Las Vegas Road Trip IV

The fourth edition of the Las Vegas Road Trip is now complete and three new champions have been crowned. Congratulations to the Cardinals, CA for their win in AA/AA-Major, S.A.U., UT in the A-Major and the Colton Dirt Bags, CA in the A. All went undefeated in the tournament which meant for the first time the Road Trip had no "IF" game.

The weather in Las Vegas was about 85 degrees but windy on Saturday, but that did not stop the action on the fields with thirty teams competing in the three divisions. Sunday the wind was much calmer for a beautiful day of softball.

Next year's Las Vegas Road Trip is tentatively scheduled for the weekend of March 31/April1.

Stats will be posted hopefully by the end of the weekend.

AA/AA-Major

The Cardinals completed the tournament with a 4-0 record, receiving a first round bye in the draw. This years bracket was the biggest yet for this division with twelve teams and all had a chance to win. The Cardinals started off by facing last years Road Trip and NAFA World Series champs El Paso Steel, TX and squeezed out a 6-5 win. The bracket did not get any easier as the win put them in the semi-finals against the Road Trip's two-time defending champs Sta. Cecilla, Baja CA, Mexico and once again they pulled off a one run victory, 3-2. In the winners bracket final they faced the Rocky Mountain Rebels of Colorado and their bats exploded winning the game 7-0.

The Rebels faced off against Rhino MKY, Baja California, Mexico to see who would face the Cardinals in the championship game. Rhino MKY was on a roll and on their third game of the day and beat the Rebels 7-0. Going into the championship game it pitted Tyson Barkman of the Cardinals against Justin Schofield of the Rhinos MKY. Schofield was the iron man as he was starting his fourth game of the day.

The Cardinals came out on top in the championship game with Barkman earning the win with 13 strikeouts in the game and 20 overall. Schofield had 39 total strikeouts in his games.

A-Major

As there was only four teams in this division, the three-game bracket was scratched and a round robin followed by single elimination format was used to give all the teams an extra game.

S.A.U. of Utah started strong and never quit, outscoring their opponents in the round robin 20-5 and a perfect 3-0 record to take the number one seed. They continued scoring runs winning 11-1 against the New Mexico Hitmen in the first game of the single elimination and then beating Santa Rosa Fastptich in the Championship game 5-1. Garrett Hone went the distance in the championship to earn the win for S.A.U.

The Colton Dirt Bags, CA came out slugging, scoring eleven runs in their opening game against the Stockton Black Sox, CA, which they followed with another five runs against Balboa, CA. They hit a snag in the semi-finals and faced last year's champions, the Caribbeans, CA. The Caribbeans had the lead going into the last inning but the Dirt Bags kept hitting and outscored them 11-10 to keep alive in the winners bracket.

They faced another tough team in the Northwest Naturals, WA, who squeezed out a win over the Panteras, CA, 6-4 to open the tournament and then run ruled their next two opponents. The winner's bracket final was tough with the Naturals leading the game until the late innings when once again Colton came from behind to earn the win.

The Naturals faced Palm Springs Express, CA in the lower bracket final and won 8-1 to once again face off against the Dirt Bags in the championship game. Des Serrano started the game for the Dirt Bags against Kevin Thompson. Both pitcher gave up early runs but the score remain tied until the fifth when the Dirt Bags scored one in the fifth, three in the sixth and another run in the seventh to take home the championship. Serrano went the distance to pick up her second win of the day and the Dirt Bags finished the tournament with a 5-0 record.