Monday July 7, 2008: On yet another wet weekend we had teams active in Columbus at GAPSS and in Milford for the NSA State Tournament.  By all accounts the GAPSS experience was far better.

At GAPSS: Another wet weekend causes all pool play cancelled Friday at the Great American Premier Softball Showcase. Going straight into bracket play Heat '95 made a strong second-place showing at GAPSS. They advanced through the winner's bracket with victories over The Wave, Ohio Danger, and Lasers-Silver, before falling to the Danger in the championship game. Next up for Heat 95 is the Stingrays Tournament.

Heat '94 went 3-2 only losing to the champion (EMR) and runner up (Ohio Wave) to finish third.  Jim will take his team to OSU this weekend for the Stingrays Tournament.

The '93s had the misfortune of running into EMR in the second round of play, and finished 2-2 on the weekend.  You'll find them in Beavercreek this weekend.

The Buckeye Heat-Abraham 18-U team was also at GAPSS and went 3 and 2 on the weekend. All pool play was cancelled due to rain. Going straight into bracket play, the team had wins over Central Ohio Lady Blaze 9-0, Miami Valley Xpress 4-1 and Thunderbolts 4-0. Their 2 losses came from the Lasers Orange (runner-up) 1-2, and Ohio Classics (champions) 5-6. Next up for the Abraham team is the Stingrays Invitational at Ohio State.

At NSA States: All games were cancelled Friday and Saturday and shortened drop dead time limit games were played the rest of the weekend.
The Buckeye Toledo 16-U team went 5-1, losing in the finals of the 16-U bracket to take second place. Next is the Ashland ASA NQ.

The Heat '92 went 3-1 finishing fifth.  They have this weekend off while preparing for NSA World Series play on Monday.

The 18-U May team started off strong at 12:10 a.m. Sunday morning with a perfect game run rule, but would finish third as they lost a hard fought battle in the semi-finals.  They will be in Toledo this weekend for the SGS Shootout, and then immediately head for the NSA World Series in Birmingham, AL.

Monday June 30, 2008: Another wet weekend wrap up:

Heat 23U went 4-0 at Beavercreek, but only took third due to a Sunday wash out that forced tie-breaker criteria.

Buckeye Heat 18-U Abraham, were at Sluggerfest II for the weekend. The team went 5-2 with wins over Louisville Mash, 12-3, Cincy Tribe 5-0, Man O War Bulldogs 7-0, Columbus Crush 8-0 and Sunraze Black 6-5. After a four hour rain delay late Saturday with the games shortened to 30 minutes, the Heat received their first loss of the tournament to the eventual champions, Indy Dreams 2-0. They outscored their opponents 37-15 with 3 shutouts. Next up for the Abraham team is GAPSS.

Amidst the bouncing lightening, 18U-May went 4-3 on the weekend at Sluggerfest II, with wins over Team Worth of Nashville, Louisville Mash, Cincy X-treme and Indy Smoke.  Losses to the tournament champion Indy Dreams, runner-up Cincy Tribe, and the Southern Illinois Ice (in the 5th back-to-back-to-back.... game of the day on Saturday at 11:30pm).  They'll be back in Cincinnati this coming weekend for the NSA State tournament.

Heat Toledo 16-U was in the winner's bracket at the Classics ASA Qualifier until losing to the Wolfpack Black in the winner's bracket quarter-finals.  Shortly after rain wiped out the loser's bracket as the tournament went to single elimination in order to finish.  They'll travel to Cincy and the NSA States this weekend.

Buckeye Heat 92 took 2nd place at the Phoenix Summer Slam Pony Qualifier and will travel this weekend to Cincinnati for the NSA State tournament.

The '93 team endured two days of rainouts at the Heart of Ohio Celebration tournament before it became a single elimination without pool play. The team went 4-1 at the Heart of Ohio Celebration and finished second, losing to Heart of Ohio Explosion in the finals 5-3.

The Heat 95 played at the Jackson Twisters Summer Blowout in Massillon, where they were declared the 12U champions in the rain-shortened tournament and earned an NSA World Series berth. The Heat 95 went undefeated, giving up 1 run over the course of the tournament. Next up for the Heat 95 is GAPSS.

Heat 96 was in Dayton this past weekend for the USFA State tournament, but arrived only to find out that their first opponent was no where to be found.  When they finally did get to play, a thunderstorm hit in the bottom of the 4th inning of their game with the Thunder (ironically)  and canceled the rest of the day with them winning 4-3. Play finally resumed on Saturday at 2:00pm with elimination play. After losing their first game on Saturday to Xplosion-Blue by one run, they were victorious vs. Xplosion-Green 7-6 after 2 innings of tie breaker play.  Sunday they played the Thunder again winning by 1, then faced the Stingrays 11u winning 4-1, followed by Xplosion-Blue again, but this time coming out on top 1-0.  In the semi-final vs Outrage out of Louisville, Outrage scored 1 in the 3^rd inning and went into stall mode, final score 0-1 and a 4th place finish out of 17 teams.  They'll join several of the Heat family at GAPSS this weekend.

Monday June 23, 2008: All of the 12U and 14U teams were off this past weekend so we'll start at 18-U in a very wet weekend wrap up:

Buckeye Heat 18-U Abraham, at the Great Lakes Invitational, was 4-0 allowing only one run. Three of the four games were  were shutouts! Their scores were Heat 13, Ohio Peppers 1 , Heat 9, Indy Shockwave 0 , Heat 2, Western NY Elite 0, Heat 8, Northern Blast (MI) 0 . They were awarded the Championship in the 18-U Gold Division. Fifty 18-U teams from Alaska, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Kentucky, New York and Canada were in attendance

Heat 18-U May was also at the Great Lakes Invitational and made the gold bracket with a 2-1-1 pool play showing, but dropped the bracket play opener to a good Elk Grove team to finish 2-2-1.

Heat 91 16-U came out of a rain shortened pool play at the Great Lakes Invitational at 2-1 making the gold bracket, but lost in the first round of bracket play.

Heat Toledo 16-U went 4-2-1 at ASA States in Massillon taking third place.  Their only losses were to Wolfpack Black (who they beat earlier in the tournament) and to the GC Nightmare. 

The Heat 92 went 5-2 on the weekend at the Strasburg NSA Qualifier losing both games by one run each.  The team tied for 2nd when the rains came and  washed out the brackets.

This weeks action: Heat 96 are in Dayton for the USFA State Tournament, Heat 95 travels to Massillon, Heat 94 is in Massillon for the Twister Summer Blowout NSA Qualifier as well, Heat 93 is in Marysville for the HOH Celebration, the Toledo team comes to Pickerington for the ASA National Qualifier, Heat 92 travels to Lancaster for the Phoenix PONY NQ, both 18-U teams are at SluggerFest II in Cincinnati, and the 23-U team plays in Beavercreek.

Monday June 16,  2008:  Teams in action this past weekend

The Heat Teams Had A Great Weekend!

  The 18-U (Abraham) team outscored its opposition 42-11 and went 7-2-1 to take third place at the Compuware tournament in Canton Michigan.  The team won two of the ten games by run rule and tossed three shutouts in the ten games. Until the Grand Slam game they only had two errors in eight games. They beat the Division I state champion pitcher (Simpson from Hoover and Grand Slam who gave up 12 hits and 7 runs) and the Division I state runner-up pitcher (Sito from Elyria and the Sundogs). Scores from the games can be found on their team page. This makes two out of three years they have placed at Compuware.  Third out of 32 of the top teams in the Midwest. Next up for Heat-Abraham is the Great Lakes Invitational in Toledo.

The 16-U Buckeye Heat Toledo team played up at the 18-U level at the Farley Memorial tournament this past weekend. They won the Championship! The Heat Toledo team beat the Division III state champion pitcher (Birkhimer of Lakewood). Their wins came from NAC Stingers 9-0, Wizards-Trumpy 6-1, Lasers Aqua 5-3, Road Runner Elite 1-0, NWO Irish- Susor 3-0, and Windsor Wildcats 4-0. Next up, ASA States. GO HEAT!

The Heat 91' 16-U team were the Consolation Flight Champions at Compuware. Congratulations to the team. They will also be attending the Great Lakes Invitational next weekend

The Buckeye Heat – May 18-U team went undefeated in pool play and got knocked out in the semi-finals taking 3rd at the USSSA Northern States. Next up, Great Lakes Invitational

The Heat 92' 15-U team went 3-1 on the weekend at Compuware. Next weekend will find them at the Strasburg NSA Qualifier.

Heat 94' Clark 13-U team were the Champions this past weekend at the Rebellion Pony Qualifier held in Marion Ohio. They will be off next weekend. Congratulations to the team!

The 96 team was in Willoughby last weekend.  In pool play they won their first two, 5-4 vs Willoughby Starzz and 26-2 vs. The Edge.  They lost their final pool game 2-7 vs the Breakers of Rocky Ridge making them a 4 seed.  In elimination play, they had a come from behind 7-2 victory over the 5 seed, Cleveland Wildcats, to advance to the semi-final vs the 1 seed, Sunraze.  They ended up losing to them 6-1 and they went on to win it all.  They took 4^th over all

The 23-U team went 2-1-1 on the weekend, playing two doubleheaders against a team from eastern Ohio. 

Heat 95' also played in the Compuware tournament this past weekend and had some big wins. They did extremely well

Their scores...

0-2 in pool play.

In bracket play they knocked off #1 seed Indy Shockwave 6-3 and the Stingrays 8-7 to reach the final four.  They lost to the Ohio Ice 10-1 and ended up tied for third.  Their three losses came to the Indy Dreams (tourney champs), Ohio Ice (runner-up) and Compuware (consolation bracket champs).    

Tuesday Jun 10, 2008:  Third Annual Ohio - West Virginia All Star Games

The 3rd annual prestigious Ohio-West Virginia  All-Star Fastpitch Games were played Tuesday June 10th at the University of Rio Grande.  All the players are 2008 high school grads.  The Ohio All Star team (Team Ohio) won all three games played for the 3rd year in a row. Five Buckeye Heat players were nominated by their high school coaches and were chosen to play in this year's game. The Heat players chosen were Brooke Morgart, Ashley Byers, Sam Woodall, Rachel LeMaster and Brittany Dauterman. Coach Joe Abraham was also in attendance. Congratulations to all the athletes. Way to represent OHIO!

Monday June 9, 2008:  Short recap of the teams in action this past weekend  By Jean May

The Heat 95s finished second at the Fairborn Fastpitch Shootout, going 4-2 on the weekend, and losing to the 95 Doom in the finals.  Compuware is on the schedule for them starting Thursday.

Heat 94 went 3-1 at the Heatin'-it-Up NSA Qualifier in Wilmington outscoring their opponents 27-6 before falling to the Miami Valley Vipers 7-3 in bracket play.  Next week they take their potent offense to Marion for the Rebellion PONY Qualifier.

Heat 93 went 5-1, finishing in third place at the Lady Liberty WFC Qualifier in Ashville.  They were undefeated in pool play beating the Westerville Warcats and Xtreme Heat 2-1, and Vikings Elite 9-0.  They started off bracket play with a win against the Thundercats 8-0, but lost 3-0 to  Xtreme Heat in extra innings and dropping them to the 3rd/4th game where they beat the Warcats 8-2.   Third place gives them a berth to WFC "B" nationals in Savannah, GA.  This coming week they'll be at Berliner for the Capitol City Showdown.

Heat 92, who is also heading to Compuware this week, went 5-1 winning the Lady Liberty WFC Qualifier.  This is their second Nationals berth as they qualified for NSA two weeks ago at the Sunraze Tournament.

Heat 91 went 5-1 in Wilmington this weekend tying for third at the Heatin'-it-Up NSA Qualifier. Their only loss was in the semi-finals against the Stingrays-Cottrel where a controversial non-call played a role. They also make the trip north to Compuware this weekend.

Heat Toledo finished 6-1 in the Toledo Shootout this weekend outscoring their opponents 41-13.  This gave them a four way tie with the Lady Irish Blue, SGS Magic White, and the Oakville Angels (whom they beat 7-1); Oakville won the tie breaker on runs allowed.  Next up, the Farley Memorial Tournament in Toledo.

The 18U-May Heat opened their season in Millersport this weekend with a championship and a berth to Birmingham for the NSA "A" Nationals.  Their only loss on the weekend came against the Big League Starz 6-3 in the first game of the day (was 3-2 after the 6th inning with 25 seconds left on the clock), but served them well as the teams met again the championship game with the Heat coming out on top 3-0.  USSSA State tournament this weekend in Maumee. 

18U-Abraham will open with Compuware on Thursday and the 23U will be at Berliner for the Capitol City Showdown.

Good luck to all,

June 1, 2008:  Recap of how everyone did this weekend. By Jean May

Heat 92 placed 3rd at the NSA Qualifier at Berliner going 5-1.  Their season moves to Ashville and the Lady Liberty WFC Qualifier for next weekend.  Heat 91 was also at Berliner - they travel to Wilmington and the Heat'n It Up Qualifier next.

Buckeye Heat 93 won the USFA State Championship tournament in Zanesville going 6-0-1 on the weekend, and are now qualified for the USFA Nationals.  This weekend they scored 49 runs while only allowing 2.   They'll join the '92 team in Ashville and the Lady Liberty WFC Qualifier for next weekend.  The Heat 96 team was also in this tournament, and they made it to the semi-finals of the loser's bracket. Fairborn Shootout up next for them. 

Heat 94 was in action at Berliner and went 2-2 with wins over Warcats-Barrickow and HOH Explosion, before being knocked out by the Marion Diamonds. Heat'n It Up Qualifier in Wilmington is next for them.

Heat 95 went 4-1 at Beavercreek beating the Stingrays, Ohio Wave, Lady Mustangs and Ohio Danger before losing to the eventual champion Miami Blaze.  Fairborn Shootout next. The team was awarded Third Place

The Heat 96 team placed fourth overall in the Zanesville tournament with a 4-3-1 record.  During pool play they only allowed 5 runs to score

Heat Toledo and 18U-May will swing back into action this coming week at the Tole