On Friday afternoon the Easton crew held a batting practice and invited all players to attend. These guys are so down to earth that after they hit, they grabbed their gloves and shagged balls for the “regular guys” for as long as they wanted to hit. On Friday evening the Easton crew attended the social mixer and talked softball with the attendees.

On Saturday afternoon Brett Helmer and Brian Wegman put on a power hitting exhibition that could only be described as awesome. The duo launched missile after missile onto the hillside behind the fields. They were routinely hitting the ball over 100’ farther than any of the longest bombs hit in the tournament and they were using the exact same bats and balls! The display was impressive to say the least.

Now on to the tournament: Come Saturday morning it was business time for the 24 teams that were vying for the Bring Ur Real Skilz championship. Typically a one-day tournament would only draw local teams but this event was so anticipated that it drew teams such as the Ohio Lawmen, Sin City Las Vegas, and several from Northern California. The level of competition was extremely high as it was the first ever event to feature three previous World Series champions, Ohio Lawmen ’05, Cal-Quake ’06, and the SoCal Alliance ’07.

In bracket play six teams came out with the #1 seed. They were: The Cal-Quake (3-0, plus 36), West Coast Aftershock/Easton (3-0, plus 37), A-1 Towing/Hard-Cor (3-0, plus 29), San Diego Excessive Force (2-1, plus 10), SoCal Alliance/KME/Easton (3-0 plus 69) and the Ohio Lawmen/Minutemen Express (3-0, plus 69). LAPD Blue, Santa Cruz Combo, LAPD Lawmen, Sacramento Police Softball, State Razed and the Cal-Syndicate advanced to the A-Flight playoffs as #2 seeds.

The first round of the playoffs Cal-Syndicate eliminated the LAPD Lawmen, Hard-Cor defeated Santa Cruz, LAPD Blue downed State Razed and Sacramento Police Softball bested San Diego Force.

In round two the Cal-Quake eliminated Cal-Syndicate, SoCal Alliance defeated the LAPD Blue, Sac Police Softball eliminated West Coast Aftershock and in a much anticipated match-up, Hard-Cor posted a solid victory over the Ohio Lawmen.

In the semi-finals Cal-Quake inked a nice victory over Hard-Cor and the SoCal Alliance posted a win against Sacramento Police Softball.

The championship game was a matchup of two heavyweight teams who seem to play each other often late in tournaments. It was a see-saw battle early on but the SoCal Alliance pulled away in the end and claimed victory against the Cal-Quake 38-26. Both the Alliance and the Quake agreed before the game to split the Easton prize package so both teams will be receiving 6 new Easton Brett Helmer bats and 6 Easton jackets.

When asked about his thoughts on the tournament, Quake Manager D. Longmire said, “Our hats are off to the champions. They were excellent host and earned a well deserved title.” Additionally D. Longmire commented that Armando Acosta and Easton Sports were first rate and they look forward to playing in future Easton Skilz tournaments.

When asked for his thoughts, Alliance pitcher Ryan Coe said he enjoyed the provided bat format. Ryan also said this tournament victory was truly a team effort as the Alliance averaged 31 runs a game and hit .726 as a team. Ryan said this is the first tournament where the Alliance hitting clicked and that is a testament to everyone's hard work in the last few weeks and it is a testament to the quality product put out by Easton Sports.

MVP of the tourney was the Alliance’s Curt Ledesma. Curt was 22-28 with an OBP of .785. Curt also hit 6 homeruns and he was 6 for 7 in the championship game with a grand slam.

Alliance All tourney players were:

Nate Baez who displayed sparkling defense in the outfield and had an OBP of .778 for the tournament. In one playoff game, Nate led the Alliance with a 5 for 5 performance and 3 stellar defensive plays. This was the second tournament this year where Nate hit over .750.

Kris Ulibarri was monster at the plate hitting .750 with 9 home runs. Kris anchored the Alliance infield at the 5 spot and this is the second tournament this year Kris has hit over .750.

Chris “Silk” Moten earned All tourney honors for hitting .750 on the tourney, playing great outfield all day and by getting on base 11 straight times to close out the tourney.

For the California Quake, All tourney honors went to:

Denton Carlson who hit in the clutch on numerous occasions. Denton delivered hit after hit and stunned many with several unexpected but timely homers.

Guillermo Guerra was a marvel all weekend, a bona-fide super-hero in the Quake dugout. GG played in every game and never made an out until the semifinal game. Needless to say he was clutch in homerun and extra-base hits. This is the second All tourney nod for GG in the last two weeks.

Keith Benjamin was his usual offensive and productive self, however, he expanded his dimensions by pitching the Quake into the final game. This is the second All tourney mention for Keith in the last two weeks.

In the B-Flight action:

Round 1: Direct Impact over LAX Enforcers, Sac Razorbacks over Folsom
Sac, Pomona over Sin City in a big upset, OCSD Hitmen over Dirty Berdoo.

Round 2: Direct Impact over CHP Choir Boys, Sac Razorbacks over CHP
Springs, Outlaws over Pomona, OCSD Hitmen over Sac Probation.

Round 3: Sac Razorbacks over Direct Impact, OCSD Hitmen over Outlaws.

In the B-Flight finals the Sacramento Razorbacks defeated the Orange County Hitmen 27-15. In most tournaments these teams would have battled it out in the A-Flight but on this day the competition was so stiff there was no margin for error in the seeding rounds. Both teams had that costly “off” game to send them into the B-Flight, but neither team quit and their final game was hotly contested. A set of 12 PoliceSoftball.com batting gloves and a case of 12 PoliceSoftball.com mugs went to the first and second place team respectively.

Quentin Lewis of the Sac Razorbacks was named MVP of the B-Flight and received a new Easton bat for his accomplishment. Quentin was named MVP for his stellar defense, 5 homeruns, .630 plus average and his outstanding play on defense. The new Easton bat for Quentin was a surprise gift by Armando Acosta and Bret Helmer. Both Mando and Bret were impressed with Quentin’s play.

Sac. Razorback coach Anthony “Bigtone” Costanzo was asked his thoughts on the tournament and he said he loved the provided bat format and he had lots of fun and saw many displays of sportsmanship throughout the day.

Points earned in this tourney were:

A-FLIGHT

1. SoCal Alliance 12 pts
2. Cal Quake 10 pts
3t. Hard-Cor 8 pts
3t. Sac Police Softball 8 pts
5t. Ohio Lawmen 6 pts
5t. LAPD Blue 6 pts
5t. Aftershock 6 pts
5t. Cal Syndicate 6 pts
9t. State Razed 3 pts
9t. LAPD Lawmen 3 pts
9t. Santa Cruz 3 pts
9t. SD Excessive Force 3 pts

B-FLIGHT

13. Sac Razorbacks 2 pts
14. OCSD Hitmen 1 pt
15t. Outlaws 1 pt
15t. Direct Impact 1 pt
17t. CHP Choir Boys 1 pt
17t. Springs CHP 1 pt
17t. Pomona 1 pt
17t. Sac Probation 1 pt
21t. LAX Enforcers 1 pt
21t. Folsom-Sac 1 pt
21t. Dirty Berdoo 1 pt
21t. Sin City 1 pt

Shown in the photo are Brian Wegman, Jeff Blair, Armando Acosta and Brett Helmer. All four gentlemen worked very hard to make this event a huge success and PoliceSoftball.com would like to thank all of them for their efforts. The next tourney on the horizon will be the official kick off tourney for the East coast. That tournament will be the Rick Hall Memorial tournament in Jacksonville Florida. All the police softball eyes will be on the East coast in a couple of weeks to see who will start off the season with a tourney win.