Mike Davis Memorial NIT

The Mike Davis Memorial NIT in California was won by Combat/USA/Elite. The big story in this one is not quite who won, but who lost. The #2 team in the country, Dan Smith/Menossee/Combat gets knocked out early by two lesser teams and finished in fourth place. I can tell you all this doesn’t happen very often. I do believe it’s great for the game to see a class A or B team beat the big boys once in awhile.

Combat/USA deserves a lot of credit on winning this prestigious Mike Davis Memorial NIT. This win by Combat is one of the big upsets in bigtime softball in a longtime. The bat boys hit it well and played good D. Congratulations on a great win and good luck in the future. I know that there are a lot of very good players from the west coast. This NIT and the Seattle, Colorado NIT’s will give the west coast teams more play in conference tournaments, and that is great for the game.

Northwest/Combat gets the runner-up spot in this one. The Northwest boys also deserve a lot of credit for their play this past weekend. I like it when these teams play extremely good and get a good finish in the tournaments. Congratulations on a great weekend and good luck down the road.

Classic Glass/Easton takes third place and I can tell you this bunch is always in the hunt out west. This team seems to play very well in the major NIT’s. The Glass boys have some very good players. Congratulation on your weekend and good luck down the road.

I guess the headline story in this Mike Davis NIT is what happened to Dan Smith. I think it’s pretty simple. The Smith boys did not score enough to win, period. This team has not played very good the last few tournaments. They have not hit it when it counted, and that is why they are not winning. Dan Smith may have to make a couple of changes, but I believe they’ll get it going pretty soon. I had said that I thought this team had the best offense, but they have not proven me right so far, we will see. Good luck down the road.

Congratulations to the Northern California USSSA staff on another great Mike Davis NIT. I would also like to thank and congratulate Dan Smith for making this happen.