A message from the Tournament Director "Ogie"
Champs.- Wayne Oakland
First off, I want to thank the teams that made the trip to the Tampa Bay area. Suffolk Lawmen- as always you guys bring a great product to the field every year and every tournament it seems like. I am grateful you choose to come to Clearwater to play. Detroit Masters- same goes for you. You guys also came with just enough to play, yet played the entire day, making it to the finals. You guys always compete at the highest level and find a way to win. Lake County S.O.-Thanks for coming to the tourney and I hope you had fun. I’m glad I got to meet some of you and hope to see you guys around more tournaments. Wayne Oakland/Pinellas/So Flo- Thanks again and as always, great to see you guys. My Clearwater P.D. brothers- I can’t say how proud I was we were able to win all four round robin games. Great job for a small market team!
The tournament started at 0900 hours at the E.C. Moore softball complex. For us
Floridians, 90 degree weather is common so we were ready to go. A few of the
northern guys thought the fix was on. The tourney format was scheduled to be a
round robin for all five teams then single elimination. At the end of the round
robin games the standings were as follows:
Clearwater P.D 4-0, Wayne Oakland 3-1, Suffolk Lawmen 2-2, Detroit Masters
1-3, Lake County 0-4
All games were closely matched and very competitive. After a short break, we
started the single elimination games. Clearwater PD earned a bye and decided to
go to the nearby original Hooters to re-hydrate, which would prove costly.
Wayne Oakland defeated Lake County S.O. earning a second round bye to the
championship. Detroit Masters beat the Suffolk Lawmen earning a semi final game
against Clearwater P.D.
Detroit Masters showed their veteran tournament savvy and defeated Clearwater
P.D.
The finals put the Wayne Oakland/Pinellas/So Flo team against the Detroit
Masters. Wayne Oakland was able to beat Detroit and claim first place. Mike
Rath was named tournament MVP from Wayne Oakland. For his efforts, he will be
invited back to play next year. Congratulations Mike- Small market
tourney=small market prizes.
Again, I want to thank all of the teams who made the trip to the west coast of
Florida. I hope you enjoyed the city and beaches if you were able to get out
there and I will continue to try and have this tournament as long as teams want
to come.
On a side note, but most important, I want to thank you guys for buying memorial
shirts for our local fallen brother: Charles “Charlie” Kondek-E.O.W. 12/21/2014.
I believe close to $500 was raised from shirt sales. Two of his children were
in attendance and remarked how thankful they were.
