Tournament Summary

Florida Hardball  presents the 2016 Florida Cup Baseball Tournament.  This contest, which is open to any and all teams in the region regardless of affiliation, takes place in Miami, Florida on Labor Day weekend, September 3 – September 5, 2016.  The tournament features some of the best competition in Florida with teams coming from various leagues including the South Florida Baseball League, Fort Myers Hardball, the Orlando – Central Florida Baseball League, the Federal League, Grapeland League, and the Liga Nica.  The winner-take-all tournament is highlighted by a championship trophy for the winning team and tournament t-shirts for the players. The registration fee is $850 per team, regardless of player count. Rosters are limited to 25 players. The deadline for team registration is Saturday, August 27, 2016.  All interested teams and players are urged to contact the tournament director immediately.

Tournament Contact Number – 305.496.2962 – Mickey Filippucci

Tentative Tournament Teams:

Orlando Madness

Orlando Bombers

South Florida Sting Rays

Orlando Astros

Miami Red Sox

The tournament will be limited to 4 – 6 teams using an open division WOOD BAT format (18 years of age and over). Teams will be seeded by the tournament director based on past experience, team history and other objective and subjective factors.

All teams are guaranteed a minimum of three games in the qualification round played against teams within their respective division.  Two games are played on Saturday, September 3 with the third game played on Sunday morning, September 4.

The top seeded team after the qualification round earns a BYE and an automatic entry into the Championship Game, while the second and third place teams compete in a semi-final playoff game.  All ties are resolved based on tie-breaker rules listed below.  The winner of the semi-final game will play the top seed in a Championship Game.

The semi-final game will be played Sunday afternoon, September 4, and the Championship Game will be played on Monday morning September 5.

Playoffs:

Qualifiers: Teams qualify for the playoffs based on the following point system:

Points:    Win = 2 points, Tie = 1 point, Loss = 0 points.

Tie Breaker Rules: Tie breakers are applied in the following order:

1.  Head-to-head result

2.  Fewest Runs Allowed: If no head-to-head result, the team with the fewest runs allowed will win the second tie breaker.

3.  Net Runs: In case of another tie, an equation of net runs will be employed and the team with the greatest number of net runs wins the third tie breaker.  Net Runs = (Runs Scored – Runs Allowed).

4.  Coin Toss:  In case of a third tie, a best-of-three coin toss will determine the final tie breaker.

Tournament Rules

The Florida Cup is played under the rules undertaken by the South Florida Baseball League.  The SFBL Official Rules and Regulations are available online at www.sfbl.com. Some imperative rules are as follows:

1.  In each team’s offensive line-up, a minimum 10 batters must be used.  You may add to this minimum at any time during the game but you may not shrink the line-up once expanded (doing so will result in an automatic out each time the spot is due up in the batting order).

2.  Free defensive substitution.  As implied, no restrictions on defensive changes except for the pitcher re-entry rule.

3.  Pitcher re-entry rule:  In the case of a pitching change, once a pitcher is removed, he can only be re-entered as a pitcher after one complete inning  has been played.  This move can only be done once per game.

4.  No deliberate physical contact between base runners and defensive players, i.e. NO BARRELING INTO THE CATCHER, SECOND BASEMAN, etc.  Automatic ejection penalty.

5.  Qualification round games are subject to a 3 hour time limit = no inning shall start after 3 hours has elapsed.  Tie games are permitted – see tie breaker rules.  However, all playoff games will play without time limits.

6.  In case of rain, official game recorded only after 5 full innings completed.  Games started but not registering 5 complete innings will be suspended and completed later.  Offensive line-ups remain frozen and the suspended game must resume at the point of suspension (per scorebook).

7.  All team managers must call in game results – win or lose- to the SFBL office 305.496.2962 within 10 minutes of game completion or suspension.  All results will be posted to this website page live throughout the tournament.

Tournament Locations

The 2016 Florida Cup will be played at the following baseball fields (links to Google maps):

Flamingo Park – Miami Beach / 1435 Michigan Ave., Miami Beach, 33139

Florida Memorial University /  15800 NW 42nd Ave, Miami, FL 33054

Sunset Park / Plantation

McArthur High School / Hollywood