In the fall, most club softball events are showcases where teams play with the primary intent of allowing players to be seen by college coaches.

Rarely do the events have something on the line, but Bill Conroy, who heads the Beverly Bandits organization based out of Chicago, and Dave Betcher, the PGF Illinois state tournament director, have built this weekend’s King of the Hill much differently.

Not only are there championship games on Sunday for the 18U and 16U team, but the implications reach far into next summer:  a chance to impress and hopefully get invited to PGF Nationals.

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As the name of the tournament suggests, there will be one team left standing at the “King of the Hill”  in each age group and both will be considered as potential entrants in the Nationals in Huntington Beach.

“Being the winner this weekend won’t automatically get them in,” explains Conroy, “but the hope is that whoever does come out on top will get some merit by the PGF board to get an at-large berth from my area, the Midwest region.”

At each age level, there are some of the best teams in the nation—at least a dozen of which have made the FloSoftball FAB 50 Club Rankings.

Five of the FAB 50 18U teams, in fact, will be taking the field including the Beverly Bandits which finished No. 3 in the FAB 50 and the Illinois Chill which finished No. 24.  The others were Michigan Finesse, Sparks and St. Louis Esprit.

Teams will be coming from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio with the 18U teams playing in St. Charles, Ill. and the 16U’s playing in Downers Grove.

Conroy says he’s excited to see how the first-year event will go, which is built on the same format, size and premise (single-elimination champion) as his PGF Labor Day Showcase earlier this month which was very successful.

“We want to see some of the better teams in the country, those here from our area, that are looking to get a PGF invite berth,” he continues. “Teams change their faces every year so this is a good way early in the season to give everyone fair consideration.”

As important as the chance to go to PGF Nationals potentially, Conroy believes, is seeing how players perform under pressure, when the game is on the line and it’s a-win-or-go-home format.

“I think we’re getting away from the competitive element and we wanted to have something that has merit, where we see how a player does when the spotlight is on her.”

KING OF THE HILL TEAMS

18U
Beverly Bandits Premier-Tyrrell
Bartlett Silver Hawks
Bulls Sox Academy
Cheetahs
Dirt Devils
Illinois Chill Gold-Quinn
Indiana Magic Gold
Indiana Prospects  
Iowa Premier GOLD RINGOR

Michigan Finesse 
Midwest Speed  
Mizuno Hawks-Judge  
New Lenox Lightning-JA

Ohio Outlaws Premier
Sparks Softball
St Louis Esprit
Wasco Diamonds-ML

16U

Bandits Conroy
Bandits Premier  
Bartlett Silver Hawks
Bulls Sox Academy 
Cheetahs
Cheetahs
Illinois Chill Gold 

Indiana Magic Gold
Indiana Prospects

Iowa Premier GOLD RINGOR
Michigan Finesse
Midwest Speed
Mizuno Hawks  
New Lenox Lightning  
Ohio Outlaws Premier

St Louis Esprit
Wasco Diamonds SG

​SATURDAY LIVE GAME STREAMING SCHEDULE*

		Field 1	Field 2	Field 3	Field 4
1	09:00 AM	Bandits Premier JT vs Sparks	Wasco Diamonds vs Dirt Devis	Bartlett Silver Hawks vs Illinois Chill	Midwest Speed vs St. Louis Esprit
2	10:45 AM	Bandits Premier JT vs Wasco Diamonds ML	Sparks vs Dirt Devils	Bartlett Silver Hawks vs Midwest Speed	Illinois Chill vs St. Louis Esprit
3	12:45 PM	Bulls Sox Academy vs Mizuno Hawks-Judge	Indiana Magic Gold vs Lemont Rockers	New Lenox Lightning vs Iowa Premier	Michigan Finesse vs Cheetahs
4	02:30 PM	Bartlett Silver Hawks vs St. Louis Esprit	Illinois Chill vs Midwest Speed	Bandits Premier JT vs Dirt Devils	Sparks vs Wasco Diamonds ML
5	04:30 PM	New Lenox Lightning vs Cheetahs	Iowa Premier vs Michigan Finesse	Bulls Sox Academy vs Lemont Rockers	Mizuno Hawks-Judge vs Indiana Magic Gold
6	06:15 PM	New Lenox Lightning vs Michigan Finesse	Iowa Premier vs Cheetahs	Bulls Sox Academy vs Indiana Magic Gold	Mizuno Hawks-Judge vs Lemont Rockers

* Sunday's bracket seeding will be based on Saturday pool game performance and that schedule will be released late Sat/early Sun. Bracket games start at 9 am Sunday with the championship game to be streamed live at 4:30 pm.