Virginia team wins title!

I saw the first 5 innings (then had to run off to a meeting nearby). In addition to what VirginiaPreps posted....I thought Bridgeman was outstanding on the mound changing speeds, and throwing a no hitter through five. He kept the Maryland Select team very off balance. Bridgeman showed a lot of poise after being hit with a come backer by the first batter of the game. The second pitcher Krupp came in relieft to shut them down with bases loaded in the 5th. He pitched very well too.

Congrats to Rich Graham, Brad Marrs, and the entire Cardinal organization.

Do either of you guys know what is going on with the 18U brackets? The pool my son is playing is had 2 or 3 teams cancel. So now, instead of the promised 4 pool games, there are I think 3 teams that have just 2 games, 'do or die.' I don't undertand how that can be a fair way to get into the playoffs, nor is it getting their money's worth (ie, 4 games guaranteeed.) Other remaining teams all have the 4 pool games.

Any info or insight?

BaseballmomandCEP,

Sorry, I don't know, and I don't have a player playing in this tournament.

A few years ago, I was managing & coaching at a Triple Crown Nationals tournament. They did an excellent job of keeping the head coaches and managers updated with changes, and they were very accomodating. They may ask your team to play another team in another pool so you have the same number of games and innings pitched. If they don't do something like that, your head coach or manager should step forward and have a talk with the tournament officials.

Best of luck with the issue and tournament.

Typically in that situation you'll draw one opponent from the other short bracket to get your # games in.

Also, thanks for the kind words, guys. It wasn't exactly East Cobb but I guess any time you win a national championship event it's a good thing. The best part was advancing to play 2 at UR yesterday, because we finally got a number of scouts concentrated in one place.

Also, it was nice to play, even in the afternoon in the mid-90's yesterday, without all the haze and humidity. Early in this event, we saw players have to leave the tournament, some went to the hospital. For the umpires, who were routinely scheduled to do 3 games in a row without break, well they were dropping like flies on Friday.

No rest for the weary! We're off to Greenville, NC tomorrow night to start playing in the Dynamic (Canes) tourney beginning Friday morning!

quote:

Originally posted by Midlo Dad:
Typically in that situation you'll draw one opponent from the other short bracket to get your # games in.

Just found out, their team is still playing only 2 in pool, getting a 7-0 win for the one forfeit. Not sure about the other teams that backed out a little bit earlier.

Still doesnt' feel right, but I am not sure there is much more they can do.... So the one game tomorrow is , I guess, 'do or die' after only 2 games.

Regardless, my kid can't wait to pitch at U of R, it is a beautiful field, and he is having a campus tour/info session later in the day, since the school is 'on his list' right now.

Congrats Midlo and good luck in SC.

I am feeling pretty blue, this is the end of summer ball pretty much for us.

I would be upset about that, too. Some of these teams come a long way and again, it's supposed to be a scouting venue. To eliminate a game is just not right. I don't suppose you'll get a pro rata refund?

Not to mention, it kind of gives them an advantage heading into the playoffs, as everyone else will have less pitching available.

Thanks for the info / support.

Congratulations to the Cardinals and good luck in SC. My son got to watch the semi-final from the bench. Guess they were holding onto him to pitch the final (that never came). Not the first time that's happened; however, I understand our lefty still did a good job on the mound.

It's ashame that two of the teams backed out of the 18U event. Looks like the 16U had one team back out but are using the forfeit rule to give the team a 7-0 win. Definitely helped one of the Braves teams clinch the #1 seed for the playoff bracket.

Good luck to your team and I hope your son has a good outing at Richmond.

Thanks guys, it was a good game (from what I heard via text messages and phone calls.)

They were down just 1for most of it, in a 1-0 then a 2-1 game, son pitched well from what I hear through 6th and then happily, it got tied up. The team won it with a walk off single in the 8th. Fun baseball....

Best to all for the remaining summer season!

quote:

The pool my son is playing is had 2 or 3 teams cancel.

Having looked at the way they set it up and the results so far, it appears that they probably had hoped that two more teams would sign up, so that all pools would have 4 teams (3 opponents, 3 pool games per team). But they undersold the event, so they had 2 pools with only 3 teams each. The way they dealt with that was that they had each team in pool E play the three teams in pool F and vice versa, with no head-to-head games within pools E and F but the ranking would be fair because they would all at least have common opponents.

The problem appears to be that after all that was set up, one -- and only one -- team just did not show up. At that point in time, you either have to rework the whole schedule for the five teams remaining, or have the three games that were scheduled with the defaulting team declared forfeits.

I know that Triple Crown holds a managers' meeting on the eve of each event, so what I hope happened is that the five affected teams would have been asked whether they would prefer to leave their schedules as is and deal with the forfeits, or to have it all reworked with unbalanced schedules and everyone getting games moved to times and places that might catch any scouts by surprise. I don't know if that happened or not, but in any event it appears they went the forfeit route. One result is that the Braves National team, which got the benefit of one of the forfeits, is the only undefeated team remaining after pool play, plus they should have the most pitching fresh for the playoffs. Sitting pretty.

I am sure they did follow some good procedure as far as talking with coaches.

Results just posted and they made the championship bracket....what does 'pool protect' mean? (sorry if that is a dumb question!)

Means opponent changed to avoid playing team from same pool or perhaps same org.

We published a more in-depth report about last weekend's championship 'run' for the Cardinals at the link below (its free!)Cards win championship

Congrats to Coach Graham and the Cards for a great tournament - and defeating one of their toughest opponents the HEAT! It was hot last weekend!