Friday night was the traditional player’s party but instead of going to a local eatery, the party was held at Goodwin Field at Cal-State Fullerton. The Orange County Flyers minor league baseball team was hosting law enforcement appreciation night and all law enforcement employees and family got in for free. The suite was reserved for our policesoftball.com group and over 100 wristbands were distributed to the guests. Inside the suite all policesoftball.com guests partaked in all you can drink beer and softdrinks as well as all you can eat hotdogs and burgers. The actual baseball game was entertaining as the Flyers won in the bottom of the 10th with a walk off double off the wall.

Immediately following the game we were allowed onto the baseball field for our home run derby. This year we had 9 participants and each participant had his bio read over the P.A. system and selected his own personal soundtrack to hit to. The participants were: Brandon St. Aubin- SoCal Lockdown, Eric Pennekamp-Team Kentucky-Ohio, George Reyes-SoCal Alliance, John Sunia-DEA Combo, Chad Howard-DEA Combo, Tim O’Leary-San Diego Excessive Force, Mitch Brouillette-SoCal Alliance, Danny Ruiz-SouthWest Elite and Chad Johnson-HardCor. The field dimensions were intimidating as we all know it is difficult to hit a softball out of a baseball field that is listed as 385’ in the power alleys and 400’ to center. In the first round of the derby many of the players did not trust their hands and over-swung. The result was several top hand line drives which are not good in a derby. By the second round the nerves had settled and the participants began to trust their hands. Numerous bombs were launched into the parking lot well beyond the outfield wall. The single most impressive shot this year was courtesy of Danny “Toro” Ruiz who cleared the left center scoreboard by 25’ and landed somewhere in the middle of the parking lot. In the end, it was the veteran John Sunia who rose to the occasion. His sweet compact left-handed power stroke got dialed in and he launched bomb after bomb over the right field wall and ended the night with 6 homeruns. John was the overall winner of the event, while the ever consistent “King” George Reyes finished a solid second place just behind Sunia. The underdog, Eric Pennekamp from Ohio who is known more for his tenacity and defense than his home run hitting did rise to the occasion by blasting a ball of the left center scoreboard 405’ from home plate.

The actual tournament began on Saturday morning and it featured 21 teams with players from California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Ohio and Kentucky. Teams played 2 round robin games for seeding purposes and then all teams advance to the double elimination playoffs. The marquee round robin game featured a familiar East vs West rivalry. TKO was the invading army trying to single handedly claim East dominance while the NorCal based Concord Combo was tasked with protecting their home turf in California. The game was every thing it was hyped to be and there were several highlights including a game momentum changing bang-bang play at the plate involving a head first slide by TKO’s Eric Pennekamp ahead of the throw. But, the umpire ruled Pennekamp had missed the plate and it ended the inning. The other highlight was a TKO decision to intentionally walk the bases loaded in order to face slugger Chris Meat Oliver. Oliver turned to the announcer and said, “This is the first time a team has intentionally walked someone to face me.” With pride on the line, Oliver delivered a clutch grand slam to put Concord ahead by 4 and deny TKO another chance to bat. The final score was Concord 20, TKO 15. That win inked Concord as the bracket winner and dropped TKO down to the #9 overall seed for the playoffs.

Other bracket winners included LAPD Blue 2-0, Sin City 2-0, SoCal Alliance 2-0, DEA Combo 2-0, Cal-Quake 2-0, and in a shocker the SoCal Dawgz defeated the defending World Champs HardCor to win the bracket.

Here is a blow by blow breakdown of the playoffs:

Winners Bracket: Nitro2Go def. Combat, Aftershock def. LAPD Lawmen, Quit Resisting def. SoCal Riot, San Diego Excessive Force def. Lockdown, RSD Red def. DVI Gladiators.

Winners Bracket Round 2: HardCor avenged their earlier loss by def. SoCal Dawgz, Sin City def. Nitro2Go, SoCal Alliance def. Aftershock, Concord def. Team Vargas, DEA Combo def. Quit Resisting, San Diego Excessive Force def. LAPD Blue, Quake def. RSD Red, and TKO def. Southwest Elite.

Losers Bracket (losing teams eliminated and tie for 17th place): SoCal Dawgz def. SoCal Riot, Lockdown def. Nitro2Go, DVI Gladiators def. Team Vargas, LAPD Blue def. Combat, Southwest Elite def. LAPD Lawmen.

Losers Bracket Round 2 (losing teams eliminated and tie for 13th place): SoCal Dawgz def. Lockdown, Aftershock def. DVI Gladiators, LAPD Blue def. Quit Resisting, RSD Red def. Southwest Elite.

Winners Bracket Round 3: Sin City def. Hardcor, SoCal Alliance def. Concord, DEA Combo def. San Diego Excessive Force, and Quake def. TKO.

Losers Bracket Round 3 *Games played SUNDAY (losing teams eliminated and tie for 9th place): TKO def. SoCal Dawgz, Aftershock def. San Diego Excessive Force, Concord def. LAPD Blue, and RSD Red def. HardCor.

Winners Bracket Round 4 SUNDAY: SoCal Alliance def. Sin City and DEA Combo def. Quake.

Losers Bracket Round 5 (losing team eliminated and tie for 7th place): TKO def. Aftershock and RSD Red def. Concord.

Losers Bracket Round 6 (losing team eliminated and tie for 5th place): Sin City def. TKO and Quake def. RSD Red on a walk off home run by Quake's Scott Spaulding.

Undefeated Game: DEA Combo def. SoCal Alliance. DEA advances to championship game and must be beaten twice in a row. Alliance sent to loser bracket.

Loser Bracket Round 7 (losing team eliminated and finish in 4th place): Quake def. Sin City.

Loser Bracket Round 8 (losing team eliminated and finish in 3rd place): SoCal Alliance def. Quake.

Championship Game: SoCal Alliance def. DEA Combo.

“IF” Championship Game: SoCal Alliance def. DEA Combo.

TOURNAMENT CHAMPS: SoCAL Alliance/Easton

SoCal Alliance MVP was Alfonso "Zo" Trujillo. Trujillo hit .857 on the tournament, went 12 for 12 in the championship and "if" games and went 22 for 23 on Sunday.

ALL TOURNAMENT PLAYERS
Ray Ghiliotty - Alliance
George Reyes - Alliance
Ryan Coe - Alliance
Steve Leone - DEA
Dave "D2" Ayala - DEA
Robert Mason - DEA
Matthew Boykin - Quake
Michael Mayer - Quake
Guillermo "G.G." Guerra - Quake

GOLD GLOVE
Tommy Hayes - Alliance
Johnny Sunia - DEA
Ronnie Connor - Quake

The following teams won World Series berths:
Concord
SoCal Dawgz
San Diego Excessive Force
Lockdown
DVI Gladiators
Quit Resisting
Nitro2Go

Tournament directors Jeff Blair and Del Pickney worked hard on the event. From the Fullerton Flyers HR Derby, the HR Derby on Fenway and by playing music and announcing games on Fenway, they tried to do some things different to make this tourney more of an "event" rather than just softball. Hopefully everyone had a great time and enjoyed themselves.

Jeff and Del would also like to thank every team who came and played hard but they would specifically like to thank TKO who came across the country to experience the provided bat tournament concept. They would also like to thank Armando Acosta for all his work with the umpires and bats, Brett Helmer. Marty Orozco and Easton for providing the winning prize package and HR Derby balls. Lastly they would like to thank the BLD Staff who worked hard to make sure we were able to play hard.

Jeff and Del are already in the planning stages for next years tournament so if you have any input please let them know.

PHOTO: Shown in the photo above is Nate Baez about to turn a double play.