The weather was warm, but not too hot and the fields were in great shape. Our thanks to El Dorado for coming through with left over balls from their Tahoe Classic Tourney when the balls we ordered didn't come in. We used a new format this year. We divided the field into two 5 team pools. We divided the teams based mostly on PS rankings. Each team played the other 4 teams in their pool one time. The top two teams in each pool moved on to a single elimination playoff to determine a champion.

In Pool A, a red-hot Concord Combo team blazed through the field going 4-0 thanks to very tough pitching, solid D and relentless offense. The big win for Concord was against eventual Pool B #2 Aftershock (3-1 in pool play) in a back and forth 15-12 victory for Concord. In Pool B, Team RTA started off the day with a very exciting 28-27 win over Direct Impact. This game had it all, power, defense and timely hitting. RTA founder, Chad Bankston came through with the walk off single in the bottom of the 7th for the win. Team RTA cruised the rest of the way in pool play finishing 4-0. After the rest of Pool B beat up on each other the rest of the way, the #2 seed came down to one game, Stanislaus vs. El Dorado. Stanislaus prevailed in a very tough game against a very tough El Dorado S/O team 15-10. In the semi-final games, Concord took on Stanislaus and Team RTA played Aftershock with the winners advancing to the championship game. The Concord/Stanislaus game on Yankee Stadium featured a pitcher friendly wind blowing in and as a result, defense was the name of the game. The game was very exciting and well played by both teams with Stanislaus taking a 9-7 lead into the bottom of the 7th. That was the final score as Stanislaus held off Concord. On Tiger Stadium, Team RTA and Aftershock had the hitter friendly wind and played a back and forth game of who can hit the ball farther. Several lost balls later, Aftershock came away with a 19-17 victory.

Stanislaus and Aftershock played 5 times in 2009 tournaments with a total run differential of 7 in those 5 games. This game would be no different. Aftershock took an early 6-1 lead but Stanislaus battled back to take a one run lead midway through the game. After the lead changed a couple of more times, Stanislaus was able to hold on to the lead in a very exciting 7th inning. Stanislaus shortstop, Ryan McCay was named Tournament MVP after hitting .792 with 6 homers and playing solid D. Casey Hill (.723) and Alex Ramos (.650) were also clutch for the Champs. Our thanks to all who were there. There was a lot of ball in a short time, in by 9 and out by 5.