RIVERSIDE, CA - The beautiful Big League Dreams Complex in Riverside, CA was the site for A&V Softball Tournaments Annual Rings Tournament on June 24-25. A large field of forty-one teams in three divisions competed in the intense Southern California heat for a shot at the coveted A&V championship winners ring.
All the teams entered on this weekend had played in an A&V Tournament during the year and were eligible to compete for this particular championship. Al Acosta, tournament director and owner of A&V Softball Tournaments said, "I thought the three divisions were balanced quite nicely, there were a lot of close games with many scores decided by one or two runs. We even had eight extra inning games during the day! This year we also added the ‘Novice’ division for the teams who had a hard time competing in the ‘Lower Rec’ division. I believe all teams deserve a chance to win prizes in the A&V tournaments."
The ‘Upper Rec’ division had fifteen teams and the Roving Dogs (Glendale, CA) went 5-1 to win the first set of ‘Rings’. They had to do it the hard way by double dipping Spank Daddies (Whittier, CA) who had beaten Roving Dogs in the undefeated game 13-11and actually had the title in their grasp before it slipped away from them due to sloppy play at the wrong time. The Roving Dogs scored five runs in the bottom of the 7th in the ‘IF’ game with four of the runs coming with two outs. With the bases loaded the shortstop for Spank Daddies made a bad throw over the second baseman that sent the ball all the way down the right field foul line and by the time the ball was retrieved all three runs had scored to tie the game. With the winning run at second base, the next batter hit a single up the middle pushing the winning run across and the game ended with the score Roving Dogs 18 and Spank Daddies 17.
Spank Daddies finished second with a 4-2 record, Rascals (Indio, CA) took 3rd place with a 4-2 record and Moreno & Sons (Cathedral City, CA) ended up in 4th place with a 3-2 record.
The "Lower Rec’ division had a thirteen team bracket and Alise Electric (Cathedral City, CA) went 5-0 to take first place beating Banana Slugs (Burbank, CA) twice, 10-5, and in the championship game 19-13. Banana Slugs finishes in the second place spot with a 4-2 record. Thugs (Riverside, CA) went 4-2 to take 3rd place with SCV Titans (Santa Clarita, CA) also finishing at 4-2 for 4th place.
The ‘Novice’ division had thirteen teams in the draw and Team Dawgs (Palm Desert, CA) recorded a perfect 5-0 mark to win the rings. They had to score six runs in the bottom of the 7th inning of the championship game to win the tournament title over Showtime 17-16. Team Dawgs had earlier beaten Showtime in the third round by the score of 11-8. Showtime (Long Beach, CA) took 2nd place with a 4-2 record. Nimrods (Arleta, CA) took 3rd place with a 3-2 record losing to Team Dawgs in the undefeated game 16-15 and Showtime in the 3rd place game 18-14. H-Town (Hemet, CA) took 4th place with a 4-2 record.
Acosta said, "Once again the tournament was a great success, it seems that all players were happy with the chance they had to win a ring, and of course you have those who just don’t like to lose, I say to them, just keep trying and some day it will be your turn!" Acosta went on to add, "I’ve tried to make all the divisions as fair as possible, keeping a close eye on teams that try and load up with players. We allowed some players to change teams, but these players were still in the same division. It’s funny, cause the teams that seem to add or change players didn’t really do that good against the teams who have kept the same players all year long."