Ad - Pacific Headwear Smoky Mountain Classic 1 Resmondo bags 12th title at 50th Smoky Mountain Classic By Greg Huchingson, Managing Editor ARYVILLE, TN – For five Resmondo / RDD / H.Auto / All In / Sprizzi / Easton 2018 Smoky Mountain Classic Champions decades, the greatest softball players in the nation have made their way to the foothills Mof the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee for the premier tournament of the year. This year marked the 50th anniversary of The Great Smoky Mountain Classic and it went down as one for the ages. Arch rivals Resmondo/RDD/H.Auto/ All In/Sprizzi/Easton and Smash It/ Thunder/Backman/TDB/Miken went at each other like the Hatfields and McCoys, and the result was the most entertaining softball of the season. Resmondo’s path to the winner’s bracket finals included wins over Esco (21-6), Baugh Ford/Pure/Kincaid (33-2), All-Out/A&A/Steel/ASP/Miken (36-20) and Rapid Fire/Bad Draw (30-12). Smash It got there by beating Athletic Shop (36-8), Classic Glass/Easton (23-3), Precision/3rd Street/Bull Dawg (38-31) and Dan Smith/Menossee/Steve Smith (38-17). That set the stage for an epic battle All-Tournament, Resmondo’s Steele Lewis- .962 OBP with 15 home runs and 23 RBIs. T 6 COAST O COAST Big Time Softball Smoky Mountain Classic 2 Smash It Sports/Thunder/Backman/TDB/Miken 2018 Smoky Mountain Classic - Second Place between the two titans Saturday night on the show field at Sandy Springs Park. It was the heavyweight show- down that everyone wanted to see and the game did not disappoint. Resmondo scored in every inning, including 10 runs in the second and 14 in the fourth. They hit 30 home runs for the game. Smash It matched them run for run, as they scored 16 runs in the second inning and hit 34 home runs for the game with Ryan Harvey hitting a game-high five homers. The game was filled with crowd-pleasing homers and great defense, as Smash It shortstop Don Dedonatis made the best diving stab of a liner between short- stop and middle. Filip Washington and Buddy Wolf traded diving catches in the outfield and SIS middle-man Luis Reyna made an incredible backhand stop from the grass in left-center and bounced a throw across for an out. The two teams went to the seventh and final inning with Resmondo down by three (47-44). Resmondo was the visiting team and put up three runs with two outs, before Jeremy Yates and Bubba Mack combined for clutch home runs and Resmondo had a six-run lead. Up to this point both teams had scored in every inning, but in the bottom of the seventh the Resmondo defense closed the door with a nice infield play by shortstop Brett Rettenmeier, a nice catch by Brian Wegman in left-field on All-Tournament, Smash It Sports’ Ryan Harvey with .800 OBP, 21 home runs and 35 RBIs. T 8 COAST O COAST Big Time Softball Smoky Mountain Classic 3 Dan Smith/Menossee/Steve Smith 2018 Smoky Mountain Classic - Third Place a diving knuckleball, and a grounder to third where Bubba Mack fielded it clean but threw it high and first- baseman Neil Haglund climbed the ladder to make a great catch and land on first base for the final out to give Resmondo the win (53-47). On Sunday morning the pecking order was in full swing as Dan Smith hammered Rapid Fire in the loser’s bracket semi-final, as they scored 12 runs in the first inning and 31 in the second inning – 26 of those were after a botched double-play ball. So the score was Dan Smith 43 and Rapid Fire 2 after two innings and Dan Smith went on to win big (52-7). Dale Brungardt was 6-for-6 with four home runs and seven RBIs. Next in the loser’s bracket finals, Smash It Sports smoked Dan Smith (29-9) in four innings as Dan Smith scored just one run in the first three innings after scoring 52 runs the game before. Andy Purcell, Kyle Pearson, Josh Riley, Cory Briggs and Flip Washington all hit two or more homers in the win. The championship game started a little early because of the previous run-rules and it was 82 degrees at game time. Resmondo led 12-5 after one inning and scored seven runs in the third, 11 more in the fourth, and 15 runs in the fifth to put away Smash It Sports by the 20-run rule (49-29) to win the Smoky Mountain Classic. Greg Connell All-Tournament, Dan Smith’s Argen Dodds blasts one of his 14 home runs on the show field. He sported a .893 OBP with 24 RBIs for the weekend. T 10 COAST O COAST Big Time Softball Smoky Mountain Classic 4 Rapid Fire/Bad Draw 2018 Smoky Mountain Classic - Fourth Place was 6-for-6 in the championship game with three home runs and Resmondo out-homered Smash It 29-18 in the game. Wegman, Steele Lewis and Wolf all hit four homers in the win and every player in the starting line-up homered at least once and 10 players had at least two homers each. Resmondo may have won the latest chapter in the rivalry with Smash It, but Wolf said that doesn’t mean his team will win the next one. As much as the teams have gone back and forth over the years, the outcome always seems to be a toss-up. “It is the two best teams,” said Wolf. “It is a lot of players who have played with and against each other for years. It always comes down to us and them in the end. The rivalry stems from they get some, we get some. That’s the great part of this.” The win marked the 12th Smoky Mountain Classic championship for lead sponsor Travis Resmondo, which is an all-time record easily exceeding Howard’s Furniture and Ritches- Superior with five each, Bell Corps with four and Elite Coasting and Steele’s with three apiece. “There’s always an itch to win it again when you’ve won it as many times as we have,” Resmondo told The Maryville Daily Times. “You always want to win the Smoky. It’s kind of like the World Series and that’s where you wear your All-Tournament selections fron Rapid Fire/Bad Draw- William Maloney (left 750 OBP with 11 home runs) and pitcher, Cam Byars. T 12 COAST O COAST Big Time Softball Smoky Mountain Classic 5 crown.” Resmondo finished the Smoky Mountain Classic with a perfect 6-0 record. They out-scored their opponents 222-116 which is an average of 37.0 to 17.7. The win gave them 258 Conference Points which extended their already commanding lead in the Conference USSSA Standings. “Resmondo played a near perfect tournament,” said veteran softball reporter Dale Weiser. “They leaned on their offense, stuck to a consis- tent power line-up and let those guys do the heavy lifting. They won by the run-rule in every game except the winner’s bracket finals, which they closed out with clutch two-out hitting and error-free defense in the Representing the Louisville Slugger and DeMarini brands were Mike Cornell, Dennis Turner, B J Fulk and Jason Strebig. bottom of the seventh inning. They now have to be the favorite to win the Major World Series.” Smash It Sports settled for 2nd place with a 5-2 record, followed by Dan Smith in 3rd also at 5-2, Rapid Fire in 4th at 4-2, and All-Out and Rack’s/Worth/Astros tied for 5th. The rest of the Top 10 consisted of TDB/FAI and Precision/3rd Street tied for 7th, and Riot Sports, La Famiglia, Pure Sports and Bay Area Legends all tied for 9th. Resmondo second-baseman Greg Connell was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Connell was an incredible 30-for-31 for an on-base percentage of .968 along with 16 home runs and 25 RBI’s. The Offensive MVP Award went to USSSA Texas Hall of Famers (left to right): Wes Campbell, Mike Wilson and Greg Huchingson. Kyle Pearson of Smash It Sports, who went 36-for-37 for an on-base percentage of .973 with 35 runs scored and 41 RBIs. The big slugger from northern Louisiana left no doubt that he is the top power hitter in the game today as he belted 23 home runs to win the Home Run Award for the tournament. Resmondo middle-infielder Brett Rettenmeier won the Defensive MVP Award by making dazzling plays throughout the tournament. The rest of the All-Tournament team featured Bryson Baker, Travis Clark, Bubba Mack, Neil Hagland and Steele Lewis, of Resmondo; Andy Purcell, Josh Riley, Luis Reyna and Ryan Harvey, of Smash It Sports; Andrew Collins, Argen Dodds and Davis Bilardello, of Dan Smith; and Always friends off the field while not competing against each other (left to right): TDB’s B J Fulk, Pure Sports’ Lee Payne and Resmondo’s Greg Connell and Bubba Mack. T 14 COAST O COAST Big Time Softball Smoky Mountain Classic 6 William Maloney and Cam Byars, of Rapid Fire. All-Tournament, Resmondo’s Bryson Baker- .742 OBP with 14 home runs. All-Tournament, Smash It Sports’ Luis Reyna with .743 OBP and 12 home runs. All-Tournament, Resmondo’s Travis Clark- .750 OBP with 23 RBIs. Kettle corn and beef jerky are always a staple at the Smoky Mountain Classic.