The USA Softball JO Cup started bracket play in the double elimination format at the event held in Chino Hills, Calif. The bracket games go Wednesday through Friday and then the title will be decided on Saturday at Mt. SAC in Walnut, Calif.

We’ll be blogging daily with news and notes around the event, so be sure to check in periodically!

CLICK HERE to sign-up/log in to see all the JO Cup games running today through Saturday!

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IT’S THE BUSIEST DAY OF THE JO CUP

It’s hot and heavy in the middle of the action now and today at the USA Softball JO Cup will see 25 games played, basically to separate the wheat from the chaffe, the contenders from the pretenders.

Friday, conversely, will see just eight games before the last day, Saturday, when there will be two games and an IF game.

Remember: two losses and your out so you can see below from yesterday and today who’s done and those still moving towards the Saturday championship.

As of the late afternoon on Thursday, the two teams that look the strongest right now would probably be the Wichita Mustangs and the Texas Blaze Gold (read more about the program below).

Two that are done that looked good early on: the Gold Coast Hurricanes and Texas Bombers.  Both had the same difficulty that proved too tough to overcome: inconsistency, be it pitching or hitting.

IT’S THE BUSIEST DAY OF THE JO CUP

It’s hot and heavy in the middle of the action now and today at the USA Softball JO Cup will see 25 games played, basically to separate the wheat from the chaffe, the contenders from the pretenders.

Friday, conversely, will see just eight games before the last day, Saturday, when there will be two games and an IF game.

Remember: two losses and your out so you can see below from yesterday and today who’s done and those still moving towards the Saturday championship.

WINNERS BRACKET

There are only four teams left beaten in the Winner’s Bracket:

• Wichita Mustangs
• American Pastime Gold
• Texas Blaze-Gold
• St. Louis Chaos-Beatty

The Mustangs will play the Pastime at 9am on Wrigley Field while the Blaze and Chaos will meet at 9 am on Ebbets Field.

The highlight of the day had to be the euphoric reaction of the St. Louis Chaos team, particularly head coach Evan Beatty, after a thrilling 1-0 win over the talented Texas Sudden Impact team.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the 7th and only one out, the Impact looked like it would put at least the tying run on and perhaps win.

But pitcher Maddie Seifert (2015, Penn State) got a line drive right back at her and she whirled and threw to third to nail the runner and end the game.

The bench erupted and Coach Beatty ran onto the field and lifted Seifert into the air and hugged her like the team had just won the Women’s College World Series.

Why the jubilant reaction?

“We’ve played the Impact twice,” Beatty explained afterwards, “and both times the games have gone to ITB we knew it’d be tough and it’s a big relief.  But more than that, it’s how our team has battled back from adversity and this was another example. And, finally, I’ve been with Maddie five years and it was so great to see her rise to the occasion in such an important game. I couldn’t be more proud of all of them.”

LOSER’S BRACKET

The following teams are still alive in the Loser’s Bracket:

• EC Bullets-Schnute
• Aces Express
• Louisiana Voodoo
• Texas Sudden Impact

The Bullets play the Aces Express at 11 am on Wrigley and the Voodoo and Sudden Impact play at 11 am on Ebbets Field.

BRACKET RESULTS (LAST TWO DAYS)

Here are the game results from Thursday and Wednesday, when the bracket play commenced:

Thursday Bracket Games

• East Cobb Bullets 11, TXFC 1
• Aces Express 4, Louisville Sluggers 1
• Texas Sudden Impact 6, Michigan Finesse 3
• Louisiana Voodoo 9, San Diego Power Surge 1
• TXFC Fastpitch 7, Indiana Magic Gold 0
• Louisville Sluggers 2, Firecrackers DFW 0
• Michigan Finesse 12, San Jose Sting 3
• Wichita Mustangs 6, EC Bullets 3
• American Pastime 7, Aces Express 6
• Texas Blaze 8San Diego Power Surge 0
• St. Louis Chaos 1, Sudden Impact Gold 0
• Indiana Magic Gold 10, Texas Storm 4
• Michigan Finesse 8, Wagner’s 3n2 0
• Firecrackers DFW 1, Rock Gold 0
• Louisiana Voodoo 4, Ohio Outlaws 3
• Indiana Magic Gold 8, New Lenox Lightning 0
• Ohio Outlaws 3, California Raiders 1
• Rock Gold 1, DeMarini Athletics 0
• Michigan Finesse 7, Texas Bombers 6
• Gametime Stars vs. Houston Power 1
• TXFC Fastpitch 4, D-Bat Tulsa Shootout 2
• Louisville Sluggers 7, Gold Coast Hurricanes 0
• San Jose Sting 6, 3n2 Strike Zone 4
• Louisiana Voodoo 4, Ohio Outlaws 3
• Firecrackers 2, Rock Gold 0

Wednesday Bracket Games

• Gametime Stars 4, Gold Coast Hurricanes 1
• Louisiana Voodoo 4, Rock Gold 2
• Wichita Mustangs 11, DeMarini Athletics 0
• Wagner’s 3n2 3, Indiana Magic Gold 2
• Aces Express 2, New Lenox Lighting 0
• Texas Storm 6, Michigan Finesse 2
• Texas Blaze Gold-Slimp 6, Texas Bombers 0
• Firecrackers Gold 10, California Raiders 0
• Texas Sudden Impact 4, Ohio Outlaws 2
• Louisville Sluggers 10, Houston Power 6
• EC Bullets X, Gametime Stars 0
• Wichita Mustangs 10, Louisiana Voodoo 2
• Aces Express 4, Wagner’s 3n2 2
• American Pastime Gold 11, San Jose Sting 7
• San Diego Power Surge 5, TXFC 3
• Texas Blaze 8, Texas Storm 3
• Texas Sudden Impact 3, Firecrackers Gold 1
• St. Louis Chaos 7, Louisville Sluggers 2

NEWS FROM THE TEXAS BLAZE FRONT

The Texas Blaze has some home-stat bragging rights, at least to this point, after beating the Texas Bombers yesterday and the Texas Storm today.

“We would have played a third Texas team if the TXFC-May team hadn’t lost to the San Diego Power Surge,” said JB Slimp, who is the founder of the Blaze organization which saw its beginnings 12 years ago in Round Rock, Texas, a suburb of Austin.

The Blaze are one of eight teams prior to afternoon games still playing and one of three from Texas: the Blaze, Aces Express and Texas Sudden Impact.

Slimp’s program had typically humble beginnings: it was started as a single 14U team in 2003 because JB Slimp had a daughter, Brittani, playing softball. In 2008, the first graduating class passed through and in the last seven years the program has continued to rise in success and prestige in the club community.

“Between 2003 and ’08 I saw that we had some athletes who could play college level and I saw their was a need to help them get recruited,” Slimp remembers. “There weren’t a ton of players getting recruited out of the Austin area and that was where the initial motivation came from.”

From 2008 to now, the primary focus has been to help the recruiting process grow within the organization. Slimp credits another coach, Gary Weseman, for helping kick start the program with the success of daughter, Kelsi, who went on to be a three-time All-American at Georgia Tech.

“We kept working to become one of the top 14U teams in the area and state and when Kelsi got recruited and had big success at George Tech, people started to take notice of us.

The athletes in the 2009 class, he says, took the Blaze to the next level including Taylor Thom, who’s just finishing up with the US National team, Blair Luna, who, like Thom, starred at the Univ. of Texas and Haley Outon who was an All-American catcher at Houston.

“In 2010 we had seven athletes go Div. I out of that class,” Slimp continues, “and that elevated us even more as a team that had players to be recruited. We were also competitive, finishing 13^th at ASA GOLD Nationals in Atlanta.”

“With that class, we hit another level and from 2006, when I decided to take the team to a national level, until now we’ve grown to 22 teams and 320-plus kids.”

The success of the Blaze can be demonstrated by statistics.

“We’ve helped over 125 kids get collegiate opportunities including six who’ve gone on to be college All-Americans and also had one Jr. National (Blair Luna) and one U.S. Women’s National Team member (Taylor Thom),” the founder states. “The Blaze has also had four alumni go on to play for the NPF.”

The coach says, “that’s what we’ve been building on and now we have the deepest and strongest group of talent we’ve ever had.”

He finishes saying, “I have a nine-year-old, Rylee and I knew I’d want to coach her in the younger age groups so about two years ago I was lucky enough to find John Carpenter, who’s now the head coach of our top Gold team.

Slimp is still the director of Softball but is coaching one of the 10U teams, Blaze-Slimp 05, because he gets to coach his daughter.

He’s gone full circle in the last dozen years and is now coaching one of his daughters, back on the field again.

“It feels amazing because now I’ve learned so much about the game, the environment and how to coach so I’m able to go back to a young group and be able to coach them better and the organization is so much more competitive than before.”

Excelling at the JO Cup, the Blaze also has an 18U, three 16U’s, a 14U , a 12U and a 10U all paying at the highest level of PGF competition.

“I’m both amazed at how it’s gone and grateful to the people that helped me on this journey.”

SAD NOTE

One team that’s really looking good is the Texas Sudden Impact which, as of this writing, is still undefeated and looking like a strong contender to play on Saturday.

The team suffered a set-back, though, when pitcher Katelyn Boles, a 2015 righty headed to Northwestern State, left to go home with her family as her grandmother died.

“She seemed fine yesterday so we rolled her out,” said Coach Glenn Bennett today, “but it became apparent she wasn’t. You never know with young players, sometimes I’ve had players who were sick play better because they focus, but it’s totally understandable in Katelyn’s situation and we wish her well.”

That leaves the team with only two pitchers for today, Friday and possibly Saturday: Shelby McGlaun (2016, Baylor) and Trystan Melancon (2016, Houston).