| ABS/Easton wins ASA A |
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ABS/Easton of White Marsh, MD uses the rules to their advantage ABS/Easton out of White Marsh, MD won the ASA A National Title by going 6-1 over the weekend to capture the ASA A Men's Slow National Title. They were led by a veteran team that used the new ASA Restricted Player List (RPL) rules perfectly. They were allowed to pick up two players from the RPL and they selected Brian Wegman who played a nearly flawless weekend and Brett Helmer who tied for first with two other players for the Home Run Title.Helmer hit eight home runs on the weekend and tied with Chaun Demars of Tharaldson Enterprises of Fargo, ND and Andy Schiltz of TCP/Easton out of Burlington, IA. TCP/Easton made a dramatic run on Saturday night through the loser's bracket by beating arguably the tournament favorite in Long Haul/Phonemasters/Miken 24-22. Long Haul used up their home runs early and couldn't keep the ball in the park which held them virtually scoreless throughout most of the late innings while TCP had three to spare and put up numbers every inning to keep the pressure on. That win advanced TCP to Sunday where they would take on Team Combat next. They defeated Team Combat in a game where it looked like they had run out of gas, specifically TCP who scored all 18 runs in the first four innings. Team Combat kept scoring but could only come up with 17 in a one run thriller. Team Combat was riddled with injuries all weekend as Brian Higginbotham broke a finger and pickups from the RPL Jason Kendrick and Rusty Bumgardner were limping noticeably all weekend. TCP would then face ABS in the championship. They were soundly beaten 18-4 on Saturday night in the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium but no one was selling TCP short at this point. Losson White the pitcher for TCP and eventual tournament MVP would end up singling off an infielders glove scoring two runs and giving them a 20-19 victory forcing an "If" game. In the championship, ABS found their groove. They took a lead and would never relinquish it. When the crowd thought the tournament was over TCP posted a six run inning in the sixth while ABS scored four of their own taking the lead back for good 15-10 which was the final. Losson White was named Tournament MVP in a very rare move as he was on the second place team. His defensive play and ability to get timely extra base hits proved that he was a deserving recipient. White was a pickup from T's 13/Easton from Omaha, NE. T's 13/Easton was expected to participate and has formerly won an ASA A Men's Slow Title in the past. Brian Wegman was named Offensive MVP and prior to the last game had not made an out on the weekend. Wegman finished up hitting in the .900's for the weekend. Order of Finish
All American Honors
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