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Rain puts damper on ASA tournament games

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By Shannon Heaton | Tuesday, July 29, 2008 10:38 PM CDT | () comments

It is a good thing the bracket for double-elimination play at the 18-and-under ASA national tournament already was drawn by tournament staff.

Had the bracket been determined by pool play, as it happened in the past, many teams still might not know who their first opponent would be when double-elimination play began, or even when it would begin.

Rain forced canceled several games at Moline’s Greenvalley Park and the Campbell Complex in Rock Island, as the weather turned severe in a hurry around the time the final games of the day were in mid-swing.

“We were all in the final games,” tournament director Milt Hand said of the rain, which measured nearly 3 inches in 3 hours’ time. “Some of the games only had a few pitches left.”

But, with the double-elimination bracket prepared, teams left the diamonds Tuesday night knowing who they would play.

“That’s actually by code,” Hand said of the early preparation of the double-elimination bracket. “We actually used to do that (have pool play determine the bracket). It used to be one through four in pool play. If it still would have been that way, we would have had to finish up (today).”

Tragedy strikes team

Jersey Outlaws assistant coach Tom Tobin was found dead after an apparant heart attack sometime Monday night, just a few hours after the Outlaws’ first pool-play game against one of the two Lemont Rockers teams in the tournament.

“I’ve heard nothing different so far; I just know he passed in the evening or night sometime,” Hand said, indicating that he had not heard of the team’s plans to continue in the tournament. “I haven’t talked to the team yet.”

The Outlaws played Tuesday’s 8:30 a.m. pool-play game against the Arizona Suncats, losing 10-2. There was a moment of silence to honor Tobin before the game.

Locals faring well

The Xtreme Havoc — a combination of long-time Quad-City programs Illinois Xtreme and Heartland Havoc — won Pool 21 on Tuesday with a 6-3 victory over the Miami Stingrays Tuesday morning at Green Valley.

The only other local team in position to win two pool games — the Quad-City Dynamite Dreamers — had a slugfest with the North Carolina Lady Blues before losing 9-6.