Great Lakes Conquer Myrtle Beach
Great Lakes wins Majors, Louisville Metro strikes Gold.
The Thin Blue Line Spring National Championship was held this weekend at Grand Park Athletic Complex In Myrtle Beach South Carolina. Grand Park is the premier softball facility in the country and the only thing nicer than the venue might have been the weather. Beautiful clear skies and 75 degrees all day. The Weekends events kicked off for the 19 participating teams with a players party at Nacho Hippos, The taco buffet was almost as big of a hit as the ice cold beers at the open bar. A great time was had by all who attended.
Pool play started early on saturday and the competition was great! After pool play all 19 teams were seated in to a double elimination Major Bracket.
Seeding was as follows:
NY Hounds
Max Elite
Great Lakes
Nassau Blues
Thin Blue Line
KY Blue
Mid Atlantic Lawmen
Maryland Outlaws
Shields
Miami 5.0
S. Fla
Center Mass
N. Fla
Angel Armor
Suffolk County Lawmen
Detroit PSC
Louisville
Metro Detroits Finest
Necessary Force
The first seven teams eliminated from the Major bracket were placed in a double elimination Mid Major bracket, Necessary Force, Metro Detroit Finest, Louisville, KY Blue, Center Mass, Detroit PSC, and Miami 5.0 battled all day with many games decided by less than 3 runs.
After starting off slow both Metro Detroit and Louisville woke up their bats and separated themselves from the rest of the pack. Louisville put away Metro Detroit in the King Seat game and had to be double dipped!!!
Metro Detroit had to beat a very good Center Mass team to get a return shot at Louisville. In a classic game Detroit squeaked out the win against Center Mass to earn the right to face Louisville for the Mid Major Championship.
Louisville, came out victorious to claim the first Mid Major Spring National Championship.
The Major Bracket came down to Nassau Blues facing the Hounds and Great Lakes facing Maximum Elite with the winners facing off in the king seat game.
Great Lakes beat Maximum Elite and Nassau got by the NY Hounds.
Great Lakes Showed why they are the number one team in the Nation by taking care of Nassau in the undefeated game.
The NY Hounds showed why they are always considered a tournament favorite as they battled through the losers bracket to set up a rematch from The Waxahachie tournament Championship.
Unfortunately for the NY hounds the results in Myrtle Beach were the same as the last time these two juggernauts met......
Mark up ANOTHER tournament Championship for Great Lakes.......
Tournament MVP MAJOR John Tibaudo Great Lakes
Tournament MVP Mid Major- Justin Witt
All Tournament Major: Jimmy Postiglione Nassau, Billy Gillmartin Nassau, Johnny Kassebaum NY Hounds, Warren Rivell NY Hounds, Bruce Munro NY Hounds, Eric Thiess NY Hounds, Devon Crawford GL, John Zintak GL, Reggie Barker GL, Jake Fenslau GL
All Tournament Mid Major: Tim Connett CM, Tito Luso CM, William Bechill MDF, Tayler Goodnight MDF..Micah Hull MDF, Brian Harmon MDF, Devin Luckett LV, Anthony Stallard LV, Mike Wright LV, Taylor Banks LV.
The Members of Thin Blue Line would like to thank everyone who participated in the tournament, The staff at Grand Park and USSSA for their assistance.
The best compliment that we received this weekend came from the umpires, "Not only were we impressed by the quality of play but the amount of respect between the teams and for one another was a pleasure to see."
Everyone stay safe!
