Grapettes tourney...

[Iluvblue]

12u teams always play up at this time of the year. All of the 14s were in 12u last year, so they are really a group that will be in the same age group every other year.

This also allows everyone to say,, hey, we lost, but it was against 14u. Or if we win, hey, we beat the 14s:)

[NorCal96]

Any results on this mornings games?

[Fun4All]

Any results on this mornings games?

http://www.grapettes.com/pages/10_tourn ... endly.html

[Fanboy]

Hamstring you were right about the Stars, they took it to the Breeze. And WOW!!! So much for the Strike Zone being relatively unknown. They shocked the Lady Magic. LM were over confident and thought they would walk thru this Strike Zone team but quickly found themselves in a dogfight. At the end, it would be the SZ on top with a score of 9-5. Unfortunately, as is the case after winning a big game, it was a different SZ team that showed up against the SJ Sting (who by the way was beaten by LM) Pool F was by far the most entertaining bracket of this tourney which was evident by the steady group of onlookers. This SZ team looks pretty solid and is probably 1-2 players short of being mentioned with the top NorCal teams, only time will tell but they have some real talent there. I hope the rain doesn't mess up tomorrows finale. My odds on favorite bet would be the winner will come out of this bracket.

[Easton Bats]

Top Four Teams Winning As Rain Hit:

Stadium Breeze 98 5 - 3 Visalia Krush
Diamond 1 EC Hotshots 3 - 0 Valley Stompers
Diamond 2 Breeze 97 4 - 0 Lady Magic
Diamond 3 Salinas Storm - Crushers

Final Four Should Have Been

Salinas Storm
Breeze 97
Breeze 98
EC Hotshots

[grass stain]

Crushers seem to fly under the radar but are a fast, fundamentally sound team. Would have been fun to see how they stacked up against the Storm.

Breeze 97 looked good, especially their number one. They are only going to get better.

Stars v. Lady Magic was a bit deceiving. bad first inning but things settled down after that

Strike Zone was probably the surprise of the tourney...Lady Magic definitely took them for granted,...worth keeping an eye on them.

Sting is a good team, but seems inconsistent. Need to develop some pitching behind their number one.

[Big Papa]

Breeze 97 looked good

Storm strong as usual

Lady Magic & Sting show no consistency

Strike Zone had a little luck one game and not much else

[Iluvblue]

I wasnt there, so I certainly am not speaking from any point of view that means much.

Sting team is a mixture of their younger team and a few kids on the older team that are not in HS. So realistically, that particular Sting team is not the team that will be a force this Summer. So that inconsistency you mention is not a surprise.

AASA, Breeze, Magic, all have many of the same girls from Fall. They hit the ground running and how they played this weekend is no surprise. Consistency also comes from staying with a team for more than a Fall season. It helps the girls get to know what the coach wants done. makes their lives easier. Any team can have a bad game.... so are the magic really that inconsistent?????

Curious if anyone beat Sting with their best pitcher in the circle??

My bad.... i see some of these comments were about 12u.

[mr.flamboyant]

So did the tourney get rained out? If so how did they determine outcome?

[Hamstring]

Turned out to be a pretty interesting Saturday. I was not far off my mark.

I tip my hat to EC Hot Shots for winning their pool A and proving me wrong actually not wrong, under educated of your potential not seeing you enough. Although the bracket was not the toughest you still pulled off a game Sunday.

Pool B went as planned with the winner having a 1-0-2 record only missing the 1-1-1 by a run. Did not expect this pool to contribute Sunday.

Pool C as planned, Storm is tough and their pitching looked good as usual. They did not have the toughest of teams but took care of business scoring 30+ on Saturday. They are the team to beat right now and consistant in all aspects of their game. I expect Storm to get stronger and wonder if anyone can challenge them?

Pool D won by Crushers, not a tough bracket but did their job going 3-0 Saturday and getting a gravy game Sunday against Plaque. I was off site for the Sunday rain game for one myself but want to assume Storm would roll through. Good job winning your pool.

Pool E At least I sound like I know what I'm doing. I was not drinking when I wrote last week nor did I drink all weekend. Thanks Stars for making me look good on Saturday pulling off a 3-0 in your pool. Breeze 97 is tough, no doubt but Stars managed the key hits and stuck it in there and pulled off the victory. Watch your backs for both of these teams.

Pool F thanks for making this bracket a fun one to watch. The bracket planning allowed me to go from field to field and take notes. As we have already heard, Strike Zone was not too shabby beating CC DD and getting into the heads of Lady Magic manufacturing some critical runs late in the game to win 9-5.
Prior to this Game was the game to see for Saturday, Sting #1 against LM #1 was all I expected. LM ended up with the win but Sting#1 continued to master some of their KILLER bats putting some in tears. The inconsistency of Stings defense and some awkward calls all added up to a deserved win for LM, both #1's were unhittable as usual.

Strike Zone after getting some juice flowing went into the nightcap with Sting and with Sting watching I wonder if they were wondering if their #1 should go again after that LM vs. SZ game. They went with a combo pack of pitching that was untouchable behind some non-stop hitting. I left at 6-1 and later saw it ended 10-1 on line. I still reserve judgment on SZ, potential to spoil your weekend as they almost did Sunday against Stompers. Sting ended up with the 2-1 tie breaker winner.

Sunday almost got it all in, as I predicted rain sooner, I will take this up with my weather man, no Christmas card for him this year.

Tier 1 of the Bracket was a joke, would have put EC HotShots in the Semi’s vs. Storm, not bashing Crushers(winners of Tier 2)as they had a great weekend but Storm would have won the semi's and then IMHO would have found a way to continue to the championship by beating EC HotShots to get there. Storm is just that good right now and getting stronger.

Tier 3 which is where you'd want to be to get the toughest games of the weekend. Stars vs. Lady Magic. Stars gave up some unusual runs in the 1st inning with some mistakes but then kept fighting and pushing LM but the result allowed to LM to move on shutting out the Stars. Stars were held on first with the big guns behind the plate for LM and the usual strong pitching. Good work by LM and a hat tip to Stars for the weekend efforts. On the flip side of Tier 3 was a repeat performance of Sting the night before, Sting #1 threw another 1-2 hitter followed by a few costly errors that opened up this game in the last at bat for Breeze 97. Breeze#1 was unhittable and looked sharp and confident behind her team. Congrats to Breeze 97 for knocking them off.

Tier 4 looked like tier 1, only two teams should have had a fight and Krush and Breeze 98 game winner would have surely been no match for Breeze 97/Lady Magic/Sting/Stars in tier 3.

To me, looks like it would have Storm #1 throwing against Breeze 97#1 in the Ships. This would have been a hellofa game to watch but..... Mother Nature didn't want this to happen and brought on the rain.

Will Breeze and Sting join the rest in Salinas for Mothers Days?? This would be a nice fight to take on Storm before Metros

Hope everyone made it home safely in the rain.

Hope to see you all in Salinas.