The summer club season gets serious this weekend with several major tournaments across the nation and Extra Inning Softball will be live streaming two of the best: the So Cal A’s Invitational in Irvine, California and the Team1 Elite Championships in Shawnee, Kansas.
Both start Friday and we’ll have coverage of the A’s Invitational on Friday and Saturday and streaming of the Team1 Championships Friday-Sunday.
How to Watch: These events are FREE to watch—all you need to do is go to the site of our streaming production partner, Illuminate Sports, and sign-up/login to create a viewing account. Signing up takes 10 seconds, but there is no pre-signing up… just go when you want to watch and get in easily and quickly!
*****
Here’s a quick preview of both events:
So Cal A’s Invitational
Event Director Bruce Richardson knows something about winning national championships: his So Cal A’s 18U team won the first four PGF Premier National Championships at that age group and amazingly has never finished lower than 5th in the nine years of the event.
And every year he’s had one main comment and every year he’s been right: “The winner of PGF 18U Premier Nationals will come out of this tournament.”
Top teams who love to get a jump-start in preparing for PGF Nationals and other top tourneys such as Boulder IDT love to be in the So Cal A’s Invitational, which for years has featured the top 18U teams in the nation and has featured the Who’s Who of not just top teams but also top players.
From Brittany Barnhill to Jocelyn Alo to Sis Bates, this event is a primer for the summer and—pound for pound, player for player—is the most talent-laden tourney you’ll find short of Summer Nationals as it features only 17 teams, but all are loaded with future high D1 players.
Here’s schedule of games for Friday and Saturday which will be on three fields at Harvard Park in Irvine:
*****
Team1 Elite Club Championships
The Team1 Elite Club Championships tourney is new and run by Greg Dickel of the Iowa Premier and Ryan Taylor of DeMarini Aces—two of the elite programs in the middle of the nation.
Unlike the So Cal A’s Invitational, however, which fields just top 18U teams, the Shawnee, Kansas-based Team1 tourney has three age divisions: 18U, 16U and 14U.
There are teams coming from all over the country including most of the states in the middle of the country: Arizona, Kansas, Iowa, Texas, Illinois, Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
The impressive new event includes well-known programs ranging from the Beverly Bandits to the DeMarini Aces, the Texas Glory to the Tulsa Elite, just to name a few.
And, of course, the host Iowa Premier which has produced such notable alums as Minnesota All-American Kendyl Linderman.
Extra Inning will be live streaming the games on the four-field main complex—the Shawnee Mission School District Complex—which Greg Dickel calls “the best complex in Kansas City.”
More information including the tournament schedule can be find on the event site.