The first two days of competition are in the book at the TC/USA Nationals in Georgia and some of the big favorites have already suffered their first loss in the 18U Double Elimination brackets and in a few cases, have already lost two.

Below are the highlights of the eight brackets and who is looking good heading into Day 3 of play. Note: the rankings are by Triple Crown Sports… you can find the complete rankings list here.

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Bracket A

In Bracket A, the No. 2 seeded Firecrackers-Rico team, which came in second at the Colorado Sparkler/Fireworks tourney last week, won two games big on Monday but were blanked by the Florida Storm in the second game of the morning, 4-0.

Coach Tony Rico’s team had a nice bounce-back game, beating the Texas Peppers-Bass team 9-0.

It doesn’t get much easier for the Storm, though, as they will play No. 30 seeded Texas Storm Wednesday morning.

 

Bracket B

After a long cross-country flight after finishing as the co-champions at the Champions Cup Sunday, the Corona Angels didn’t look too wiped; in fact, Marty Tyson’s team looked awesome on Tuesday, scoring 20 runs and allowing none in wins over the Atlanta Vipers-Loveless (6-0) and the Oklahoma Diamond Girls (14-0).

The Angels could be the hottest club team in the country right now, after winning it all in the Boulder Independence Day tournament, including a win over another powerful team, the OC Batbusters.

The So Cal team is seeded No. 3 in the tournament and will open Wednesday play against No. 61 ranked Nemesis-Garcia.

 

Bracket C

The second big upset of the day took place in this bracket as the No. 4 rated Texas Glory, who had two close games on Monday—a 3-2 win over Louisville Lady Sluggers and a 5-3 win over Bownet 16U—fell to Indiana Magic –Rethlake/Clay.

Kevin Shelton’s team did bounce back with a nice 8-2 win over Team Mizuno-Morgan out of Florida.

The Indiana Magic will face another impressive team, Tennessee Fury, which after falling by a run to the good Texas Sudden Impact Gold-Dutton team 4-3 on Monday came back with impressive wins over the Wichita Mustangs and No. 36 Wagners Gold-Dunn team which they blanked 2-0 late Tuesday afternoon.

 

Bracket D

Speaking of the Sudden Impact-Gold team, the No. 26 ranked Texans fell in a slight upset to the No. 34 team, Rock Gold-Waye out of Pennsylvania in the Tuesday late game.

Rock Gold will play the top seed in this bracket, the EC Bullets-Schnute team from Georgia that is rated No. 7.

 

Bracket E

Another top 10 seed, the No. 7 rated Wichita Mustangs coached by Mark Griggs have struggled a bit of late and lost two of its first three games, 12-2 to Tennessee Fury-Lewis, and 3-1 to Houston Power-Glowacz, but did have a nice 6-5 Tuesday morning over a good Georgia Impact-Medlam team.

A team to watch in this bracket could be Jerry Delameter’s Next Level program out of San Diego. TNL blanked a good Texas Aces Express team 4-0 on Tuesday afternoon.

 

Bracket F

One of the toughest brackets at TC/USA Nationals this year is this one and two Top 20 teams will face off Wednesday after the No. 10 Gold Coast Hurricanes, coached by Marty Cooper, won twice on Tuesday afternoon (8-2 win over Magic Gold-Blake/Glass and a 5-2 win over the Firecrackers-May squad from Texas).

The Hurricanes will face a second straight Texas team when they play the No. 17 ranked Texas Bombers-Smith team which knocked off a tough NC Lady Lightning-Corn team 4-2.

In my humble opinion, the Hurricanes vs. the Bombers will the most intriguing game kicking off Wednesday action in Georgia.

 

Bracket G

The favored seeds also advanced in Bracket G as the Texas Impact-Jackson team stopped the talented Birmingham Thunderbolts-Shea team 5-2 and will face the powerful Miami Stingrays-Rebhan team which bounced a pretty good Firecrackers-DFW-Poole team (Texas) 13-4.

 

Bracket H

Finally, in the last bracket the hometown favored Atlanta Vipers-Jenning team, a No. 14 seed, squeaked by a good Minors Gold-Lovelace team (Calif.) 4-3 after knocking off the dangerous Carolina Elite team 11-5 team earlier in the day.

The Vipers will face the No. 16 TC Stars-Klaviter team which lost two heart-breakers Monday by scores of 2-1 (Texas Peppers Gold) and the Lady Lightning (1-0), but exploded for 20 runs in two games on Tuesday in wins over the Firecrackers-Kaye (Ariz.) and Texas Rapid Fire squads.