The HEART OF OHIO is back!!
Ten years ago it used to be one of the top drawing senior softball tournaments east of VEGAS when the Columbus Senior Softball Organization was running the tournament.
When COSSA dropped it attendance went way down but a revival took place this year with 57 TEAMS ATTENDING.
In one of the bigger brackets TEN TEAMS squared off for the 50 AAA title.
LOWES LEGENDS won it with bracket wins over AREA FIFTY-ONE SOFTBALL (20-10), AREA FIFTY-ONE (17-16), MIAMI VALLEY (22-7) and OHIO HITMEN (17-9).
AREA FIFTY-ONE beat OHIO HITMEN (24-19) to take second.
Other teams in the group were CIRCLE CITY PLAYMAKERS, DAYTON LEGENDS, TEAM 216, GO SPORTS PLUS, DAYTON LEGENDS FIFTIES and BULL MOOSE 50's.
GEM CITY MERCHANTS lost the first game 30-31 to AMERICAN METAL RECYCLING but bounced back with 19-3 and 25 22 wins to win the best-two-out-of-three for the 50 MAJOR CROWN.
The finishers in the 55 MAJOR were DLB SOFTBALL champ and CPOA Runner-up. OHIO ELITE/AMK, MOTOR CITY PUSH and DAYTON LEGENDS rounded out the 55 MAJOR bracket.
ANTIQUE ROAD SHOW downed TOUCH EM AA (23-19), BULL MOOSE (20-9) and TOUCH EM ALL (17-11) to win the 55 AAA title. TOUCH EM ALL beat BULLMOOSE 23-8 for second.
DETROIT PONY EXPRESS was the fourth team in the group.
JUST ONE MORE beat DURHAM SILVER STICKS 22-12, 18-10 for the 60 AA title. DURHAM edged DAYTON DIAMOND DAWGS 12-11 for second place.
JP MOTERMEN went 4-0 in bracket play with wins over LOUISVILLE SILVER SLUGGERS< CINCINNATI 60's, LOUISVILLE and OHIO ELTE DOCS and capture the 60 AAA top prize.
Others in the bracket were PEPCO/SFS, CHAMPAIGN SOFTBALL, DAYTON LEGENDS and OHIO SIXTIES.
The MINUTEMEN/SFS edged UNIVERSAL SOFTBALL twice in bracket play (27-25. 9-6) and a long with a 20-6 victory over UPSTATE EXTREME ROYALS took the 65 AAA crown.
UNIVERSAL beat CAVCO 21-9 for second place. Others in the bracket were MCMAHON<COYNE<VITANTONIO; and SIDELINE BULL MOOSE.
The 70 AA saw ROCHESTER CLASSICS end on top followed by MICHIGAN LAKERS, LEGENDS OF DAYTON, ROCHESTER ROYALS, INDY 70's and DAYTON LEGENDS SILVER EXPRESS.
DAYTON LEGENDS had a long day in order to win the 70 AAA Crow.
They started with a win over CHICAGO HITMEN (24-10), dropped to the loser's bracket with a 10-16 loss to STEEL CITY. They beat DR VINYL (26-11), MIDSTATE SENIORS (16-14) LEFEGUARD FINANCIAL (20-5) and STEEL CITY twice (25-21. 19-12) for the title.
Yhers in the bracket were DOC MARTINS ROPE COURSE and COSSA.
The 75 AAA went to RARE BREED with a pair of wins (21-12, 18-3) over DAYTON LEGENDS.