes. Laservision/Annihilation/ 

Supreme/Easton played our best ball of 

SOFTBALL IS MY GAME 

by Brett Helmer 

Easton Sports’ Brett Helmer receiving his fourth 

All-Conference award from USSSA VP, Kevin Naegele 

(left) and USSSA Assistant Executive Director, Danny 

Brown (right). 

LaserVision/Easton’s Brian Wegman- Player of the 

Year in the Nationwide Conference USSSA and an 

all-world selection at USSSA Major World Series. 

the year this weekend and held off a 

great rally by the awesome Resmondo 

softball team to win the title. Easton’s 

own Scott Kirby was the MVP and was 

great from April right through the end. 

I would call that a nice year for our 

Easton sponsored teams! Thank you to 

all of our Easton teams and best of luck 

in 2013. 

Also congratulations to Team Easton 

for winning the manufacturers cup on 

the Long Haul Bomber Tour this season. 

Brian Wegman and I led from wire to 

wire and both made the finals in 

Miami. What a great new ballpark 

they have in Miami! If you get 

a chance catch a game there, 

you will not be disappointed. 

Congrats to Kevin Filby from 

Demarini for winning the 

individual title and beating 

the old man (me) in a hit off. 

Make sure you are keeping 

your eyes open for the 

latest line of Easton slow 

pitch bats that will be 

coming this winter/Spring. 

We have revamped the 

already awesome line 

Scott Kirby had a great 2012 season....First Team 

All-Conference and Major World Series co-MVP. 

R&M Metals/Easton- 2012 accolades....A World 

Champions, second place Conference USSSA 

Championships and a fourth place finish at the Major 

World Series. 

from this season and can’t wait for you 

all to see what we have in store for 2013 

and beyond! Best of luck to all of you as 

you put your 2013 teams together. Stay 

healthy and I will see you at the yard 

soon! 

Brett 


2012 USSSA ‘B’ Worlds • Kissimmee, FL • September 14-16 

Worth-Sponsored Teams Finish 

One and Two at B World 


Buzini Sports and Down 2 Earth represented Worth Sports in grand fashion at the B Worlds. 

The USSSA ‘B’ Worlds were held 

September 14-16 at the Fortune Road 

softball complex in Kissimmee, Florida. 

There were 27 teams - 24 ‘B’ teams 

and 3 ‘C’ teams, 19 of which were 

from Conference USSSA. The top 5 

seeds - D2E, Line drive, Reds Astros, 

BuziniSports, and Primetime received 

byes from the first round. Scoring was 

low on the big 325 foot fields and the 

4 home run limit that each team was 

allowed was not often reached and 

upsets were commonplace. 

There were a bunch of close games early 

in the tournament ChecKing/Worth out 

of Connecticut beat #5 seed Primetime 

14-13 on a walk off single by veteran 

Justin Valenti in the bottom of the 7th. 

Fence Brokers tied Down2EarthSports. 

com on Friday night 15-15 going to the 

bottom of the 7th when D2E’s Leslie 

Griffis hit a walk off homer to beat 

them. In the bottom half of the bracket 

Westshore Pizza from Tampa, Florida 

used a 2 run homer by Dan Dillingham 

in the first inning and never looked back 

to beat TPS/Sports Center 11-6, and then 

led the whole way again in an upset win 

over #3 seeded Reds Astros 22-17. SBS/ 

CSC/Combat from northern California 


used a Joe Yusko inside the park grand 

slam to break a 4-4 tie with 3rd Street 

Financial in the top of the 7th and went 

on to win 10-5. This set up a second 

round 8 AM game with Headhunters/ 

Cancooker out of Georgia. It would 

end up being one of the best games of 

the tournament. The game went into 

extra innings when SBS middle infielder 

Joe Yusko hit a 2 run double to tie the 

game in the bottom of the 7th. In extra 

innings Headhunters jumped out to a 3 

run lead. Then in the bottom of the 8th 

after a couple of walks the bases were 

loaded and the game winning run came 

to the plate in the form of Kaeo Rubin 

with one out for SBS. Rubin proceeded 

to hit the ball over the 325 foot fence in 

right center field but Headhunters right 

fielder Raley Vincent made a running/ 

leaping two step push off the fence 

to elevate himself up above it and got 

enough glove on the ball to knock it 

back into the field of play. The runners 

had to hold, or thought it was going to 

be a home run, and they only advanced 

one base for a long single. The next 

batter grounded into a double play and 

Headhunters won 15-13! 

In the final 8 on Saturday, ChecKing won 

11-4 over Buzinisports with a strong 

wind blowing in on field #2. D2E had a 

5 run first and led the whole way against 

The Scene but The Scene had a chance 

in the 7th, coming up short in a 12-10 

loss. In the bottom half of the final 8, 

Westshore Pizza led the whole game 

against Xtreme/Combat and held on 

14-12, and Line drive used a Billy Barrett 

bottom of the 7th walk off single to 

beat a dejected Headhunters team after 

Headhunters had tied the game at 9-9 

in the top of the 6th and taken the lead 

on a 3 run homer in the top of the 7th 

by Larkin Grant. 

The final 4 stage was set. D2E handled 

ChecKing 20-7 to move to the winner’s 

bracket championship. In the bottom 

half of the bracket Westshore Pizza 

stunned Line drive Sportz with a 7 run 

bottom of the 7th to win 16-15. Shawn 

Zipperer had a huge pinch hit single and 

Joey Labriola scored all the way from 

first base on the hit to tie the game. 

Then Nick Utley won the game with a 

deep gap shot to right center field. 

In the winner’s bracket championship 

game a confident D2E team found 

themselves in a tight low scoring contest

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midway through the game. Late in the 

game, Leslie Griffis struck again for D2E 

with a big 3 run homer and D2E held on 

to win 13-10. 

On Sunday morning Buzini played 

Westshore Pizza in the loser’s bracket 

championship. The game was close and 

the ball quit flying in the morning heat 

and humidity and Westshore’s outfield 

was running down most everything. 

Then in the bottom of the 7th with the 

game tied at just 10 a piece, a walk, 

a single by Justin Stuart, and a game 

winning single by Kelly Hartman ended 

the game with a Buzini win. 

In the championship D2E finally had to 

play from behind for the first time all 

tournament against Buzini and in the 

bottom of the 7th needed 2 runs to tie 

and 3 to win. A walk to Bruce Nail and 

a single by Leslie Griffis set up a game 

winning home run by veteran Geno 

Burdick to win the game and the ‘B’ 

World title for Down2EarthSports.com/ 

SBC/Worth! Manager/Sponsor Drew 

Dubberly’s first world title. 

The tournament was played in humid 

and warm weather but overall it wasn’t 

bad. Conference USSSA rules with no 

floating rubber and no second strike 

foul were used. The tournament had 

Conference USSSA and other veteran 

umpires on all fields and the Fortune 

Road fences were 310 down the lines 

and 325 in LC, CF, and RC. The wind did 

negatively affect most fields. 

There were only 4 run rule games in 

the tournament and 37 of the 52 games 

were decided by 5 or less runs! 

2012 

2011 

2010 

Recent ‘B’ World Winner’s 


Down2EarthSports.com / 

SBC / Worth 

Blitz / Weller / Watanabe 

/ MAB / Easton 

AJS / Easton / Supreme / 

Mike Foulks / Mojo 

2009 Northwest Combat / Trojans 

2008 Team Bud Light / Easton 

2007 

Showcase / J & H / 

Chanticlear / Combat 

2006 ABS / Team LTP / Easton 

2005 Kirby Investments 

Down2EarthSports.com/SBC/Worth 

Sponsor/Manager Drew Dubberly and MVP Justin Mucciareli 

Buzinisports.com/BWW/Worth (Second Place)

Historic Brownsville serves as site of 

USSSA Hispanic World Tournament 

By Van Galeon, Contributing Writer 

Olmito Heat- Olmito, TX 

2012 USSSA Hispanic World Champions 

BROWNSVILLE, TX – The southernmost 

city in the mainland United States was 

the battleground for the 2012 USSSA 

Hispanic World Tournament. Brownsville 

is located at the southern tip of Texas, 

just across the Rio Grande River from 

Matamoros, Mexico. 

The tropical community, which is just 15 

minutes from the beaches of popular 

Spring Break destination South Padre 

Island, has historic significance due 

to the fact that it served as a site for 

several battles in the Texas Revolution, 

Mexican-American War and American 

Civil War. The community recently made 

a multi-million dollar investment in 

building the modern Brownsville Sports 

Park, which is where the tournament 

was played. 

“We were honored to have the privilege 

of hosting the USSSA Hispanic 

World Tournament,” said Bean Ayala of Making sure all teams felt welcomed to Brownsville, TX was Mariano “Bean” Ayala, President/CEO of the 

Brownsville Convention & Visitors Bureau, Inc. 


photos by Scott Duffy

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2012 USSSA Hispanic World Runner-Up – MTS- McAllen,TX 

In the competitive division, Julio Ruiz, Olmito Heat, was the MVP; Joe Gutierrez, Heat, was Outstanding Offensive 

Player; Carlos Gallardo, MTS, was Outstanding Defensive Player and Mark Burnias, Olmito Heat, was named 

Outstanding Manager. 

In the E Division, Diego Garza, Gangs Back, was MVP,; Jose Ortiz, Gangs Back, was Outstanding Offensive Player 

while Edmund Lopez, Baaaaad, was selected Outstanding Defensive Player. Ruben Ramirez, Gangs Back, received 

the Outstanding Manager Award. 


the Brownsville Convention & Visitors 

Bureau. “It was a great opportunity to 

showcase our community, and we want 

to thank former USSSA director Skip 

Keller for helping us produce this event. 

In the Men’s Hispanic Competitive 

Division, Olimto Heat from nearby 

Olmito went undefeated to claim the 

world championship. After getting a 

first round bye, Olimto Heat defeated 

Puro-Sho from Hermiston, Oregon (17-4) 

in their first game. They followed that 

with wins over MTS from McAllen, TX 

(14-9) and JV Trucking from Edinburg, 

TX (24-19) to advance to the championship. 

Olmito Heat then topped MTS 

again to win their first ever world title. 

Team manager Mark Burnias owns the 

Flying Pig Bar & Grille, which is located 

less than a mile from the Brownsville 

Sports Park, and spirits were flying high 

in the establishment after Olmito Heat 

won the crown. 

“I cannot be more proud of my guys,” 

said a beaming Burnias. “To win a USSSA 

world championship and to do it so close 

to home, in front of our fans, is a dreamcome-true 

for me.” 

MTS, who had defeated the Chicano 

Cubs from Dallas (17-5) in their opening 

game, made a nice rally after losing to 

Olmito Heat in the second round. MTS 

defeated Puro-Sho (17-5), Dirty Habits 

from Weslaco, TX (12-5) and JV Trucking 

(15-14) to make it to the championship 

game. 

JV Trucking settled for third place in 

the division, while Dirty Habits came in 

fourth. Puro-Sho and the Amigos from 

San Antonio tied for fifth. 

Julio Ruiz of Olmito Heat won the Most 

Valuable Player Award. Joe Gutierrez of 

Olmito Heat was named the Outstanding 

Offensive Player and Carlos Gallardo 

of MTS was tabbed the Outstanding 

Defensive Player. Burnias received the 

Outstanding Manager Award. 

Other players named to the All-World 

Tournament team were Hawk Scott, 

Rosalio Rosales, George Guevara and 

Nick Shay, of Olmito Heat; Raymond 

Zuniga, Otis Powers, Mark Lopez and 

Sergio Hernandez, of MTS; Rogelio 

Villarreal, Luis Uresti, Hugo Garcia and 

Juan Rochha, of JV Trucking; and Martin

Cantu, Brett Treadaway and Mario 

Garza, of Dirty Habits. 

In the Men’s Hispanic E Division, Gangs 

Back made the 30-hour drive from 

Sanger in northern California for the 

tournament and made the trip worthwhile 

by going undefeated to win 

the world championship. Gangs Back 

defeated Los Vecinos from Olmito, TX 

(22-7), Dugout Mafia from Mission, TX 

(20-15) and Cash Money from Harlingen, 

TX (16-4) to advance to the championship 

game. 

Baaaaad from Corpus Christi lost not only 

their first game, to Texas Powerhouse 

from Edinburg, TX (17-2), but also their 

second game to South Texas X-Rated 

from Raymondville (12-11). But the 

tournament format was a three-game 

guarantee, so Baaaaad was still alive. 

And they made the most of that extra 

opportunity, by defeating Los Vecinos 

(11-8), El Barrio from Harlingen (18-9), 

Texas Powerhouse (23-9), Dugout Mafia 

(13-10) and Cash Money (6-5) to make 

it all the way back to the championship 

game. Gangs Back ended the run with 

a 16-10 win to claim the world crown, 

as Baaaaad settled for the runnerup 

trophy with a 5-3 record. 

Cash Money came in third place, Dugout 

Mafia finished fourth, and Texas 

Powerhouse and South Texas X-Rated 

tied for fifth. 

Diego Garza of Gangs Back was named 

the Most Valuable Player of the division. 

Teammate Jose Ortiz was named 

the Outstanding Offensive Player, while 

Edmund Lopez of Baaaaad was named 

the Outstanding Defensive Player. 

Ruben Ramirez of Gangs Back received 

the Outstanding Manager Award. 

Others named to the All-World 

Tournament Team were Richard 

Gonzales, Albert Ramirez, Anthony 

Munoz and Sal Gonzales, of Gangs Back; 

Gilbert Gonzalez, Richard Clem, Oscar 

Ayala and Richard Sanchez, of Baaaaad; 

Joey Salazar, Chuck Mena, Mingo Salinas 

and Ruben Garcia, of Cash Money; 

and Albert Luna, Javier Soliz and Julio 

Hinojosa, of Dugout Mafia. 

There was also a Home Run Derby 

during the tournament, and first place 

went to John Garcia of Baaaaad. 

Overlooking the beautiful Brownsville Sports Park were: (left to right) Armando DeLeon,Jr.,Detail Screen Printing 

and Embroidery/DP Sports, Bean Ayala and former USSSA director, Skip Keller. 

Gangs Back- Sanger, CA – Hispanic E Champion 

BAAAAAD- Corpus Christi, TX – Hispanic E Runner- Up 


Another exciting season has 

come to an end for most 

of you and some of you 

are still rockin’ and rollin’ 

through leagues and tournaments 

depending on where 

you live. Here at Louisville 

Slugger, the temperature is 

cooling off and I am getting 

ready for all of the slowpitch 

associations national 

conventions that will take 

place in both October and 

November. 

For those of you still knocking 

the ball out of the park, I 

know you have seen or even 

used our new Z2000 highend 

slow-pitch bats. These 

bats are making a lot of noise 

with both the USSSA/NSA 

and ASA balanced and endloaded 

models. These USSSA 

Z2000 bats have the new 1.20 

fingerprint (shown below) 

that will be mandatory on all 

USSSA bats for play effective 

January 1, 2013. This new bat 

standard is designed to meet 

a new Accelerated Break-In 

test (ABI) and new requirements 

for anti-altering so 

the game is not dictated by 

players that choose to alter 

their bats for the way the 

manufacturers designed 

them to perform. With all 

of the latest and greatest 

technology breakthroughs 

that all of manufacturers 

are putting into their bats, I 


I know this is a reach... 

but why not break in your bat the old 

fashion way through BP sessions? 

by Dennis Turner 

really see no reason to take 

the time and either roll or 

shave a bat. How about this, 

and this is a crazy thought, 

but get your butt out to the 

field for a couple BP sessions 

per week and break in your 

bat the way it is supposed 

to be broke in and this way 

you can work on hitting 

your lanes and holes, thus 

making you a better player 

and getting your bat ready 

for tournament play. I’m just 

saying! 

I want to give some shout 

outs to some of our great 

teams that represented both 

on and off of the field and 

want to say “Thanks!” for 

each one of these teams 

representing the Louisville 

Slugger slow-pitch brand: 

Shoppe/Team TPS/Elite 55-26 (“A”) - 

Conference USSSA 5th overall 

• Tied 7th place USSSA Men’s Major 

World Series 

• Tied 9th place USSSA Men’s “A” 

World Series 

Red’s/Astros/TPS/Sports Den 40-21 

(“B”) – Conference USSSA 14th 

overall 

• Tied 5th place USSSA Men’s Major 

World Series 

• Tied 7th place USSSA Men’s “B” 

World Series 

Westshore Pizza/TPS 25-22 (“B”) – 

Conference USSSA 29th overall 

• 3rd place USSSA Men’s “B” Worlds 

• Tied 9th place USSSA Men’s “A” 

World Series 

3rd Street Financial/Shinetime/TPS 

(“B”) 

• ASA “A” National Championships – 

2nd Place 

• Team TPS 40’s Senior Softball Team 

LVSSA/SSUSA World Masters 

Champions 

• Featuring Mikey Rodriguez, Derrick 

Williams and Marko Andrade 

Another team that Louisville 

Slugger sponsors that does 

not get much press on 

the circuit is the WWAST 

(Wounded Warrior Amputee 

Softball Team). This group 

of young men, who have 

served our country in the 

military, and have sustained 

serious injuries resulting in 

amputation while serving in 

the military, plays softball 

just like you and I do and are 

as competitive as the next 

guy. Even though they have 

prosthetics, you would never 

be able to tell as they move 

freely and play the game 

with passion and heart. I 

encourage you to visit their 

website to find out where 

they will be next as they 

travel throughout the states 

playing in exhibitions as they 

are great ambassadors to 

the sport and to Louisville 

Slugger both on and off of 

the field. www.woundedwarrioramputeesoftballteam.com 

Well, that wraps up another 

successful season here at 

Louisville Slugger. I look 

forward to talking to you 

more about our new products 

that will be coming out 

in the near future at the 2013 

Softball Magazine Spring 

Training in Cocoa Beach. So 

until next year, stay focused 

and play hard. 

DT

Reds Astros/TPS make big splash 

in first year of Conference USSSA 

By Greg Huchingson, Managing Editor 

Reds Astros/TPS/Sports Den 

When Herb Price first broke into softball 

in 1970, the game looked a lot different 

than it does today. Wooden bats, 

275-foot fences, no home run limits and 

just one division – with all teams playing 

together. 

Price had just graduated from Ball State 

University and started a job as chief 

accountant at Community Hospital in 

Anderson, Indiana. He had played a 

lot of baseball in his youth and some 

fast-pitch softball in college, and still 

had a competitive itch that needed to 

be scratched. So he started a slow-pitch 

softball team among his co-workers at 

the hospital. 

“We won the city championship our 

very first year,” said Price. “I even hit 

the game-winning walk-off home run. 

But it didn’t take me very long to figure 

out that I was better at organizing and 

coaching than playing, so I began to 

recruit some better talent.” 

The names Anderson Merchants and 

Anderson Aces were already taken by 

other teams, so Price settled on the 

name Anderson Astros for his team. 

“It was the Astronaut era, with the 

NASA Space program kicking up around 

that time, and I just like the way the 

name ‘Anderson Astros’ flowed,” said 

Price. “It had nothing to do with the 

Houston Astros. The name ‘Astros’ has 

been included in every team I have had 

for the past 43 years.” 

Price’s partner for the past seven of 

those years has been co-sponsor Red 

Moore, who got his nickname from 

both the color of his hair and an experience 

he had in 1963 at the age of 13. 

“I earned the right to be a ball boy 

for the Cincinnati Reds. That year Pete 

Rose was a rookie and Stan Musial was 

retiring from baseball,” Moore recalled. 

“The Reds gave him a rocking chair and 

a cake, which I helped carry out to him 

on national TV for his final game in 

Cincinnati. I lived 25 miles south of there 

on a farm. That year my older kinfolks 

and friends asked me to join them in an 

organized softball league. This is now 

my 50th year and I have never stopped 

either playing, coaching or sponsoring.” 

Legend has it that Ponce De Leon 

was in search of Florida in the 16th 

Century when he stumbled upon the 

legendary Fountain of Youth. Now, as 

Price prepares for his 65th birthday in 

January, he and Moore may have found 

their own Fountain of Youth in Floridabased 

Conference USSSA. 

Price and Moore are the sponsors of 

Reds Astros/TPS/Sports Den, a Men’s B 

team based in Indianapolis. The team 

is made up of players from the tri-state 

area of Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio. 

Prior to 2011, the team played almost 

exclusively in other associations in their 

own neighborhood and kept feeling 

unfulfilled. Then, they dabbed their 

toes in the waters of Conference USSSA 

for the first time in 2011, playing in 

Columbus (IN) and Cincinnati and went 

3-2 in each of those events. Price had 

been infatuated with the Great Smoky 

Mountain Classic since the early 1970s, 

when the tournament was still in its 

formative years, and really wanted to 


Co-Sponsor Red Moore- 50 years of softball 

participation and counting. 

Shortstop Travis Dale- first team All 

Conference Class B 


First base coach, Jerry “Snake” Scudder. 

Lefty Steve Kingsolver- always a tough out 

Veteran Fred Lawson Equipped with a Louisville SluggerZ2000, Chad 

Mullins lines a single to left. 

play in it in 2012. But due to the enormous popularity 

and demand for openings, the only way to get 

in was by joining Conference USSSA. 

So, Price and Moore whipped out their checkbook 

and wrote the $5,000 check to enter the Conference. 

Price noted there were many years when that amount 

exceeded the entire annual budget of his teams. 

“We had played in a couple of (Conference) tournaments 

in the past, and we thought we could compete, 

so we joined,” said Price. “It was a little tough at 

first (writing the check) but it has been well worth 

the investment. Conference USSSA far exceeded my 

expectations. We got nine entry fees paid, free hotel 

rooms at the B, Conference and Major, plus travel 

money at the B and Major. That up front entry fee 

was well worth the investment for us.” 

Moore was equally impressed by his first experience 

in Conference USSSA. 

“Playing in the Conference has given us a lot of 

exposure and I love competition,” said Moore. “As 

we all know, this is where the very best players in 

the United State are playing. It is also the most organized 

softball I have ever played.” 

Due to budget constraints, the Reds Astros/TPS did 

not play their first Conference event this year until 

May 11 in Columbus, IN where they tied for fifth 

place. They followed that up by tying for ninth in 

Nashville, fifth in Chicago, 13th at the Smoky and 

fifth in Cincinnati. They needed a strong showing 

in their sixth and final qualifier at the Last Chance 

in Detroit to overcome extremely long odds and 

qualify for the Men’s Major World Series. They went 

7-2 (with six of the wins coming in the loser’s bracket 

after losing their second game) to finish third. That 

made them one of just four B teams to qualify for 

the Major World Series, and the only team of any 

classification to qualify without playing in the Hall 

of Fame Dual Event to open the season. 

Red Astros/TPS never even stepped on an airplane 

until the Conference USSSA Championships on 

Labor Day weekend, where they went 5-3 to finish 

in second place. Then, after tying for seventh at the 

Men’s B World Tournament, Reds Astros/TPS made 

a strong fifth place showing at the Major World 

Series. 

The team finished the year with a 40-21 overall record, 

which included a 13-5 record against fellow B teams 

and an impressive 12-8 record against A teams. Reds 

Astros/TPS were 3-0 in matchups against eventual 

Men’s A world champion R&M Metals/Easton, and 

were especially proud of a 36-31 win over reigning 

world champion Resmondo/Worth in Chicago. 

“I was amazed how our team responded in our first 

attempt in Conference play against all those strong 

teams; we plan on being back in 2013,” said Price.

© 2012 Hillerich & Bradsby Co., Louisville, KY. All rights reserved. Major League Baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. Visit MLB.com. 

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Reds Astros’ pitcher, Ryan “Pugs” Joiner. 

Wally Maybrier’s hustle beats out a close play at first. Maybrier was a first team All Conference 

Class B selection. 

Co-Sponsor Herb Price was intrigued with the NASA Space program in the early 70’s and hence the 

Astros name. There is no tie-in with the Houston Astros baseball club, that many people speculate. 


“Most of our underpaid group of warriors will return 

for us. Five of our guys received offers many times 

more than the $50 per weekend we could afford. But 

it looks like all have opted to stay together to battle 

the best again. Pretty amazing. These are highcharacter 

guys. Some turned down more for playing 

weekend ball than they make in a week of hard 

work. Can never thank these guys enough. I wish I 

could find enough extra sponsor help to do more for 

them. I will throw in every extra penny I can afford 

or find to help them.” 

While Reds Astros/TPS are new to Conference USSSA, 

they certainly are not new to softball. In fact, they 

are primarily a veteran team led by John Steele (48), 

Tony Henry (46), Randy Lawson (45), Dennis Buis 

(43), Fred Lawson (42) and Rob Roop (41). Players 

in their thirties include Steve Kingsolver (38), Doug 

Martin (38), Brian Farrar (36), Jody Wendel (35), 

Chris Lane (35), Wally Maybrier (34) and Chad Mullin 

(31).The remaining players on the team are Justin 

Aldora, Joshua Bowen, Travis Dale, Ryan Joiner, 

Troy Krider and Jake Stambazze. Maybrier made the 

All-Tournament Team at the Major World Series. 

Reds Astros/TPS has an equipment contract with 

Louisville Slugger, where they have a long working 

relationship with both special consultant Hank Bassett 

and slow-pitch business manager Dennis Turner. 

“I’ve known both Red and Herb for over two decades 

and they are the same now as they were when I 

first came to know them – modest, but competitive; 

a great love and appreciation for the game; a 

great appreciation for others – sponsors, coaches, 

players and tournament directors; and a great eye 

for undervalued and unappreciated talent,” said 

Bassett. “Sponsors and coaches like Red and Herb 

are what the game is truly all about. Individuals 

who are sincere in their support of their players and 

because of that their teams have a camaraderie and 

spirit that invariably makes them overachievers.” 

Bassett added, “They both also share the fact that 

they have wives who share their love of the game 

and support them beyond all that most wives would 

consider within reason. I consider myself very fortunate 

to have known, competed against and worked 

with each of them these many years.” 

Turner said team chemistry is what brought Reds 

Astros/TPS to the forefront. 

“This team is a collection of young talent and 

veterans who care more about the name on the front 

of their jersey, than the name on the back of their 

jersey,” said Turner. “A group of scrappy players that 

never got caught up in who they were playing, just 

the fact that they were able to play the game and 

compete against the best. These guys played with 

more heart and passion than most teams I have seen 

in a long time.”

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Top Texas teams crowned at 

‘Battle for the Rings’ 

By Van Galeon, Contributing Writer 

MANSFIELD, TEXAS – A spirit that 

dates back to the very foundation of 

the Republic of Texas was on display 

recently when adult slow-pitch softball 

teams battled for their biggest prize 

in the state these days – the Lone Star 

Shootout Series Championship Rings. 

Texas heroes such as Jim Bowie, James 

Fannin, William B. Travis and Davey 

Crockett, along with fellow Texan and 

Tejano soldiers, lost their lives and their 

land on March 6, 1836 at the “Battle 

of the Alamo” in San Antonio. But 

less than two months later, Gen. Sam 

Houston and revamped Texas troops 

won back that land and their independence 

at the “Battle of San Jacinto” 

near Houston. 

The spirit of that Texan resilience was 

on display – in a slightly less important 

arena – on July 28-29 this year at 

the Lone Star Shootout “Battle for the 

Rings” held at Big League Dreams in 

Mansfield, as ALL SIX divisions went 

down to an “if” game. Some teams 

simply refused to lose. 

The Lone Star Shootout State 


Championship Series is the premier 

adult slow-pitch softball program in 

Texas. Qualifiers began in early January 

and were held in every corner of the 

state on a weekly basis, culminating 

with the Grand Championship “Battle 

for the Rings” in late summer. 

In true Texas tradition, where everything 

is bigger, Super Bowl-style rings 

were awarded to members of the championship 

teams in each division. This 

year’s piece featured a prominent star 

surrounded by stones on the face of 

the gaudy ring. And though some say 

it resembles the star worn on the side 

of the helmet of a popular pro football 

team in Dallas, it actually signifies the 

lone “Star” of the Lone Star Shootout 

Series. 

Prior to 2011, the “Battle for the Rings” 

was a simple head-to-head, best-outof-five 

game series between the North 

Texas State Champion and the South 

Texas State Champion in each division. 

But starting last year, the “Battle 

for the Rings” was expanded to a fullfledged, 

invitation-only double-elimi- 

nation tournament held at Big League 

Dreams in Mansfield. The modern eightfield 

complex was selected due to its 

large number of fields, plus its recently 

installed FieldTurf playing surfaces 

which virtually eliminates weatherrelated 

issues. The tournament consisted 

of 120 teams from all across Texas, plus 

a few from Louisiana, Oklahoma and 

Arkansas. 

In every division except Men’s B, there 

were 10 automatic invitations handed 

out for the “Battle for the Rings.” Those 

bids went to the top two finishers at 

five tournaments – the North Texas 

State Finals (Mansfield), South Texas 

State Finals (League City), Southwest 

State Finals (San Antonio), the gigantic 

Budweiser Softball Festival (Bryan- 

College Station) and North Texas 

Budfest (Mansfield). At-large berths 

were awarded to other teams with the 

next highest point totals in the Lone 

Star Shootout Final Standings. 

Resilience was on display in spades in 

the Men’s C Division, where the pretournament 

favorite among the 16

teams was the No. 1-ranked Texas Regulators from Garland. 

The Regulators were still playing with heavy hearts after the 

unexpected death of their coach, Buddy Wren, less than one 

month earlier. In their only prior appearance since Wren’s 

death, the Regulators went 0-2 at the Little Rock Major. 

Things didn’t start out well for the Texas Regulators at the 

“Battle for the Rings” either, as they lost their first round game 

to Olmito Heat (12-11). The Regulators then dropped to the 

loser’s bracket and defeated Steel/AYS/Glove It Sports (16-3), 

Prototype/Soldi (18-6) and Vivid/NTX Mayhem (18-6) in a game 

that did not end until after 4 a.m. Sunday. The Regulators 

returned to the park a few hours later, with very little sleep, 

and defeated the Jokers (13-5), Stanley Law/TWP (12-10) and 

Budweiser/Frank’s/Gooseneck (14-10) to make it all the way 

back to the championship against the team that handed them 

their first loss. The Regulators then proceeded to double-dip 

Olmito Heat, 20-5 and 23-14, to claim the championship with 

an 8-1 record. 

“Buddy would have been so excited to see this,” said manager 

Craig Burns. “He put his heart into the team this year, and this 

was our goal. These guys showed how much heart they have 

after losing the very first game then coming all the way back 

against great competition.” 

Olmito Heat overcame long odds as well in capturing second 

place, as their players had to make a 10-hour drive from the 

Rio Grande Valley just to get to the tournament. Their 4-2 

record earned the runnerup trophy and made them immediate 

contenders to watch for at the USSSA Hispanic World 

Tournament to be held just minutes from their hometown in 

Brownsville later this year. 

Budweiser/Frank’s/Gooseneck from Bryan-College Station 

came in third place; Stanley Law/TWP from Oklahoma City 

finished fourth; and the Jokers from Ft. Worth and Old School 

from Spring tied for fifth. The rest of the Top 10 consisted 

of TheFactoryGirl from Forney and Vivid/NTX Mayhem from 

Plano, tied for seventh; and Whut It Dew from San Antonio, 

Texas Bombers from Houston, Call Your Shot from Round Rock, 

and Prototype/Soldi from Kennedale, all tied for ninth. 

Members of the All-Tournament team included: Jeff Toborsky, 

Shawn Burris, Austin Denney, Preston Spurlin and Stephen 

Cooper, of Texas Regulators; Anthony Salinas, Mike Aguirre, 

Julio Ruiz and Hawk Scott, of Olmito Heat; Kip Todhunter, Jared 

Lehman and Kevin Ballard, of Budweiser/Frank’s/Gooseneck; 

and Dusty Brown, Chris Townley and Brian Masoner, of Stanley 

Law/TWP. Others named All-Tournament were Garvin Mikesh 

(Whut It Dew), A.J. Cicconi (Select Few), Brian Elliott (Prototype/ 

Soldi), Patrick Guajardo (Call Your Shot), Noel Nevarez (Vivid/ 

NTX Mayhem), Cody Kagiorgis (TheFactoryGirl) and Monte 

Lewis (Old School). 

In the 28-team Men’s D Bracket, it was a team that was 

bumped from E to D after the 2011 season that won it all. The 

DC Outlaws went 81-34 against E opponents in 2011, but the 

“Battle for the Rings” was not one of their better moments, 

as they went 0-2 in that one. But despite getting bumped 

this year, DC/Y&R/Middle Finger Crew from Houston, made it 

back to the Big Dance. DC/Y&R earned their berth by finishing 

Men’s B, 1st, Miken Mafia/ASPNation (Rowlett) 

Men’s C, 1st, Texas Regulators (Garland) 

Men’s D, 1st, DC/Y&R (Houston) 


Women’s, 1st, Team Dallas Women (Dallas) 

Mixed, 1st, Alldaysports.com (Carrollton) 

Men’s D, 2nd, Hitmen (San Antonio) 


second at the Lone Star South Texas D State Finals, then backed 

that up with an impressive third place finish playing up in the 

STX C State Finals the following weekend. 

At the 2012 “Battle for the Rings,” DC/Y&R posted wins over 

Owen Oil Tools (12-11), Wasted Weekends (13-3), Bad Decisions 

(16-14), LA Classic/Buzini (18-17) and Hitmen (12-9) to advance 

to the championship game. That’s five wins with all except one 

by either one, two or three runs. After losing to DC/Y&R in the 

king seat game, the Hitmen dropped to the loser’s bracket and 

knocked off the 409ers to get another shot in the championship. 

The Hitmen even beat DC/Y&R, before the Houston team 

rebounded in the “if” game to claim the championship with a 

14-11 win and 6-1 record. DC/Y&R had a run differential of just 

1.28 in their seven games. That’s cutting it close. 

“We wanted to come up here and rep for H-Town against 

all the great competition in this tournament,” said manager 

Gabriel Rivera. “We did that and proved we are the best D 

team in Texas for 2012.” 

The Hitmen from San Antonio are a team of veterans who 

were a longtime fixture in Men’s C. But after going 1-6 against 

C opponents in 2011, they successfully appealed to drop to 

Class D. And manager Joe Antu’s crew only had a mediocre 

17-16 record against D opponents this year, before coming out 

of nowhere to finish second with a 6-2 record at “Battle for 

the Rings.” 

The 409ers from Galveston went 5-2 to claim third place; 

JBSA-Lackland, a military team from San Antonio, went 5-2 

to finish fourth; and LA Classic/Buzini from Bossier City, La. 

and Wharton’s Worst Nightmares from Wharton tied for fifth. 

WWN is another true success story, as they won first place at 

the 2011 “Battle for the Rings” in Men’s E. But rather than 

break up and scatter like cowards, as many teams do after 

getting an end-of-year bump, WWN stuck together and have 

had a successful season in the D division, cracking the top five 

at the next higher level in the “Battle For The Rings.” 

The rest of the Top 10 consisted of Realside Softball from 

Dallas and BTX Bulls/Elite from Beaumont, tied for seventh 

place; and Texas Rage from Edinburg, Wasted Weekend from 

Allen, AMPM/Glove It Sports from Houston and Bad Decisions 

from San Antonio, all tied for ninth. 

Members of the All-Tournament team included: Larry Juarez, 

Steven Diaz, Joshua Biehl, Thomas Darr and Dominic Cano, 

of DC/Y&R; Gil Carbajal, Trey Roberts, Angel Cruz and Joey 

Antu III, of Hitmen; Robert Salinas, Lance Sholmire and Daniel 

Boyington, of 409ers; and Brett Cannon, Brian Goelz and Chris 

Brinkhaus, of JBSA-Lackland. Others named All-Tournament 

were Devin Trotti (Wharton’s Worst Nightmares), Chris Garcia 

(Realside), Noel Guerra (Brewskies), Luis Hernandez (Famous/ 

A3), Denton Aguam (Outlawz/Oak Cliff’s Finest), Chris Almanza 

(Dynasty), Kevin Barrey (Angry Chimps), Elliott Escamilla (Team 

Texas), Jonathan Lord (H&H), Jason Yankie (Team Worth 

It), Mitch Best (Owen Oil Tools), Paul Knaus (Team FU), Ryan 

McDonald (Sinister/RL), Jason White (Smashouse), David Holland 

(Hit and Run), Felipe Rodriguez (Team MTS), Jared Ledbetter 

(Bass Tools), Jordan Hooker (Wasted Weekend), David Escobar 

(Texas Rage) and Taylor Beavers (LA Classic/Buzini).

The largest bracket of the tournament was Men’s E, which 

featured 32 teams. Coming into the “Battle for the Rings”, the 

Phenoms from San Antonio had three first place finishes on 

their resume, but had finished only fourth at the Southwest 

State Finals and tied for ninth at the Budweiser Festival. Then 

in the most important tournament of the year, the Phenoms 

defeated Disruption (4-2), Batteries Plus (16-4), Devilz Rejectz 

(11-6), Back-AlleyStrokers (11-6) and Ain’t No Easy (18-4) to 

advance to the championship game undefeated. 

Meanwhile, Guess Who from Magnolia defeated No Chance 

(15-3), Goons (12-7) and Buckwild (7-6), before losing to 

Ain’t No Easy (14-11). Then, Guess Who dropped to the loser’s 

bracket and knocked off the Devilz Rejectz (12-9), Back-Alley 

Strokers (14-13) and Ain’t No Easy in a re-match (13-3) to make 

it to the championship. Guess Who knocked off the Phenoms 

(16-13) in the first game to set up a winner-take-all “if” game, 

but the Phenoms rallied for a thrilling 11-10 win to capture the 

crown with a 6-1 record. Guess Who settled for second place 

with a 7-2 mark. 

“This team just got together in 2011, and most of the guys 

were teammates on the baseball team back in high school at 

Burbank High (in San Antonio),” said manager Troy Arredondo. 

“This is so awesome for it being our first time being here. To 

beat out the 32 best teams in Texas was cool.” 

Ain’t No Easy from Austin came in third place with a 4-2 

record; Back-Alley Strokers from Spring finished fourth also at 

4-2; while the Devilz Rejectz from Richmond and B&N Sports 

Bar/Texas Crooks from San Antonio tied for fifth. The rest of 

the Top 10 consisted of SOS Softball/Autoplex from Baytown 

and GT Crew/CSC from Seguin, tied for seventh; and Mayhem 

from Houston, Batteries Plus from College Station, Dirty Sox/ 

On The Rox from Conroe, and Buckwild from Houston, all tied 

for ninth. 

Members of the All-Tournament team included: Nick Esparza, 

John Tejada, James Holton, Gilbert Campos and Ralphie Lopez, 

of the Phenoms; Jeremy Collins, James Kelley, Devon Conroy 

and Adam Deltgen, of Guess Who; Reno Malay, Derrick Walls 

and Mike Turnipseed, of Ain’t No Easy; and Dustin McCoy, 

Brian Cote and Buddy Yen III, of Back-Alley Strokers. Others 

making All-Tournament were Ruben Ybanez III (Baaaaad), 

Phillip Farmer (DTA), Jacob Ryan (Texas Swagger), Scott Vidrine 

(Goons), Paul Quintanilla (Disruption), Jose Flores (Chuggers), 

Dalton Vanatta (Cen-Tex Outlaws), John Flores (Chop City), 

Thomas Quinones (B.O.B.), Toby Stripling (Texas Rampage), 

Andrew Wells (Akin 2 Live), Jason Gonzales (Young Bucks), 

Keith McMillan (Team Impact), Inocente Rea (NTX Takeover), 

Shawn Davis (Batteries Plus), Pete Almaraz IV (Buckwild), Graig 

Harrison (Mayhem), Ronald Lawson (GT Crew), Josh Luna (SOS/ 

Autopolex), Tyrone Fields (Devilz Rejectz) and Blake Cisneros 

(Dirty Sox). 

In 2011, Team Dallas Women advanced all the way to the championship 

game of the “Battle for the Rings” before settling 

for second place in the Women’s C/D bracket. This year, they 

would not be denied. Team Dallas Women posted wins over 

Genesis (14-8), Jolt (10-5) and Lady Top Dog (13-4) to make it 

to Sunday undefeated. But they lost the King Seat game to 

HarmsWay (10-7). Then Team Dallas Women dropped to the 

loser’s bracket and eliminated the red-hot Lady Brokers (10-8) 

to make it back to the championship, where they proceeded to 

double-dip HarmsWay, 7-0 and 11-4, to finally win their rings. 

“This feels great,” said leadoff batter Temeka Stoker. “It was 

so disappointing when we lost in the championship game last 

year. But we were determined to come back and win those 

rings this year. And we did.” 

HarmsWay from nearby Ft. Worth was the runner-up this year 

with a 4-2 record, while the Lady Brokers from Houston came 

in third at 6-2 and Cajun Chaos from Haughton, La. came in 

fourth at 4-2. Cajun Chaos won first place at the 2011 “Battle 

for the Rings” playing under the name Louisiana’s Finest as a 

D team. 

Lady Top Dog from Beaumont and Lady Terror Squad from 

Bryan tied for fifth place, while the Lady Warhawks from 

San Antonio and WTC Team Texas Blast from Lubbock tied 

for seventh. The remainder of the Top 10 was Lady Ego from 

Houston, Famous Freaks from Sanger, B&T Express from 

Houston, and Jolt from Arlington, all tied for ninth. 

Members of the All-Tournament team included: Kamara 

Stancle, Melissa Gholston, Tracey Rodgers, Brittany Washington 

and Towana Tollette, of Team Dallas Women; Carol Wells, Misty 

Rowell, Terri Puinter and Courtney Walters, of HarmsWay; 

Monica Phillips, Kiamesha Goynes and April Garcia, of Lady 

Brokers; and Leanne Shanks, Shannon Miles and Deni Zeigler, 

of Cajun Chaos. Others named All-Tournament were Yolanda 

Garcia (Connection), Desirae Soto (San Antonio Aces), Andrea 

Gonzales (Lady Hard Shots), Kara Liakos (Rated-R Supa Stars), 

Joyce Williams (Texas Queens), Renee Rea (B&T Express), 

Melissa Ream (Jolt), Tara Fields (Lady Warhawks), Tawna 

Williams (Team Texas Blast) and Christina Jacques (Lady Top 

Dog). 

In the 20-team Mixed C/D Bracket, Alldaysports.com from 

Carrollton won their first five games over UA/Urban Assault 

(17-12), Co-ed Connection (10-8), Angels & Demons (12-11), 

Craftmasters/Half Nuts (10-9) and Team Prototype (14-0) to 

advance to the championship game. Co-ed Connection from 

San Antonio took a less-conventional path. After losing their 

first game to Alldaysports.com, Co-Connection dropped to 

the loser’s bracket and reeled off consecutive wins over PHS/ 

ASPNation.com (9-8), G.M.B. (15-12), High Octane (12-5), 

Craftmasters/Half Nuts (17-16), Angels & Demons (16-14) and 

Team Prototype (9-5) to make it back to the finals. Co-ed 

Connection then beat Alldaysports.com (16-8) to set up an “if” 

game, which Alldaysports.com won (16-5) to capture first place 

with a 6-1 record. Co-ed Connection had to settle for second 

place at 7-2. 

Team Prototype from Dallas came in third at 3-2; Angels & 

Demons from Austin finished fourth at 4-2, and Sluggers from 

Friendswood and Craftmasters/Half Nuts from Brenham tied 

for fifth. The rest of the Top 10 consisted of 90 Proof from 

Center and High Octane from Carrollton, tied for seventh; and 

123 Not It from Euless, Cen-Tex Outlaws Co-ed from Harker 

Heights, G.M.B. from Ft. Worth and DGKoed from Houston, all 

tied for ninth. 


Stands were packed for the Friday night All-Star Games 

Greg Huchingson proudly displays 2012 Battle For The Rings Championship trophies. 


Members of the All-Tournament team included Luke Evans, 

Kip Todhunter, Alicia Zamora, Tawna Williams and James 

Barron, of Alldaysports.com; George Govea, Donte LaPoint, 

Sarah Kimec and Greg Perez, of Co-ed Connection; Ethan 

Stackler, Levi Coon and Cory Waldrop, of Team Prototype; and 

Zach Fisher, Adam Carter and Archie Windham, of Angels & 

Demons. Others named All-Tournament were Voncia Ducre 

(Whut It Dew), Raul Gomez Jr. (UTI), Raul Cantu (Cen-Tex 

Outlaws), Damien Delasbour (PHS/ASPNation), Pablo Cuellar 

(The Misfits), Lindsey Halter (G.M.B.), Joseph Reed Jr. (DGKoed), 

Matt Diverdi (90 Proof), Cameron Squirres (High Octane), Caley 

Jeter (Craftmasters) and Natasha Tate (Team Juggernaut/HTC). 

There was also a four-team Men’s B/Conference C “Upper” 

Bracket in the tournament, and all had enjoyed success at 

various times this year. Team All-Out/DaBomb from Houston 

shocked the softball world by scoring an upset over defending 

Major Open world champion Resmondo/Specialty Tank/Worth 

en route to a fourth place finish at the Texas Star Major in 

Euless. Texas Miken Softball Club from Pearland, who played 

in Conference USSSA in 2011, tied for seventh at the Space 

City Major in League City. Sagnasty/Worth/Prototype from 

Saginaw and Miken Mafia/ASPNation from Rowlett were both 

in Conference USSSA as C teams this year. Sagnasty tied for 

fifth place at both the Texas Legends Major and Busch Major 

in Little Rock, while Miken Mafia placed third at Space City and 

fourth at Little Rock. 

Miken Mafia/ASPNation featured weekend pickups of 

Conference USSSA players L.C. Watson from Resmondo, Justin 

Stuart and Brady Bascle from Buzinisports.com/BWW/Worth, 

and Rodney Fail from The Scene. Meanwhile, Sagnasty/Worth/ 

Prototype had just one pickup, Cory Large from Line Drive, and 

Texas Miken also had just one pickup, Mark Dennis from The 

Scene, while Team All-Out/Da Bomb had no Conference USSSA 

pickups. 

With their four new players leading the way, Miken Mafia/ 

ASPNation went undefeated to grab first place, winning all 

three games by 10-plus runs. Sagnasty/Worth/Prototype went 

2-2 to come in second place, while Texas Miken was third. Team 

All-Out/DaBomb was fourth. 

Members of the All-Tournament team were Justin Stuart, 

Charles Key, Jason Trammell, Chris Potts and Marcus Thornton, 

of Miken Mafia; Luke Evans, Trace Reynolds, Juan Rodriguez 

and Cooper Vittitow, of Sagnasty; Kenny Hare, Matt Kainer 

and Ryan Riddle, of Texas Miken; and Kevin Cooper and Frank 

Reyna, of All-Out/DaBomb. 

The weekend festivities at “Battle for the Rings” began Friday 

night with three All-Star Games on Polo Grounds Field. The 

first game featured Women’s players and North Texas, led by 

manager Dwayne Crisp, held on for a narrow win over South 

Texas. The second game was for Men’s D/E players, and the 

South Texas under manager Billy Ward scored a decisive victory 

over the North to even things up. The third and deciding 

game was for Men’s B/C players, and manager John Heath’s 

North All-Stars pounded the South to win the night for the 

Northerners.

The Whole Enchilada 

Invades Las Cruces 

by Larry Meraz 

Cheba Hut Albuquerque, N.M. 1st place Men’s C class 

Wierd Tucson, AZ 1st place Men’s D class 

Of the more than 250 teams that played in The Whole Enchilada 

Softball Tournament, not one of them only wanted a piece of 

the enchilada, they wanted the whole thing. 

The Whole Enchilada Softball Tournament has invaded Las 

Cruces, NM for more than 30 years and has been bringing in 

more than 2,000 attendees and tailgaters for at least 20 of 

those years if not more. The tournament started at 5 p.m. on 

Oct. 5, and ran continuously for 73 hours until 6 p.m. on Oct. 7 

ending with the Men’s E class championship. 

The tournament drew in a wide range of competitors and 

included divisions in the Men’s C, D and E class and Women’s 

C and D class. 

The weather could not have been any better for one of the 

most competitive and anticipated softball tournaments in the 

region. Teams came from far and near including teams from 

Ohio, Calif., Colo., Texas and N.M. 

“The tournament ran very smoothly and the weather was 

great,” USSSA director for New Mexico Bert Frederick said. 

“This was probably the smoothest and most competitive tournament 

we’ve had so far.” 


Remax AZ 1st place Men’s E class 

Affliction Albuquerque, N.M. 1st place Women’s C class 

Pitche’s be Trippin Denver, Colo. 1st place Women’s D class 


The results 

In the Men’s C class, Cheba Hut out of 

Albuquerque, N.M. took home the 

crown going undefeated and beating 

Patas Para Arriva Puta also from 

Albuquerque, N.M., in the championship 

game 20-15. Canes Softball 51210 

from the San Antonio/Austin, Texas area 

took third place. 

The defensive tournament MVP for the 

Men’s C class was Johnny Gresman from 

Patas Para Arriva Puta. The offensive 

tournament MVP was Alan Montano 

and the overall tournament MVP was 

Josh Mora, both from Cheba Hut. 

“It was a great tournament and it was 

an honor winning the overall tournament 

MVP,” said Josh Mora, who only 

recorded one out during the whole 

tournament. 

“This was the best tournament for us 

all year and having all our guys here 

playing hard really helped us win this 

tournament,” Mora said. 

Cheba Hut’s coach Felix Chavez said they 

prepared for this tournament by playing 

in at least three tournaments a month 

this past year. He also said that having 

their team play together for the past 5 

years has really helped them grow and 

become a better team. 

In the Men’s D class, Weird from Phoenix, 

Ariz blew away Las Cruces’ own Team 

Bones 20-1 in the championship game. 

Disturbed/Miken from Albuquerque, 

N.M. took home the third place trophy. 


Men’s D class went to Joel Rodriguez 

from Team Bones. The offensive tournament 

MVP went to Derek Oakley and 

the overall tournament MVP went to 

Rey Rodriguez both from Weird. 

In the Men’s E class, Remax from 

Maricopa, Ariz. Took first place beating 

Synergy from Phoenix, Ariz. 14-2 in 

the championship game. NBD/LPC/ 

Middlesopen.net from Chandler, Ariz. 

took third place. 

The defensive tournament MVP went to 

Robert Tolliver from Synergy. The offensive 

and overall tournament MVP’s were 

determined at a later time. 

In the Women’s C bracket, Affliction 

from Albuquerque, N.M. took home the

first place trophy after beating Sumuzu/ 

AZ border co./Worth in a tight if game 

15-14. Breakers, also from Albuquerque 

took home third place. 


Women’s C class was Shannon Galanek 

from Sumuzu/AZ border co./Worth. The 

offensive tournament MVP was Cathy 

Moreno and the overall tournament 

MVP was Samantha Hughes both from 

Affliction. 

In the Women’s D class, Pitche’s be 

Trippin from Denver, Colo. Took first 

place beating Homewreckers from El 

Paso, Texas in a close championship 

game 12-10. Just Us from Anthony, N.M. 

took home third place. 

The defensive tournament MVP for 

the Women’s D class was Jacki Edwards 

from Homewreckers. The offensive 

tournament MVP was Nadine Neurauter 

and the overall tournament MVP was 

Amanda Snyder both from Pitche’s be 

Trippin. 

Going, Going, Gone: 

Homerun Derby 

This year’s tournament included a 

homerun derby for both Men’s and 

Women’s divisions. This was the second 

year that the tournament had a 

homerun derby said Frederick. 

There was a waiting list for the Men’s 

homerun derby which included 32 

contestants and a good turn out for the 

Women’s with 16 contestants. 

The Men’s winner was Art Ramos from 

915-Sadistic out of El Paso, Texas. The 

Women’s winner was Jennifer Doolittle 

from Pitche’s Be Trippin out of Denver, 

Colo. The winners received a new Miken 

bat, $100 cash prize and a new glove for 

their pitcher. 

How is the 

tournament funded? 

The Whole Enchilada Softball 

Tournament is funded by entry fees and 

is also sponsored by Sports 55 out of 

Maryland who provided the first place 

prizes. In return, Sports 55 advertised 

their business and sold their products at 

the tournament. 

After such a great tournament, it will 

be hard to top this year’s competition a 

turn out next year. 


Miken Technology Proves 

To Be A Difference Maker 

Miken Sports’ management team: (left to right: Adam Peterson (AP), Lisa Bahnub, Mike Rommes and Jim 

Hoscheit. 

Going into any season there is always 

a question in the back of every players 

head… how is this year’s bat going to be? 

Is it going to have the durability of the 

Pyscho? Is it as hot as my original MV1? 

Will it hold up to compression testing? 

Am I going to like the end load Miken 

has promised? This will actually start to 

stress a guy out. 

All my questions were answered in 

the first tournament of the year. We 

were in the main stadium in Kissimmee, 

where the ball never seems to travel well 

for lefty’s. We were playing Shoppe and 

I came up with guys in scoring position. 

I knew in the back of my head the ball 

didn’t travel all that well, so instead of 

trying for a home run, I decided to go for 

a base hit up the middle. Well, the pitch 

ended up being a little short, so I had to 

reach a little to hit it good. When I first 

hit it, I knew I hit it well, but not great. 

As I started to round 1st, Tony told me 

that the ball had gone out of center. I 

was in shock. The fields in Kissimmee are 

410ft to center…. all my question were 


Softball Insight 

with Miken’s Isenhower 

answered. The new technology Miken 

came out with is the best on the market. 

No doubt. I’ve heard it straight from guys 

that can’t be named in this article cause 

they have their names on other companies’ 

bats. The feel of hitting the sweet 

spot of a Miken is like no other feel 

in the game. 

After that at bat, I knew it 

would be a great offensive season. 

And that it was. It didn’t matter 

where I was, what the conditions were, 

I knew I could do whatever I needed to 

do at the plate with my bat. Whether it 

be a home run or a base hit, my bat was 

hot enough and had the perfect end load 

that I felt comfortable enough do whatever 

I wanted to in every ab. It led me 

to career bests at the Smoky’s and Disney 

for home runs and a career high for my 

season avg. 

Now the season is done and I just 

recently had a chance to test next year’s 

bats for Miken. I had no idea they could 

get better, but they have. In fact the bat I 

was hitting was all black, so I couldn’t tell 

exactly what I was hitting. So after about 

5 swings, I tossed it to the side and started 

laughing. AP asked what was so funny 

and I told him as bad as I wanted to use, 

and especially after seeing the results of 

those 5 swings, but I’m not allowed to 

swing Ultras in the Conference. With the 

most serious look he’s had on his face all 

day, he said” thats your bat next year!!” 

Thats a utrip bat!! Unreal… they did it 

again.. I don’t know how they do it, but 

they did it. Miken came up with another 

fire cracker... Thank you! 

I can now rest easy this winter 

knowing that I have a great product 

going into the season... Knowing this 

motivates me to do my end. Time to 

start training and hitting to get ready for 

next season.. A little tip to anyone and 

everyone wanting to be a better hitter… 

get strong hands.. A lot of guys think 

hitting is about how much a guy can 

bench or squat. At the end of the day, 

the guy with the strongest hands usually 

wins out. Strong hands create bat control 

and bat speed... This is what makes you 

great! 

I hope everyone has a safe and 

happy off season. See you in 

Kissimmee real soon. 

IZ

RECRUITMENT BEGINS DECEMBER 2012 

WWW.MIKENSPORTS.COM

Caitlin Lowe - USSSA.com

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