Firecracker Sports
2026-07-17T21:16:23.460Z
Our 19u team travelled nearly 1,500 miles and paid $1,900 to play in the worst run tournament we've ever participated in — the Annual Cape Cod Showcase in Massachusetts. Beyond disorganized scheduling and an unmaintained field, our tournament run ended with an unexplained forfeit that may have cost us a bracket spot.Twenty teams were entered, with no pools — just four random games apiece, and the top 5 records advancing to Sunday's bracket. The boys flew in Wednesday for a single Thursday game that never happened because our opponent got stuck in customs. That was a nice excuse for the team to take a ferry to Nantucket, but it also meant the makeup game got pushed into doubleheaders on both Friday and Saturday.The field itself was mostly turf and looked nice, but saw zero maintenance over the two days — no defined batter's boxes, and craters by the end. The scoreboard sat unused the entire tournament because none of the 4-6 staff in the press box knew how to operate it; they mostly just chatted through our games.We went 3-1 with 7 runs allowed. Four teams finished 4-0 and took the top four bracket seeds — our only loss was to one of them. We finished a game ahead of the only other team in our tiebreaker group, having beaten them head-to-head. But the tournament's rule was that head-to-head only counted if you beat every tied team, not just one — so despite our win over them, they advanced to the bracket and we didn't.Then we learned that one of the 4-0 teams had a game scheduled right after ours on Saturday night, against a 1-2 team. Both teams were warming up when we left the field — and the 3-0 team won by forfeit, no explanation given. If the 1-2 team had played and won by 4+ runs, we'd have taken the 5th and final bracket spot even under the tiebreaker rules as written.This team has played tournaments all over the country, and this was by far the worst-run one they've been part of. Poor scheduling, no field maintenance, illogical tournament rules, and an unexplained forfeit that directly affected who advanced — these players deserved better. If you're considering a Firecracker Sports baseball tournament, I'd look elsewhere.