KY. Blue Opens EC Season with Championship
Full results of the Brian Aselton Memorial Tournament held in Tampa, Florida.
We kicked off the East Coast with the long running Brian Aselton Memorial Tournament in sunny Tampa Florida. This year we had a strong field of 18 teams ready to play in the heat of Florida. Thursday and Friday we played a highly competitive but friendly over 40's masters and over 50 Division which was run by Jimmy Wolters. It went really well with a lot of positive feedback on it and hope to continue bringing back the master's division in the future. It was great to see the older guys get out on the field and compete. Lets try and keep that going.
Saturday morning we started off with pool play Aselton Tournament. The pools were put together based on the 2022 Police Softball rankings and after some great games and some surprises we ended up with a 10 team Major double elimination bracket and a 8 team Gold double elimination bracket based on the results of the pool play.
This is how they ended up.
Majors
1 Great Lakes
2 Hounds
3 Mid Atlantic
4 Miami Dawgs
5 Kentucky Blue
6 Max Elite
7 Maryland Outlaws
8 Necessary Force
9 Miami 5-0
Gold Bracket
1 South Florida
2 Front Line Enforcers,(FLE)
3 NYPD Finest
4 Ct Goats
5 Lake County
6 Center Mass
7 Dayton Metro
8 Metro Detroit
We continued playing the double elimination on Saturday making it a long day and a lot of softball. Sunday morning came early with a few surprises in the Losers bracket facing elimination early.
In the Gold Bracket Lake County and FLE were the first to be eliminated. Then Dayton and the Ct Goats followed by Metro Detroit who made a nice little run through the loser's bracket. This left Center Mass who also ran through the loser's bracket, playing against an impressive NYPD Finest team who made their debut in this tournament losing to Center Mass taking Third Place. South Florida, who looked strong all day, stayed in the winner's bracket beating Center Mass and taking the Gold Division, making them the Brian Aselton Gold Champions.
In the majors the first to leave were Necessary Force and Miami 5-0 followed by the Hounds and Maryland then Great Lakes Max Elite. and Mid Atlantic. This left North Florida losing to Miami Dawgs giving the NFL third place. This left the final to be Kentucky, who looked strong all day staying in the winner s bracket, playing Miami Dawgs, who also showed heart coming through the losers bracket. They would have to double dip them. A strong Kentucky Blue team took care of business, winning the Majors Bracket and staying undefeated the entire day making them the Brian Aselton Majors Champion.
Majors Division All Tournament Team
North Florida 3rd Place
Miami Dawgs 2nd Place
Yasel Gomez
Rob Pence
Yaya Mata
Kentucky Blue Majors Champion
Brian Dawson
Matt Marksbury
Steve Edwards
Shawn Smith
Brett Smith
Gold Division All-Tournament Team
NYPD Finest 3rd Place
Andrew Garcia
TJ Montalbano
Center Mass 2nd Place
Ryan Register
Zack Powers
Randy Walker
South Florida Lawmen Gold Champions
Kevin Fry
Mike Faul
Kevin Drummond
Danny Ferreiro
I would like to thank all teams that participated this year in helping me to continue this long running tournament. For me it's all about keeping Brian's name alive but also, its special for me to give you guys that much needed outlet and escape from the job for a weekend where you can just let loose. It's great to see all of you back and look forward to doing it again next year.
Special thanks to Jimmy Wolters who everyone by now knows he is the wizard behind the curtain who makes this tournament run. I couldn't do it without him. Along with the countless others that help me with this event. Good luck to all in your upcoming 2023 season and Stay Safe!
Johnny