Sixty teams converged on two softball complexes in Central Florida for the annual Orlando Meltdown softball tournament Jan. 18-20 and two Tampa Bay teams walked away with first place trophies in a tournament dominated by teams from Fort Lauderdale.
The Tampa Hammerheads took first in the C-Division co-ed division and the in the Women’s Recreational division, Gay and Confused of Tampa took the top honors.
Every other division’s first place trophy went to teams out of the Fort Lauderdale area.
The beautiful weather helped keep crowds at the fields throughout the weekend and teams from as far away as California and New York participated this year.
Several other local teams finished in the top three of their respective categories, but no Orlando teams took a top prize at the 2013 Meltdown.
In B-Division play, the Fort Lauderdale Noize beat the Orlando Voltage for the top spot, while the third place trophy went to the Diamond Cutters of Orlando.
Two Tampa teams battled for first in the C-Division, but team Beef O’Brady’s fell short for its bid against the Hammerheads. The Dallas, Tex., Alley Cats took third in that division.
In the D-Division bracket, the Orlando Wild Stallions ended their run with a third place trophy. First place went to Bill’s Bombers of Fort Lauderdale after that team beat the Atlanta Migrating Ducks.
This year there were two women’s divisions – one competitive and one recreational.
In the recreational division, the Gay and Confused team of Tampa secured its win by defeating Orlando’s Catch This. Third went to the Orlando Crazy Stix.
And in the women’s competitive division, the Orlando Kryptonite ended in the third place spot behind the first-place New Moon Lightening Strikes and the New Moon Sol Rebels, both of Fort Lauderdale.
