ASA Major Winner’s Bracket Down to Elite Eight
After an opening round of games yesterday, the ASA Major winner’s bracket is down to eight unbeaten teams, and provides the following matchups today:
Florida Fastpitch vs. Broken Bow, 1pm EST
Quad City Sox vs. Patsy’s, 3pm EST
Midwest Stampede vs. Riversharks, 3pm EST
Minn Dak Millers vs. Circle Tap, 3pm, ESQ
The top opening night matchup was The Farm vs. Broken Bow, with the Gremlins coming out on top. That sends an awfully good team to the loser’s bracket early, no picnic for teams in their path. Dolan and Murphy & Planggers play for the privilege in a “loser’s bracket play(back) in” game today.
In the winner’s bracket, Bow, Patsy’s and the Riversharks (ISC World # 1, # 2 and # 3 ranked teams) would have to be considered favorites in their games today, with the MinnDak v. Circle Tap (ISC World # 7 and # 8.) figuring to be the closest contest of the afternoon. But of course, teams have been proving the rankers wrong all year, so we’ll let these games play out on the field. Florida Fastpitch always seems to do well in the Major, with a couple of runner-up finishes the past couple years, but faces ISC # 1 Broken Bow in their second game of the tournament.
In the Loser’s Bracket, (ISC # 13) Midland starts the long road back, winning it’s “play in” game against Dolan and Murphys before falling 3-0 in a close contest against the Riversharks. From their standpoint, at least they are at the opposite end of the bracket from ISC # 6 The Farm. The loser’s bracket alternates teams from the winner’s and loser’s bracket, meaning that advancing losers won’t see a team from the winner’s bracket until their third and fifth games.
First day surprises? The Midwest Stampede came in as the ISC #26 ranked team, and knocked off # 17 Bloomington Stix, inspiring a Butch Cassidy-Sundance Kid-like commentary from fans about the Stampede, “Who ARE those guys?”. Stampede pitcher Kim Hansen may not be a household name (yet), but he tossed a two hit shutout, striking out 12 against a solid Bloomington Stix team.
Duncan Outlaws and Rice Creek Michigan are both playing up in class, and will face each other in the loser’s bracket after opening night losses, with the winner facing the Circle Tap-Minn Dak loser.
Click here for the updated bracket at Al’s Fastball
Friday morning update: While we were posting this, the 9am games finished up, with Midland topping Ashland while Dolan and Murphy beat Planggers. That means Planggers drops to 0-2 and will have to get past Midland to avoid going 0-3 and being the first team of the tournament to be eliminated. In some odd bracketing, if Planggers had beaten Dolan, Midland and Dolan would have faced each other twice in their first three games. Dolan’s victory this morning will put them in the path of the freight train called “The Farm”, right now.