14U Team Rankings (Bracketologist) May 25th Pre-Memorial Day

[coachEd]

Congratulations to TC Smash 98. They took 3rd place in Las Vegas. Way to represent NorCal !!!!!

As Onlooker would say,"if my intel is correct", the second place team, Suncats, had a loss going into the finale four against Smash98. Smash98 went in unbeaten. Both lost to team Firecrackers. Team Grapettes Vasquez was eliminated early on.

Had a chance to watch Smash 98 in LV and they have a very good team and with the PGF format they have an excellent chance to play on Sunday at Nationals.

No shame in Grapettes Vasquez being eliminated early - if you enter tournaments with a lot of good teams some of the time you'll end up 1 or 2 and BBQ.

From what I saw all of the Nor Cal teams looked solid and so did some of the UT, LV & AZ teams. All of the teams are really close - if you eliminate the 2-3 really loaded 14U Cal teams ... the rest of the country has caught up!

I'm with Bracky on this one, TC Smash 98 is a very good team. They had 3 very tough back-to-back games on Sunday in Vegas, winning a tough 4-2 game vs. So Cal Madness 98 before then playing a 2 1/2 hour long, 4 ITB game vs. Pure Fastpitch-Martinez, only to then have to square off against Firecrackers-Brashear. They definitely have the ability to make a run at Premier.

[Nor-Cal Ball]

NO disrespect to the Grapettes(they may be a great team) but, good teams with good coaches overcome bad innings, bad calls...... ect. Just saying. Congrats to all the Norcal teams who competed in Vegas.

From what I hear about the Grapettes-Vasquez team and also have witnessed myself is that there is too much negativity from both coaches and parents. Most girls on that team look miserable playing the game. Coaches and parents ride the girls hard with no positive feed back, what so ever. Lots of talent, but if you cannot get that talent out of the girls then someone is not doing their job correctly!!

[Nor-Cal Ball]

I would probably remove Rampage and add Team Xtreme Napa 14U? pretty solid nucleus, the "redhead" C is always a treat to watch, and I believe they ended up the #1 seed after pool play in NSA this weekend if my intel is accurate. Of course my intel didnt tell me who won it, but did mention Rampage didnt even win the B/Silver. Just info, not looking for changes.

Sorry, but any team playing NSA does not belong in these rankings!!

[lowoxygen]

Saw Grapettes St. Dennis play over the weekend in Manteca, looked to be a pretty solid team although they lost in the semis...

[bracketologist]

NO disrespect to the Grapettes(they may be a great team) but, good teams with good coaches overcome bad innings, bad calls...... ect.

It's easy to overcome bad innings, bad calls when your competition is not great and you are clearly the superior team but 99% of time if you have a bad inning against an eventually matched or superior team … you lose.

[real ball98]

NO disrespect to the Grapettes(they may be a great team) but, good teams with good coaches overcome bad innings, bad calls...... ect. Just saying. Congrats to all the Norcal teams who competed in Vegas.

From what I hear about the Grapettes-Vasquez team and also have witnessed myself is that there is too much negativity from both coaches and parents. Most girls on that team look miserable playing the game. Coaches and parents ride the girls hard with no positive feed back, what so ever. Lots of talent, but if you cannot get that talent out of the girls then someone is not doing their job correctly!!

From what you hear????? You can't be farther from the truth... Negativity?? These coaches especially the head coach is one of a small number of coaches that i hear still praising his girls even after they make mistakes...if you want negativity i can think of a few teams where the coach is nothing but negative...as for the girls looking miserable i was in Vegas with my team and those girls looked competitive on the field but off they were all smiles and looking united... it's a shame that you would make false accusations against this team...i hate when people make negative comments you know those girls can easily get on this and for you to just straight up LIE is ridiculous... maybe you should go ask the parents and girls how they feel and then get back to us on here....

[zonlooker]

I'm with Real Ball 98- I have many close friends with daughters on The Grapette Vasquez team
and have not felt or seen one bit of the crap your talking!! We even stayed at the same hotel in Vegas thier team did and witnessed first hand a pretty close nit FAMILY hanging out, laughing, running around, etc. I have watched this team several times last year, this year ASA Lincoln the previous weekend, and even had my daughter tryout as did ALOT of parents. The coach has had the CORE 8 or so together for quite sometime(years). Must be a reason behind that!!
That staff has had and always will have one of the most competitve teams in NOR-CAL-BALL!
I'm sure they will enjoy your criticism though!! Just Say'in

[mr.flamboyant]

I'm with Real Ball 98- I have many close friends with daughters on The Grapette Vasquez team
and have not felt or seen one bit of the crap your talking!! We even stayed at the same hotel in Vegas thier team did and witnessed first hand a pretty close nit FAMILY hanging out, laughing, running around, etc. I have watched this team several times last year, this year ASA Lincoln the previous weekend, and even had my daughter tryout as did ALOT of parents. The coach has had the CORE 8 or so together for quite sometime(years). Must be a reason behind that!!
That staff has had and always will have one of the most competitve teams in NOR-CAL-BALL!
I'm sure they will enjoy your criticism though!! Just Say'in

They have always been a tough, competetive team going back to their days as The Elk Grove Thunder.

[wastingtime]

Which Grapette team is going down to So Cal this weekend to play in the TCS March Mayhem tourney? Is it the Vasquez or St. Dennis team?

[bringtheheat]

I believe Grapettes. Acuna and Grapettes St Dennis are playing TCS this weekend in So Cal