From the SoCal ASA Website:

LANCASTER – PART II

The City of Lancaster played host to the Alliance Tournament Series the weekend of June 24 – 25. Seven “B” teams and nine “C” teams participated with Taylor Farms from Northern California winning the B portion of the tournament and Latin Heat taking the C portion of the tournament

“B” ALLIANCE

After playing four games on Saturday, as a result of a team dropping out of the tournament, Taylor Farms posted a 2 – 2 record and came into the single elimination portion of the tournament as the second seed in their pool. In their first game of the morning they faced the So Cal Masters who were preparing for their annual appearance at the 50 & Over Nationals. Never to be taken lightly, the Masters scored five runs in the first inning, but Taylor Farms shut them down for the remainder of the game. Scoring six runs to take the lead Taylor Farms earned the win when their right fielder made a diving catch, with the Masters having a runner in scoring position, to end the game.

Their next opponent was the Savala Rounders who earned the top seed in the bracket, with two wins over Taylor Farms in the round robin. Taylor Farms stepped up and shut down the Rounders to win the game by a score of 6 – 2 to send them into the Championship game to face San Diego Primetime.

In the Championship game, Primetime scored three runs early and led 3 – 0 going into the bottom of the fourth inning. Taylor Farms kept chipping away at the lead scoring a run in the fourth, sixth and seventh inning to tie the game and send it to the International Tie Breaker. On the first pitch of extra innings, a quick throw by Taylor Farms catcher Jeff Twist picked off Primetime’s runner at second and pretty much ending the inning. In Taylor’s half, Manager Ron Guzman was the runner on second and Primetime was able to get the first two outs of the inning. With third basemen Dustin Carpreso at bat, he hit a shot into left center out of the reach of Primetime’s outfield and Guzman was able to walk home with the win and end a great played game The win went to “Dude” Ybarra in relief of Leland Grisby, Jr.

San Diego Primetime entered the single elimination in a rough way going 0 – 3 in the round robin and the low seed in their bracket. In their first game of the day they held Rude-Pac to one run and took the win 3 – 1. In the semi-finals they faced the Panteras and held them off with a 4 – 3 victory to get into the Championship game.

From the SoCal ASA Website:

“C” ALLIANCE

Latin Heat came out as the number one seed of their pool going 3 – 0 while scoring 33 runs. In their first game of single elimination they faced Level One and took the win 8 – 1. In the semi-finals they faced Palm Springs Express and came out on top 3 – 1 with Cecillio Smalling getting the win and Latin Heat earned their second consecutive Championship game berth.

In the Championship game Latin Heat had “Sonny” on the mound against Lancaster’s own Goodfellas. This game featured two teams that are not shy about swinging the bat. This game turned into a scoring slugfest and it seemed whoever was able to stand last was going to win. After one inning it was Latin Heat (LH) 5, Goodfellas (G) 1. After two, LH – 5, G – 4. After three, LH – 7, G – 6. After four LH – 14, G – 10. In the fifth there was actually no runs scored by either team, shocking the crowd. In the sixth and seventh, Goodfellas scored two runs in each to tie the game and force the second International Tie Breaker of the day. Both teams scored a run in the eighth to keep the game going. In the top of the ninth with Cecillo back on the mound, Latin Heat was able to hold Goodfellas scoreless and then come back and score a run to end the game and take the Championship.

Goodfellas finished the round robin with a 2 -1 record and the number three seed of their pool. In their first game of the morning they faced the Silverhawks from Bakersfield and won 9 – 4. In the semi-finals they faced the So Cal Hustlers and hung on for a 5 – 4 victory.

From the So Cal ASA website:

SoCal ASA
Lancaster – Part II

The Alliance Tournament Series once again goes to the City of Lancaster and the Big 8 Softball Complex where eight teams will be facing off in the “B” Classification and nine teams in the “C” Classification. Guest teams this weekend will include Taylor Farms making their first appearance in a So Cal ASA event in the B’s and the Silverhawks and Deadbolts entering the “C” portion of the tournament. The Silverhawks are no strangers to So Cal ASA as they have entered a number of tournaments in the past and the Deadbolts will have some familiar faces in their line-up from the old River Rat team.

Round Robin games will start at 9:00 AM on Saturday and the single elimination will start at 8:00 AM on Sunday. A word of warning; Caltrans has been closing Highway 14 overnight in both directions and has not been reopening until after 8:00 AM on weekends. We were not aware of this last month so we took players arriving late into consideration, however, for this tournament games will start on time and players should plan ahead to make sure they arrive at the park before their scheduled game times.

Click link above for schedule of games and directions to fields.

The Dower Report: (Thanks to Herb Dower for this information)

FOLSOM, CA–Santa Rosa Fastpitch held off late rallies by both Dry Creek and Elk Grove in Sunday’s final two games to win the rain-plagued Folsom Tournament’s Class C Division. Santa Rosa, which earlier this season won the Fairfield Tournament, again rode the pitching of Jeff Want to the title. Want won all three games on Sunday and went 4-1 overall with a 3.50 earned run average. (more…)

From the Black Sox website: Long Beach Black Sox Win at Lancaster

The Long Beach Black Sox playing without 6 players pulled together and won their 4th ASA Alliance tournament and 8th overall tournament. This would be the Sox 1st ever win at the A/B level. Todd Budke in relief of Chuck Vranich got the win with 5 innings of solid pitching scattering 6 hits with only 1 walk. (more…)

From the So Cal ASA Website: So Cal ASA Lancaster

LANCASTER – LONG BEACH BLACK SOX AND RAS CONSTRUCTION CHAMPIONS

The Long Beach Black Sox used their two game bye to their advantage to take the Championship in the “B” Classification portion of the Lancaster tournament. This is the second May in a row that the Black Sox have won the May Lancaster tournament. After going 3 – 0 on Saturday in the Round Robin, the Sox had to go through the Champions in the previous two tournaments to take the crown. In their first game, they had came out ahead of Rude-Pac 5 – 4 and in the Championship game they beat the Panteras 8 – 5. The Panteras were making their third consecutive Championship game of the year with wins over the Rounders and San Diego Primetime. The players on the Panteras are used to being in the Championship game with a good portion of them being from the Kanakas and Edge teams from the 2003 & 2004 seasons.

While the Panteras have gotten greedy and not letting others in the Championship game, in the C Classification portion of the tournament here was once again two new teams making their first appearances. RAS Construction (formally Santana Concrete) came out of the sixth seed position in the round robin and used plenty of offense on Sunday to take home their first Championship since the 2003 National Qualifier. (more…)