MARYVILLE, TN – The weekend of July 9th-11 couldn’t be a better one for a men’s slow pitch softball team to peak. Some 30 teams will hope to do that this weekend when the 36th annual Smoky Mountain Classic begins here Friday night with 22 first round games.
Defending champion Resmondo/Taylor/K&H Mgmt/Hague of Fenton, MO, 2002 champion Dan Smith/Blackman/Menosse/Holland/Easton of San Jose, CA , U.S. Vinyl of Lafayette, GA, Kluever’s Snap-On/B&J Logging of Metamora, ILL, Team Synergy of Orlando, FL, Benfield/Alesium/Reece/Easton of Fairfax, VA and Bell Corp/Doc’s of Tampa, FL are among the teams expected to contend for top honors, with games played at four different parks: Sandy Springs, Everett, Springbrook and Maryville College.
The 30 teams, about 400 players and their fans, will start playing 5 p.m. Friday with the last game that evening at 10 in the double elimination event. Games will resume Saturday morning at 8 and continue through the day and night with the last games Saturday evening at 10. Fifty-four games will have been played when action resumes Sunday morning at 10, with four, possibly five games left on the schedule to determine the Smoky Mountain Classic champion for 2004.
If Resmondo repeats, it will be the first team to do so since Team TPS of Louisville, KY won in 1999-2000.”Out starting lineup matches up with anybody,” said Resmondo co-manager Frank Webb. “Our strength is in the top half of the order, but there is not a lot of difference in the lower half. They all stack up favorably. They are all doing well.”
< Back to previous page