The 2024 Bay Made Fastpitch Elite Invitational is back for its third season and Bay Made Fastpitch is excited to unveil the tournament's first two sets of matchups, along with bracketing and scheduling information. We are on pace to play Wed. Mar. 13 - Fri. Mar. 15 at the Greco Softball Complex in Tampa.
Important Formatting Notes:
The Elite Invitational returns to a 12-team field in 2024. With that, it required a new format. This year, we have an unusual amount of programs not on Spring Break, to be as respectful to those programs as possible, we had to do a lot of schedule manipulation to keep our teams from missing as much school as possible during the week. We wanted to keep every team from playing two games on Wednesday and the earliest start we gave teams not on Spring Break was 5 PM.
Unfortunately, this meant we couldn't have the same 2-game Pool Play, then 2-game Bracket Play format, because things would get weird in some teams potentially playing 2 games on Wednesday and we even had situations where some teams wouldn't start until Thursday. To make the tournament fair across the board, we've formatted it this way to start:
Every team plays ONE (1) game on Wed. 3/13 in a pre-determined matchup
Every team plays ONE (1) game on Thurs. 3/14 at either 3 PM or 5 PM in a pre-determined matchup.
Wins
Runs Allowed
Run Differential (max. 10/game)
Runs Scored
Coin Toss
From there, bracket play begins.
So, we keep it like last year, where teams must win two games on Thursday to advance to Championship Friday, where they can get nearly 24 hours of rest for the title game.
The rest of bracket play sets up:
Teams ranked #5 - #8 will play their first bracket play game on Fri. 3/15 at 5 PM.
Teams ranked #9 - #12 will play their second bracket play game on Fri. 3/15 at 5 PM.
Teams ranked #5 - #8 will play their second bracket play game on Fri. 3/15 at 7 PM.
Teams ranked #1 - #4 will play their second bracket play game on Fri. 3/15 at 7 PM in the Championship / 3rd Place Games.
And finally, a quick, but important note:
In case of repeat matchups within bracket play (i.e. Bloomingdale and Lake Region are slated to meet in a #6 vs. #7 matchup after facing off on Wed.), Bay Made Fastpitch will work with our coaches to adjust tournament matchups if we need to, so times/matchups may adjust as we get to Day 3. This tournament is designed to be a strength of schedule booster AND an opportunity for teams to see someone they normally wouldn't, so we'll do our absolute best to keep that from happening. The only matchups we won't touch are the ones in the championship bracket.
Okay, enough about that! Here's the good stuff!
Matchups & Schedule:
Wed., Mar. 13
Game 1: Lake Region vs. Bloomingdale - Field 3 - 5 PM
Game 2: Sickles vs. River Ridge - Field 4 - 5 PM
Game 3: Academy of the Holy Names vs. Steinbrenner - Field 1 - 7 PM
Game 4: Durant vs. Parrish Community - Field 2 - 7 PM
Game 5: Plant vs. Palmetto - Field 3 - 7 PM
Game 6: Hernando vs. Berkeley Prep - Field 4 - 7 PM
Thurs., Mar. 14
Game 7: Steinbrenner vs. Lake Region - Field 3 - 3 PM
Game 8: Sickles vs. Durant - Field 4 - 3 PM
Game 9: Hernando vs. Palmetto - Field 1 - 5 PM
Game 10: Plant vs. Berkeley Prep - Field 2 - 5 PM
Game 11: Academy of the Holy Names vs. Bloomingdale - Field 3 - 5 PM
Game 12: Parrish Community vs. River Ridge - Field 4 - 5 PM
-- TEAMS SEEDED, BRACKET PLAY BEGINS --
Fri. Mar. 15
Game 19: Loser of Game 13 vs. Loser of Game 14 - Field 3 - 5 PM
Game 20: Winner of Game 13 vs. Winner of Game 13 - Field 4 - 5 PM
Game 23: Loser of Game 17 vs. Loser of Game 18 - Field 1 - 7 PM
Game 24: Winner of Game 17 vs. Winner of Game 18 - Field 2 - 7 PM
Game 21: Loser of Game 15 vs. Loser of Game 16 - Field 3 - 7 PM
Game 22: Winner of Game 15 vs. Winner of Game 16 - Field 4 - 7 PM