Cincinnati USSSA Major Nit

Long Haul/Taylor Brothers/Shen Corp/TPS rolls through this NIT to make it  seven out of eight tournament wins in the 2001 season.  This week Long Haul had no one threatening them through out the weekend.  The Long Haul Bunch was led by MVP, Robin Higginbotham, who played his usual great defense and hit the ball extremely well. The All Tournament team selections were Todd “Will” Martin, Randell Boone, Rusty Bumgardner and Jimmy Powers.  The rest of the Long Haul team contributed to this win.  The long Haul Sponsor, Bill Taylor said.” We really played well this weekend in all the games we played.”  Manager, Gary Jost  told me,” This team is unbelievable, it sure is nice for me to be lucky enough to be able to run this ball club.”  “The chemistry on this team along with the talented players is a big contributor to our success and makes it easier running this ball team.”  Gary told me that they were playing very good now even though we got four or five banged up players.  We will just have to go home and hope the boys can get healthier as, we head to the Smoky Mountain Classic in two weeks.  Hague /Resmondo Specialty Tank/TPS finished second and received their berth to the USSSA World Series at Disney World in September.  The Hague Boys just couldn’t get it going this weekend against the number one team in the nation.  Hague Resmondo the only team on the circuit this season to be able to beat Long Haul couldn’t get it done this time, as they were run ruled in both games this weekend.  Finishing in third place was Creative Stucco/Easton from Columbus Ohio who played extremely well as they won games against a very good “A” team, Mountain Top/TPS and an “AA” team, Marodi’s Transfer.  The Columbus boys have played well in tournaments that I have seen them play this year and I believe should go to Salem Virginia and Detroit and get enough points to get into the USSSA World Series.  They would be a good team for that tournament.  Fourth place goes to Mountain Top /TPS, another very good “A” team, who has battled two weekends in a row in USSSA events, and I am sure will make it into the world series and will be another fine team.  This Michigan bunch has a lot of talented players, some veterans as well as some young ones, and a very good young shortstop Don DeDonatis Jr. who is an up and coming player who will be playing for one of the big boys in the near future.

I would like to commend Hank Basset for a job well done, running this USSSA NIT event as Tournament Director and to Jim Wessel and his staff at Eggleston Park. The staff at the beautiful Little Fenway Stadium.  I can tell you that if any associations would like to run a tournament Eggleston Park is a great place to hold your tournament.  Jim has done a great job getting these fields in shape and there is no better place to watch a softball tournament with the beautiful shade trees and great concessions.  Jim and his wife are truly two great people and fine hosts.

ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM

From Hague Resmondo/Specialty Tank/TPS

Randy Kortokrax
Paul Brannon
Robbie Ergle

From Long Haul Trucking/Taylor Bros/Shen Corp/TPS

Randall Boone
Todd “Will” Martin
Rusty Bumgardner
Jimmy Powers

Homerun Champion – Hank Garris – 12

Defensive player – Demond Thomas

MVP – Robin Higginbotham