NSA Major/AA/A NIT Spartanburg, SC

Spartanburg,South Carolina was the setting for this NSA Major AA- A NIT. Alesium /Chase /Reece/ Roosters/Easton went through this one undefeated to get their NSA berth and a trip back to Spartanburg, SC for the NSA World Championship. The Alesium boys were hitting and catching everything, and just flat out were the best team in the tournament this past weekend. Make no mistake about it, this bunch can win against anyone of the teams anytime, this is not your average AA team. This team has a lot of young very talented players and some veterans who know how to win, when you combine this with manager Gary Jost running the ball club you have the makings of a world championship team. Alesium was led by veteran Keith “Kebo” Brockman, who has not played at the top level in the last couple of seasons, but it looks to me like he hasn’t missed a beat as Keith’s first 8 at bats produced 7 dingers. Kebo was named the tournaments MVP but as Keith said “when receiving this award, this goes out to the whole team as this was a total team effort and I agree the whole ball club had a great weekend”. Congratulations to the Alesium ball club. I look for this team to win a lot more NIT’s this season along with some National Championships. This is a very talented softball team and will prove so down the road.

Backman/Dan Smith/Menosse/Easton finished second in this one as they battled back through the losers bracket to gain this spot. The Smith Boys had lost to Alesium in the semi’s, but managed to battle back and win a big game against Resmondo/Hague/Taylor Bros/Sunbelt to get back to the championship game and see if they could revenge their earlier loss to Alesium, but came up short as Alesium recorded their second victory of the weekend over the very strong Backman team. Third place in this one went to Resmondo who had to play this one without using their Miken bats, which were banned during the week. The Resmondo squad swung a little of everything, but most of the time the boys were swinging some used Synergy bats that they apparently found somewhere around Spartanburg. I did notice some PST’s being used, some Louisville Slugger’s and some Miken Velocity’s , but anyway they got through the tournament and as of this story I am not sure what bats they will be swinging in their next tournament. Stay tuned.

Fourth place in this tournament was picked up by a brand new A team called Buckeye/ Easton out of Virginia who was managed by Tim “Tiny” Taylor who has put together a very nice squad and played extremely well in this tournament. Tim’s boys beat some awful good teams this weekend and looked to me to be a very competitive A team the rest of the year. Holland’s /Used Car’s/Terry’s/Easton also played extremely well along with Benfield Electric/Worth. Aubrey’s/TPS also played well in this tournament along with a couple of local teams made this a very competitive tournament.

I would like to say what a great job David Lancaster and Jim Kimmel along with the entire staff of Duncan Park, who worked their butts off keeping the fields playable as the rain drops continued to fall all weekend, they managed to get this excellent tournament off. The Duncan Park ground crew and their management made a great move when they purchased the tarp to cover the infield, and I can tell you that without it this tournament would of been a washout. Looking forward to coming back to Spartanburg for the NSA 2003 World Championship. This should be a great event, as David will work very hard getting this one together. Don’t Miss It!!!