Teams Battle Mother Nature at the 2024 Texas State Champs

May 1, 2024

Teams pose in front of Oak Grove Softball Complex's Grapevine, Texas mural on the field.

By Donna McGuire
Softball News Report

Widespread heavy thunderstorms that flooded parts of Texas in early May also played havoc with the 2024 Texas State Championships in Grapevine.

In the end, Senior Softball USA pulled out a 4-2 victory over Mother Nature.

That’s four days of complete spirited competition versus two days of disappointing washouts.

“Championship Thursday and Championship Sunday were a bummer,” Tournament Director Don Brooks said after handing out awards to managers at a very wet Oak Grove Softball Complex on May 5, the final day of the six-day event. 

Because wet conditions canceled all games on both championship days, teams that stayed unbeaten in bracket play benefited. Unbeaten bracket teams claimed 13 titles overall, which also meant 13 berths earned to the 2025 Tournament of Champions in Florida.

In addition to earning plaques and high-quality champion shirts, each winning team received a $500 gift card from Elite Sports as part of a special prize package for this tournament only.

Directors and SSUSA officials scrambled daily to revamp schedules for the 64-team event after Grapevine parks staff declared one or two fields or even four or all six fields unplayable, depending on the day. 

SSUSA saved the first day of play for the younger teams by quickly switching four scheduled fields of games Friday to The Parks at Texas Star North, which has turf infields, in nearby Euless, Texas. Other divisions played that day on two partially-turfed baseball field in Grapevine.

Teams from Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, New Mexico, Nevada, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Colorado competed against a large contingent of Texans in this year’s tournament.

Results:

Men’s 50+ Major: Quad D Electric/Ark-La-Tex Pallet of Louisiana (photo below) overcame a slow start in pool play to capture 12-11 and 16-12 bracket victories in Saturday play. That meant Quad D finished first, followed by Originals 50 of Texas and Minleon of Nebraska.

Men’s 50+ AAA: Top-seeded and unbeaten Crossfire of Texas captured the seven-team division by defeating DC Diablos of Texas 19-13 and runner-up 50 GZ of Texas 20-10 in bracket games. Koinonia Crew of Texas nabbed third.

Men’s 50+ AA: After a Texas team failed to show up for the tournament, Gulf Coast Hurricanes of Texas (photo below) and Softball Rehab of Texas played a best-of-three format for their division title. Gulf Coast won the first game 19-7 but trailed most of the second game before rallying for an exciting 17-16 title victory.

Men’s 55+ Major: Fourth-seeded Powerhouse/Schooners (photo below) defeated fifth-seeded EXT 20-13 then upended top-seeded The Firm 15-14 before dispatching third-seeded ManCave 20-14 to finish bracket play 3-0, which gained Powerhouse the title of the six-team division. All are Texas teams. ManCave finished second and The Firm took third.

Men’s 55+ AAA: Nine teams vied in this division, which ended with NOP Softball of Oklahoma and Cotton Eyed Joe of Tennessee both unbeaten in bracket play. NOP earned the title by virtue of also going unbeaten in pool play and finishing 4-0 overall. It defeated the Salty Old Dawgs of Texas 13-3 and Texas Freedom 17-9 in bracket play. Runner-up Cotton Eyed Joe defeated Manifest 55 of Texas 15-6 and Maher Muehling NE Elite 16-9 in the bracket. Maher finished third.

Men’s 60+ Major: Fifth-seeded Texas Impact defeated fourth-seeded Texas Threat 24-17 then knocked off top-seeded Demolition 60 of Texas 34-19 and seventh-seeded Crossfire of Texas 24-14 to finish as the only unbeaten bracket team among seven contenders. Crossfire placed second. Demolition, which lost only one game overall, took third.

Men’s 60+ Silver: Third-seeded Tejano’s 60 of Texas (photo below) defeated fourth-seeded Bayou City Bombers 60 of Texas 14-10 in a spirited extra-inning game that left only Tejano’s unbeaten in bracket play. Tejano’s earned the title, the Bombers took second, and the 60+ AA Lobos of Texas finished third in the seven-team division.

Men’s 65+ Gold: Second-seeded Texas Tornadoes (photo below) defeated the OKC Boomers 20-7 in their first bracket game and edged the Major team Tex-Ark Legends of Texas 16-15 in their second bracket game to earn the title. Tex-Ark took second. The Texas Legends finished third in the four-team division.

Men’s 65+ AA: The Electrifiers defeated their Texas counterparts 13-11 and 19-12 to earn the title of the three-team division. Robson Ranch 65s took second. The Austin Wizards finished third.

Men’s 70+ AA: Playing a best-of-three format and staying late Wednesday to beat incoming rain, the Robson Ranch 70s (photo below) swept Triple 2 of Texas 22-21 and 17-2 for the title. The first game turned into a see-saw battle not decided until the final at-bat.

Men’s 70/75+ Gold: The Texas Rattlers (photo below) won both their pool games and captured 14-12 and 16-11 bracket victories to finish as 4-0 champions. Scrap Iron 5280’ took second with a 3-1 overall mark. The Texas Greyhounds nabbed third in the five-team division.

Men’s 75+ AAA: Unbeaten in five games, the top-seeded Texas Silver Streaks won this five-team division with mostly easy victories, including three by double digits. The second-seeded Rangers, who lost to the Silver Streaks in pool play, had hoped to gain revenge on Championship Thursday, when they were slated to play the Silver Streaks as the final unbeaten teams in the bracket. Because rain prevented that rematch, the Rangers had to settle for second. The USA Patriots took third in the four-team division.

Men’s 75/80/85+ Silver: Robson Ranch, a 75+ AA team and the youngest of the three teams in this division, earned the title with bracket victories over second-place Texas Stallion 80s and the third-place 85+ Midwest Driving School Antiques. Spectators marveled at some special defensive plays and long-distance hits players on these teams accomplished.