This past weekend the 1st Annual USSSA Winter State Championship took place at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale and the Fishhawk Ranch Sports Complex in Lithia just outside of Tampa.The 8u, 12u and 14u age groups played at Fishhawk and the 16u and 18u were at Lake Myrtle. The 8u division had six teams battle it out for the title of State Champions. In the end the W. FL Young Guns went 4-1 defeating CP Select and losing to the Plant City Raiders in pool play. They reeled off three straight victories on Sunday defeating the Land O' Lakes Thunder, Bloomingdale Bandits in the semi finals and finally defeating the Plant City Raiders in a great championship game. Congratulations to the W. FL Young Guns on being crowned the USSSA Winter State Champions.
All together 28 teams participated in the 12u age group. 12 teams in the Major division and 16 teams in the AA division. In the AA the Windermere Diamond Jacks went an impressive 6-0 including 4 games on Sunday. In pool play they defeated the Bloomingdale Bandits and the Tampa Bay Barracudas. On Sunday the took down High Performance, Plant City Raiders and the Bloomingdale Bandits in the semifinals. This set up a championship match up between two undefeated teams. The Diamond Jacks and the Tampa Bombers. Both teams looked very impressive all weekend but on this day the Diamond Jacks would not be denied defeating the Bombers by a score of 11-7.
The 12u Major age group had some very strong teams from several parts of the state including the Orlando Panthers, Top Prospect Nationals from Melbourne, Tampa Bay Bulldogs, Beyel Brothers Bulldogs from Rockledge, Chet Lemon's Juice from Orlando, Team Clap Bat from Oviedo, MBA Pride from Orange City, Tampa Boltz, Team Crush from Sebring, Reggie William's Dawg Pound from Tampa, and the Tampa Venom. This made for some great competition and for many the opportunity to face teams they had not seen before. After pool play 4 teams were 2-0. The Tampa Venom, Orlando Panthers, Chet Lemon's Juice and the Tampa Bay Bulldogs. In the end two teams that many considered to be the favorites, Team Clap Bat and the Juice would do battle in the championship game. This would be the fourth game on Sunday and sixth in two days for Clap Bat but you would not know it with the way these boys played. In an outstanding game by both teams the Juice would come up with the win defeating Clap Bat by a score of 2-1. Congratulations to Chet Lemon's Juice who went 5-0 over the weekend and winning the USSSA Winter State Championship.
In the 14u age group the Rawlings Renegades took home the title of USSSA Winter State Champions. The Renegades from Lakeland went 2-0 in pool play defeating the West Florida Panthers from Brooksville and Heat Baseball from Jacksonville. In an outstanding championship game that went down to the wire the Rawlings Renegades defeated the Brandon Bulls 1-0 to get the victory.
The CF Hawks took home the Winter State Championship in the 16u age group. The Hawks went 0-2 in pool play on Saturday but regrouped on Sunday reeling off three straight wins against the Florida Flash, Florida Thunder and Team Titans in the championship game.
In the 18u age group the Florida Baseball Academy out of lake Wales took home the Winter State Championship. FBA went 1-2 in pool play. They defeated the Haines City Sharks and lost to FTB Mizuno and All Pro Baseball. On Sunday the took down the Haines City Sharks, then in the semi finals they beat a very solid Knights Baseball team from Orlando before defeating Team Xtreme from Tampa in the Championship game.
Florida Travel Ball/USSSA Baseball would like to thank all the teams that participated in the 1st Annual Florida USSSA Winter State Championship and we look forward to seeing the 9u, 10u, 11u and 13u teams battle for the Winter State title the weekend of January 29-31 when FTB will be back at the Fishhawk Ranch Sports Complex.