Connection & Enforcers KICK OFF Season with Championships
Complete DEA Kickoff Coverage Here
It’s that time of year, when everyone is excited to see who is playing with who and showing off the new uniforms. However; the past year has been a year like no other. This was the first Police Softball Tournament, on the West Coast, since the 2020 DEA Kickoff. Usually the tourney is held in Palm Springs, but due to COVID restrictions, Socal is still on lockdown. So the venue had to be change to Fresno CA. Instead of 5 fields, there was only 3. There was also time constraints due to the facility wanting league night and Saturday Civi ball. That meant long breaks in between games, and shorter length games. The 15 West Coast teams that showed up, didn’t care about any of that. They were just excited to be playing Police Softball, on the West Coast, once again.
Enforcers – Mid Major Champions
The Connection – Major Champions
After Round Robin play, the 15 teams were placed into two divisions; Mid-Majors and Majors. Normally you could expect to see a few teams get bumped up to majors and they would not be happy about it. Not this year. Every team in the major was happy to be playing there.
Mid Majors Division – Sin City came out as the number 1 seed, followed by Oakland PD, Enforcers, CV Kings, W.C. Lawmen, Familia, Reloaded, and a new team Hard Times. The only upset in Round 1 was Reloaded over Oakland PD. In Round 2, CV Kings, led by Police Softball legend, Joe Mestress, upset the number 1 seed Sin City. The undefeated game paired CV Kings versus Enforcers. Enforcers won that game. Familia lost their opening round game to Enforcers, but battled their way to the finals to once again face Enforcers. Familia ran out of gas by that time and the Enforcers went undefeated in the playoffs to secure their first Police Softball tourney. Former West Coast Player of the Year, Frank Terronez and their coach has put together a great squad, in a short amount of time. You can expect Enforcers to be playing Mid Majors and possibly majors all season long.
Majors Division – The top two teams heading into the playoffs could be predicted. The Connection was the number 1 seed, followed by DEA. Stanislaus rolled their Round Robin opponents giving them the number 3 seed. The Razorbacks, Shotcallers, Nitro, and BP Arsenal rounded out the 7 major teams. Round 1 saw the Shotcallers with an upset over the Razorbacks, Stanislaus and DEA advancing. Round two saw Connection and DEA advancing to the undefeated game. Connection knocked off DEA putting them into the championship game. The Razorbacks clawed their way through the losers divisions to face DEA. It was a great game back and forth. The Razorbacks have a huge team. You would think they were from Ohio. DEA was able to pull out the win, squaring off against Connection. Due to time constraints, there would not be an “IF” game. That didn’t matter. After a strong first half inning by DEA, Connection played consistent all game, as well as the entire tournament, and came out as the champions. There were no MVPs or all tourney. After not playing ball in over a year, it was just nice to get back on the field.
Special thanks to Carlos Vega (Elite) and Brett Helmer (EASTON). Helmer was providing Easton Bats. However; due to the storm in the Midwest, the bats were held in Indiana. But Carlos stepped up, like always and provided Onyx bats. Carlos and Brett have been huge supporters of Police Softball for years. We want to thank them for everything they do.
