Beach Bash 2023 Preview

Sostre is the #1 seed in both pro doubles draws; can he finish them out? Photo Steve Fitzsimons 3WB 2020

The time has come for the first Outdoor Major of the new year! Its Beach Bash time, held on the historic Garfield Street courts a block from the beach in Hollywood, Florida. 162 lucky competitors got in before the tourney filled up and are set to compete for the title of best one-wall racquetball competitors in the land.

This is the 15th “Beach Bash” event, dating to 2007, 16 if you include the seminal 2004 WOR One-Wall outdoor championships that served as a kickoff for WOR and the integration of outdoor communities from around the country.

R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=39926

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There’s a ton of Pro and upper-level draws to review. We’ll run through them with some quick observations as a preview instead of my normal per-round, per-match review.

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Men’s Pro Doubles

The biggest draw in Florida this weekend is Men’s Pro doubles, with 15 teams vying for the title. We’ll have a new champion for 2023; last year’s winning team (Mercado and Mar) has changed up; this year @Javier Mar is playing with none other than DLR and will make for a formidable team to beat as the #2 seed.

However, the bottom half of this draw is crazy deep; multi-time Outdoor National champions Jason Geis and @Micah rich are here for the first time playing one-wall; they’re seeded 10th and will have to work at it to take out the 2018 champions Blatt/Rolon in the round of 16 just to take a shot at DLR/Mar. Also lurking in the bottom half is Faro & Iggy (who won the CPRT draw last year), Joe Young (the 2015 doubles champ) playing with @Carlos Bravo, and outdoor legend @Rocky Carson , playing with Alejandro Barcelo . There are no easy matches in this lower bracket.

The #1 seeds are legendary; Robert Sostre and @Benny Goldenberg , NY’s finest, who have 5 doubles titles in this event between them. They could face 3-time winner Deida in the quarters. Watch out for dark horses Roy Hernandez and @Marcos Graviel as the 12 seeds; they may be better at long wall, but they have a decent pathway to the semis.

My Finals predictions: Mar/DLR take out Iceman and Benny in the final.

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Women’s Pro Doubles

Great matches expected throughout this draw, which features a ton of old-school and current talent. We’ll have a new champion, since last year’s team got broken up.

#1 seeds are interesting: Sotomayor and USAR Hall of Famer @Aimee Ruiz form a tough lefty-righty pair, but they’ll be pushed heavily by another lefty-righty pairing of top-4 LPRT players in Erika Manilla and @Alexandra Herrera in the semis. That is of course if Manilla/Herrera can get by the NY legends Anita Maldonado and Michele Herbert , who have won this title three times between them.

From the bottom half, @Carla Munoz (who won Vegas one-wall last October) picks up the excellent doubles player Brenda Laime and will be tough to beat. However, the 3/6 match between LPRT and USAR regular doubles partners Scott and Kelani Lawrence and the underrated Kathy Guinan and @Maira ramos could be eye opening.

Finals Prediction: Laime & Munoz top Herrera & Manilla.

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Mixed Pro Doubles preview

The DLRs have parted ways, both on and off the court, meaning that there will be a new Mixed doubles champion team going forward. Daniel is here, teamed with Scott and are the pre-tournament favorites despite being the #2 seeds. To get to the final though, they’ll have to contend with top mixed pairings like Munoz/Natera, Laime/Bleyer, Benny/Silva, and Mar/Manilla. The team coming out of the bottom half will be battle tested for sure.

Iceman is paired with Caridad Morales as the #1 seed, and they’ll face a very tough team in the semis no matter what, as that quadrant is stacked. Rich/Lawrence, Guinan/Deida, Blatt/Herbert, and Herrera/Lalo are all great teams and its a coin flip for me who advances.

Finals prediction: DLR/Scott over Sostre/Morales

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CPRT 40+ preview

Last year’s CPRT finalists Seran Ramkissoon / Max Heymann are back as the 1-seeds; they’ll be pressed by the experienced #4 seeds Geis/Soda Man to get back to the finals from the top-half.

In what should be a super-fun bottom half, two IRT legends in Carson and @Sudsy Monchik are teamed up as the 6-seeds. They’ll have their hands full to get past #3 Miller/Gravier and especially #2 Sostre/Rolon from the bottom half.

Finals prediction: Sostre/Rolon over Geis/Koll

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100+ combined: just a quick note for star power observations: Marty Hogan is in the 100+ draw with Richie Miller, and look to be the favorite in that draw despite their seeding.

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Men’s Pro Singles:

#1 seed and IRT #1 Daniel De La Rosa is back in Florida to defend his title. He cruised to the singles title here last year, won it in 2019, and is the favorite here. He has two tough one-wall players in @Nelson Deida and @David Blatt (aka the Hulkster) in his half-bracket to contend with.

From the bottom side, look for under-rated outdoor player @Ben Bleyer to make some noise; if he can get by William Rolon he could be a finalist.

In the end, I don’t see DLR losing this draw; he’s just too good a shot maker to be defeated in one wall.

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Women’s Pro Singles

#1 Seed @Hollie Scott is the 3-time defending champion in this event, but doesn’t have to contend with the likes of MRivera or Herbert this year as in years past. This year she has a whole slew of LPRT touring pros in the bracket, and will have to get by the likes of Erika Manilla and @Carla Munoz to take a 4th straight title. Don’t sleep on Veronica Sotomayor , in this draw as a 7th seed and is the definition of an upset special.

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Streaming: remember to be patient with streaming at this event, because the cell phone coverage at this site is notoriously difficult. But sign up for live streams notification at WOR and 3WallBall and of course KRG will have notifications all weekend.

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Peggine Tellez , Jen O’Meara , Mike Coulter and the whole @3Wall Ball team for putting this event on! Thanks again to Abel Perez and his company @APCON for being the title sponsor; Perez is a great promoter of the sport.

Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on Facebook. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.

Associations not already mentioned: @World Outdoor Racquetball , WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball , USA Racquetball

2022 Beach Battle Re-cap

William “the Warrior” Rolon the big winner in Florida this past weekend. Photo 2022 Stratton Woods by Ken fife

2022 Beach Battle Re-cap

The last big event on the 2022 Racquetball calendar happened last weekend, the Age Solutions (thanks to Andy Gomer for your continued support of outdoor and the sport in general) Beach Battle, held at the legendary Garfield Street paddleball courts in Hollywood, Florida.

This relatively new event, the brain child of DC-area outdoor aficionado Maddie Melendez , has quickly become a popular off season east coast outdoor event, which features both Paddleball and Racquetball, and draws players from up and down the East coast.

r2sports: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=39809

Note: everything below is One-Wall and all events are doubles.

Here’s a quick recap of the events of the weekend, highlighting the pro and popular events:

– Men’s Pro Doubles:

Dominant NY-based one-wall players William Rolon and Robert Sostre (colloquially known as “The Warrior” and “the Iceman”) took the title, topping the Florida pair of @Marcos Gravier and Roy Hernandez in a rematch of their group stage final. Semi finalists included long-time Beach Bash top talents @Eric Faro and @Igancio Espinal (winners of their group) and another top All-Florida pair of @Mike Harmon and Jonathan Burns .

– Women’s Pro Doubles:

Another all-NY pairing of @Jasmine Suarez and Delia Silva topped the quite-tough pairing of Aimee Roehler and @Katie Neil in both the group stage and in the pro final. Great win for Suarez/Silva.

– Men’s Open Doubles:

Solid Florida players @Yasmani Perez and long-time Florida tourney director Rob Mijares took the open draw over fellow Florida players @Mike Medina and @Seran Ramkissoon .

– Women’s Open Doubles:

Florida’s Karen Novick and Kelly Quinn won the group rematch over @Lisa Sostre (wife of Robert, therefore clearly to be known here and forward as “The Icewoman”) and Jewelz Santiago to take the Women’s Open title.

– Mixed Pro

The Warrior did the double (actually he did a triple; see below) by taking the Mixed pro with Kathy Guinan , once the namesake of the famous @Zerega complex in NY. In the final, they topped the excellent Virginia-rooted team of @Thomas Gerhard and @Aime Brewer.

– Mixed Open:

@Lisa Sostre teamed with @Darien Jimenez to do the Open double on the weekend, topping your tourney director Melendez playing with Mijares in the final.

– Men’s 75+

The biggest draw on the weekend was the 75+, becoming an ever more popular event with our aging player base.

Eric Faro (the original Beach Bash finalist in 2004) teamed with Nacho to take the 75+ draw. They topped under-rated VA-based player @Suresh Vemulapalli and the legend @Marty Hogan in the semis en route to the final.

In the final, Faro/Espinal topped the surprise finalists of @Novel Lopez and Jorge Algarin , who are (according to commenters post-publishing) from the Levitown One Wall league in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Bravo to them for making the final of a solid draw.

Congrats to all who played. Thanks to Maddie for running the event, thanks for all the Florida outdoor promoters who helped out, who did streaming, and who made this tourney happen.

What’s next?

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

This was the last known event of 2022. Happy Holidays to you and yours. We’ll capture the IRT year end standings and write a fun recap of the 2022 season as our next big post. Last we did that in three parts for lots of content and analysis.

3WallBall Outdoor Cup Series Final 2022 Standings

De La Rosa wins the 2022 LPL Financial cup. Photo 2022 Outdoor Nats via Fitzsimons

The final Outdoor Major of the year, the 2022 3Wall Ball Outdoor Championships which finished off a week ago Sunday in Las Vegas, also marked the culmination of the year-long Outdoor cup series competitions.

Click here for the Press Releases:

LPL FinancialLPRT Cup Final Results: https://rball.pro/kpt

Kwm Gutterman Men’s cup final Results: https://rball.pro/n7d

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First, lets recap the Ladies competition. Your top three finishers in the money were:

1. Michelle De La Rosa

2. @Hollie Scott

3. Carla Munoz

De La Rosa led the competition from start to finish and removed any doubt of her Outdoor dominance by winning three titles in Las Vegas. Scott was ranked 5th after Beach Bash but reached all three finals at Outdoor Nationals and secured the One-Wall Mixed title in Vegas to clinch 2nd place. Munoz finished 3rd despite missing the Beach Bash event entirely; her four pro titles trail only De La Rosa for the most of any outdoor player in 2022.

The rest of the top 10 players with their 2022 outdoor highlights:

4. @Katie Neil , who won the Beach Bash women’s pro doubles title and made two one-wall semis in Vegas.

5. @Kelani Lawrence , who made the Outdoor Nationals pro doubles final with her frequent partner Scott.

6. Brenda Laime , who finishes 6th despite only playing in Vegas. She made the final of both 3-wall pro doubles events (Women’s and Mixed) in Vegas and was a break-out star.

7. Erika Manilla , who won Beach Bash doubles with Neils but who missed Outdoor Nationals during her hectic travel summer representing USA as our reigning National singles champ.

8. Alexandra Herrera , the LPRT #2 who played outdoor for the first time ever in Vegas and made three pro finals in her first foray into the outdoor game.

9. Janel Tisinger , who won Vegas 3-wall doubles with mDLR and made the singles final but who missed the other two outdoor majors.

10. Jessica Parrilla , who had solid results at both Outdoor Nats and Vegas.

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Now let’s recap the Men’s Competition.

Your top three finishers in the money were:

1. Daniel De La Rosa

2. Eduardo Portillo

3. Robert Sostre

De La Rosa completes a dominant showing in the Cup Series and was in first place after all three Outdoor Majors. He finishes the year with five outdoor pro titles. Portillo improved his standing to 2nd place by virtue of his 3WallBall Pro doubles title and a strong showing at Outdoor Nationals. Sostre was ranked 7th after Beach Bash, but two strong results in Las Vegas (winning the CPRT title and making the final of 1-wall Pro Doubles allowed Sostre to edge Mercado and Mar, who finished 4th and 5th respectively.

Rounding out the top 10:

4. Javier Mar was just pipped for 3rd by the Ice Man; Mar won both the Beach Bash and Vegas 1-wall pro doubles titles with Mercado. He was also the losing finalist in BB singles.

5. Mario Mercado , the double 1-wall winner with Mar, also made the Mixed 3-wall final in Vegas. Both Mar and Mercado likely would have been in the money had they made the trip to Huntington Beach.

6. @AAndres Acuña was in 2nd place in these standings after Outdoor Nats, but an early round Men’s pro doubles loss in Vegas couldn’t overcome his singles success and he drops to 6th on the year.

7. Alvaro Beltran ‘s Vegas performance was marred by his event-ending injury, which knocked him out of the pro semis (where he was favored), the CPRT finals, and a combined 100+ final.

8. Rocky Carson ‘s Vegas 3-wall pro doubles title couldn’t overcome a slew of early exits at the other two events.

9. Solis Greg took both the Outdoor Nats and Vegas CPRT titles, enough for a spot in the top 10.

10. Jason Geis’s Outdoor Nationals pro doubles title was enough to get him into the top 10.

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For the full 2022 standings, use the following two Google Spreadsheet links:

– Women’s Full 2022 Standings: https://docs.google.com/…/1gUgDx40hqxGPJydLNyUR…/edit…

– Men’s Full 2022 Standings: https://docs.google.com/…/1HBH6v9KhPIuUkwYjjWlI…/edit…

See these two links at 3WallBall.com for the official home page for the series:

– Women;s Cup: https://www.3wallball.com/ladies-cup

– Men’s Cup: https://www.3wallball.com/mens-cup

Thanks to all the pro players who competed in one of the three outdoor pro competitions this year (more than 100 men and more than 30 women). We look forward to 2023!

2022 3WallBall Outdoor Championships recap

A fantastic weekend for Michelle De La Rosa, who wins three titles. Photo 2022 Outdoor Nats via Fitzsimons

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

– Men’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: Rocky Carson/Eduardo Portillo

– Women’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: Michelle De La Rosa/Janel Tisinger-Ledkins

– Mixed Pro 3-wall Doubles: Michelle De La Rosa / Daniel De La Rosa

– Men’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: Javier Mar / Mario Mercado

– Women’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: Michelle De La Rosa / Carla Munoz

– Mixed Pro 1-wall Doubles: Daniel De La Rosa / Hollie Scott

– Men’s 3-wall Singles: Conrrado Moscoso

– Women’s 3-wall Singles: Carla Munoz

– CPRT Pro Doubles: Robert Sostre / Greg Solis

– Combined 75+ Mens Doubles: @Patrick Allin / Lou Orosco

– Men’s Open Doubles: Emmett Coe / Cesar Chavez

– Squash57 Upper Doubles: Adam Manilla / Nick Riffel

– Paddleball Men’s Doubles: Sebastian Fernandez / Jeremy McGlothin

– Paddleball Mixed Doubles: Aaron Embry / Roxanne Rehling

R2 Sports App home page for event:https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38918

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Match Reports in the database by division:

– Men’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/iz0

– Women’s Pro 3-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/q1n

– Mixed Pro 3-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/bgm

– Men’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/25i

– Women’s Pro 1-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/ou5

– Mixed Pro 1-wall Doubles: https://rball.pro/ncy

– Men’s 3-wall Singles: https://rball.pro/t7r

– Women’s 3-wall Singles: https://rball.pro/wzz

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Yours truly was at the event this year, and on the mike for a lot of the Men’s and Mixed pro events; check out the @inInternational Racquetball Tour feed on FB or on YouTube for rebroadcasts.

This is one of the longest recaps we do all year, with so many divisions and so many great matches to talk about. Get ready to dig in.

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Men’s Pro 3-wall Doubles Recap

19 Teams entered the Men’s Pro doubles to compete for the biggest outdoor title of the event. And we got some fantastic teams and a great draw.

A few upsets in the round of 16:

– Floridian Chris McDonald , son of outdoor Hall of famers Greg and Martha, teamed up with another WOR Hall of famer in @Greg Solis to upset the #5 seeds Emmett Coe and @Thomas Gerhard to move into the quarters. McDonald is a force on the court, with incredible power and an intimidating playing style borne of short-court play in North Florida, where he stands almost with his toes on the short line to receive serve and then relies on some of the fastest hands in the sport to return drive serves.

– Colorado pair Adam Manilla and Nick Riffel upset the #3 seeded team of Soda Man and Brandon Davis in two closer games 10,13. Both players may not have a ton of access to outdoor courts in Colorado but have been making waves in the genre and got a great win against two very solid outdoor pros.

– IRT legend and outdoor newbie @Sudsy Monchik teamed up with a very talented outdoor player from Southern California in @Patrick Allin to upset the #6 seeded team of top Floridians Joe Young and Marcos J. Gravier in a tiebreaker 11-8. The two teams played back and forth racquetball, with all four players at various times taking over and attempting to impart their will on the match.

In the quarters:

– #1 Daniel de la Rosa and @Alvaro Beltran rose to the challenge and topped the #8 seeds, Beach Bash pro doubles champs @Javier Mar and @Mario Mercado 12,12. This was perhaps the best match I saw all weekend in terms of talent and shot-making on the court, with all four players at the top of their game. DLR was (as he always is) the dominant player on the court and came to Las Vegas looking in-shape and laser focused. The ball sizzles off his racquet, and he remains as always one of the best players in the world at ending rallies with pinch kills. Beltran remains the shot-making crafty veteran, routinely pulled off the court but making running over-the-shoulder shots to keep the ball in play. Mar has come into his own, with a recent IRT pro finals appearance and hit shot for shot with DLR along the left side. Lastly Mercado displayed getting ability on a par with anyone in the world, with some of the fastest hands around (its no wonder they’re one-wall kings). But in the end, the talent of DLR took over and was the difference maker in this shot-maker’s paradise.

– #4 @Rocky Carson and his young teammate @Eduardo Portillo (aka “Team Dovetail”) ground out a win over the dangerous McDonald/Solis pairing 9,9 to move on. Future WOR Hall of Famer Carson put on a clinic of outdoor racquetball, and Lalo continues to show his mastery of the classification improves at every outdoor event.

– #14 Riffel/Manilla continued their run, upsetting fellow upstarts #11 Monchik/Allin with ease 10,5 to move into the semis. Riffel’s mustache game is as strong as his racquetball game this weekend, but the story of the team is Manilla’s growing dominance of outdoor racquetball this weekend.

– #2 seeds and reigning Outdoor Nationals champs Jason Geis and @Micah Rich dominated NorCal’s @Tom Durham and HoFamer Robert Sostre 11,4 to move into the semis. Sostre and Durham had no answers for the great lefty-righty pairing of Rich and Geis, nor for the power and outdoor finesse that Rich displays on the left hand side.

In the semis on Saturday afternoon, we started out with hopes of a great set of matches but ended up with a jarring injury that silenced the crowd.

– The #1 vs #4 semi final pro doubles match was shaping up to be a fantastic contest, featuring the red-hot De La Rosa on one side and the legendary outdoor Goat in Carson on the other. Game one did not disappoint, as Carson/Portillo fell behind DLR/Beltran 10-5 early, ground their way back to tie it at 11, then saved a couple of game points before getting the serve back and getting to 14-14. At game point, Carson hit a high Z to Beltran, and when Portillo went for a reverse pinch kill both DLR and Beltran dove for the ball at the same time in the front court, colliding as they retrieved the ball. Beltran immediately began writhing in pain as Rocky hit the game winning shot. Soon it was clear that Alvaro was badly injured: DLR dove into Alvi’s outstretched left arm and he suffered a dislocated elbow on the court. Unfortunately this knocked the DLR/Beltran team out of the event; Carson/Lalo advance 15-14, inj fft.

– The second semi was played under a somber tone; the crowd and the players seemed in shock after watching the injury in the first game. Nonetheless, a spot was on the line in the final. #2 Rich/Geis seemed to be the prohibitive favorites over the upstart #14 Manilla/Riffel team and jumped out to a first game lead. The Colorado duo ground their way back into the game and shocked the Outdoor National reigning champs by taking game one 15-14. Game two was a back and forth affair, close all the way to the death, when Nick and Adam got to match point and then took it on a scuffled service return error. Riffel played fantastic on the day, and the SoCal team seemed a bit off, missing a number of offensive opportunities that ended up costing them the game.

The final turned out to be a blowout: Carson and Portillo dominated from start to the end, and Riffel/Manilla couldn’t find the magic that led them to get there, losing 6,3. Carson wins his 6th pro doubles title in Vegas, first since 2015, while Portillo gets his first outdoor title.

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Women’s Pro 3-wall Doubles Recap:

Lots of new teams this year in the Ladies pro, guaranteeing a new winner and some great action.

Just one upset in the quarters, as two relatively newcomers to outdoor in @Brenda Laime and @Alexandra Herrera took out #3 seeds, reigning US National doubles champions @Kelani Lawrence and @Hollie Scott 6,10. Laime has made a heck of an impression here despite little prior outdoor tourney experience, but its worth noting she lives with and plays frequently with Mercado in the DC Area where a strong outdoor community exists.

In the semis…

– The #1 seeds De La Rosa and Tisinger-Ledkins went down a game to the upstart Manilla/Roehler team, but raced back to take the tiebreaker 11-7 to move on.

– The upstart team of Laime and Herrera dominated the #2 seeds Parrilla and Carla Munoz 6,12 to become the surprise finalists.

In the final … the #1 seeds crushed the #6 upstarts in game one 15-2, then held on 15-11 for the title. Each player wins their 5th Vegas doubles title, but their first one playing together.

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Mixed Pro 3-wall Doubles:

14 teams entered into the stacked Mixed Pro doubles division looking to take down three-time defending champs in the De La Rosa husband/wife team. And the early rounds did not disappoint, with two teams running multiple upsets to make the semis:

– #12 seeded Brother/Sister Manilla pairing of @Adam Manilla and @Erika Manilla advanced past the husband/wife team of @Alan Natera and @Carla Munoz in the 16s before taking it right at #4 Rich/Lawrence in the quarters, dominating the action and doing a masterful job of neutralizing Rich’s power to win the Friday nightcap quarter 11,8 to move into the semis.

– Meanwhile on the bottom side, #7 Mercado/Laime took out the hard-hitting Mexican team of @Rodrigo Montoya and Herrera in the 16s before shocking the #2 seeds Janel Tisinger-Ledkins and Solis 8,7 in the quarters. The two outdoor legends just had no answers for the shot-making exploits of Mercado and the power of Laime, who worked drive serves at Solis with great effect all match. Look out for this team.

In the Semis…

– #1 DLRx2 cruised past Manillax2 10,8 to move into the final. The Cinderella Brother/Sister team just had no answers for the dominant husband/wife team.

– Team FormulaFlow Laime/Mercado came from a game down to upset the #3 seeds Scott/Portillo in a tough 11-8 breaker.

In the final, Laime continued to show why she will be a force to reckon with in the outdoor game for some time to come, leading her team to a game one victory. In game two, Mercado thought he had rolled out the match winner at 14-14 … but it was overturned on appeal. Daniel got the game 2 winner and pushed the match to a breaker. Perhaps deflated from having thought they won at the end of game two, Laime and Mercado fell behind big early in the breaker and were steamrolled 11-3 to give the title to the DLRs. Daniel and Michelle win their 8th Vegas Mixed pro title in the last 9 years, and complete the 2022 “triple crown” of mixed pro titles (they also won Pro mixed in Florida and in Huntington Beach).

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Men’s Pro 1-wall Doubles recap:

#1 Seeds @Robert Sostre (aka the Iceman) and @William Rolon (aka the Warrior) cruised into the final from the top half of the draw looking to win together for the third time.

Meanwhile the bottom half of the draw featured the two teams that competed in the Beach Bash finals earlier this year. Javier Mar & Mario Mercado topped Acuna/Portillo again (just as the did in March), then upset the Sostre/Rolon one-wall specialists for the title.

Mercado & Mar win the one-wall pro doubles “double” on the year, having won both Beach Bash and Vegas.

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Women’s Pro 1-wall Doubles:

Michelle De La Rosa did the Women’s pro doubles “double” on the weekend, and won her third title out of the four events she entered, by teaming with her regular partner Carla Munoz to take a tightly contested Women’s one-wall doubles draw. They topped two LPRT top 10 players in Parrilla and Herrera in the final.

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Mixed Pro 1-wall Doubles:

The #9 seeded Montoya/Herrera pairing upset three teams to make the final, but then ran into outdoor juggernaut Daniel De La Rosa , paired in one wall with Hollie Scott. The final went breaker, but the #1 ranked IRT pro outslugged his Mexican counterparts and led his team to the title.

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Men’s 3-wall Singles:

10 brave souls entered the most grueling division of the tournament: 3-wall singles. And we got some unexpected results in the early rounds.

In the top half, top seeds Andres Acuña and Mar advanced to the semis as expected, but the bottom half featured #2 and #3 getting upset in the quarters. IRT #2 Conrrado Moscoso took out #3 @Brandon Davis 7,14, while the shock result was relative unknown Mexican lefty Mario Hildago taking out first #7 @Jeremy McGlothin and then #2 Gerhardt 8,14 to advance to the semis against Conrrado. Hildago hasn’t had a top-level tournament result since the 2017 Mexican Nationals and plays out of Juarez, but impressed with his diving and shot making to take out two really solid outdoor players.

In the semis, Outdoor Nationals singles champ Acuna took out Beach Bash singles finalist Mar in two close games, while Outdoor newcomer Moscoso (the #2 ranked IRT player on tour) cruised to a victory over Hildago to make the final.

In the final, two IRT regulars took to battle in the sun. Acuna mounted a huge comeback to force a tiebreaker, when Conrrado finally started to go to more of an “outdoor” style serve that threw the Costa Rican off balance and drove him to victory. Moscoso adds an outdoor singles title to his growing collection of pro titles in 2022.

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Women’s 3-wall Singles:

In the end it was #1 vs #2, but not before #1 Carla Munoz escaped the semis by the skin of her teeth, edging Virginia’s Kelani Lawrence 11-10 in the breaker.

Fittingly, Munoz faced @Janel Tisinger-Ledkins in the final. Tisinger owns no less than 12 outdoor major singles titles, while Munoz has won three of the last four competed. It was the current belt holder versus the former belt holder … and Munoz came out on top in a 11-8 bruiser on the show court Sunday Morning.

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A quick run through some of the other main divisions played here, which included some Squash57, Paddleball, and some combined men’s divisions that feature nearly as strong of draws as the pros:

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CPRT Pro Doubles:

Beltran and Soda Man ran to the finals in CPRT as the #3 seed, but then had to default after Alvi’s arm injury. #1 seeds and dual Hall of Famers Sostre & Solis win the title by injury walkover.

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Combined 75+ Men’s Doubles: The last show court/broadcast final of the weekend featured one of the best 75+ teams from Florida versus one of the best from SoCal. The McDonald brothers Chris and Greg teamed up to face Patrick Allin and “Sweet” Lou Orosco in the 75+ final. The McDonalds are famous for their short-court positioning, standing just a few feet behind the service line, while Allin /Orosco feature strong forehands and sharp shooting. A back and forth affair went almost to the full distance, with the Huntington Beach lefty/righty pair topping the McDonalds 11-9 in the breaker.

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Men’s Open Doubles: Paddleball specialist Emmett Coe teamed with SoCal car enthusiast Cesar Chavez to win the Open doubles. They topped strong Florida pairing of @Yasmani Perez and Javier Trujillo.

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Squash57 Doubles:

A new sport for Vegas 2022: Squash 57. For those not familiar, its basically racquetball on a racquetball court with a squash tin and a deadened racquetball (I believe they took a Gearbox black racquetball and punched a hole in it). The result is a fun variant of our sport, featuring long, tactical rallies and lots of endurance requirements. The sport plays rally scoring due to its long rallies (just as squash does) and its players relied less on power and more on control to win.

The “upper” division was won by Manilla/Riffel, who outlasted Sostre and Vegas legend Brian Pineda in the final 5,4,4.

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Paddleball Men’s Doubles: The San Diego paddleball experts @Sebastian Fernandez and @Jeremy McGlothin won the title in a walkover as Beltran had to drop after injuring his arm.

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Paddleball Mixed Doubles: Paddleball hall of famer @Aaron Embry teamed with his regular partner @Roxanne Rehling to win the 3-team mixed paddleball open round robin.

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Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, with both the IRT and LPRT crews in place. @Pablo Fajre and wife @Angelia Grisar worked tirelessly all weekend, as did @Alexis Iwaasa on the IRT side. I’d like to thank all my co-announcers on the weekend, which included the likes of Brian Pineda, Marcos Gravier, Joe Young, William Rolon, Mikey D, and Carla Munoz for the final match.

On the LPRT side, @JTRball was front and center all week, aided by @Leo Vazquez, Sudsy Monchik, Mikey-D, TJ Baumbaugh, and others on the LPRT feed from court 1.

Thanks to the Tourney Directors Mike Coulter, Peggine Tellez, and all the @3wallball staff for putting this event on!

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Next up?

Per our handy master racquetball calendar …

https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/

The IRT is back in action starting this Thursday, coming to you live from Sarasota in the Dovetail Open.

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Thanks to all the sponsors who make this event possible. A full list is here on the R2 tournament page, but here’s a list of them.

– @KWM Gutterman Inc. and its owner Keith Minor , the title sponsor of this event. Keith is a great benefactor to multiple orgs in our sport, is an avid player and was here all weekend playing and watching.

– @AGE Solutions and proprietor Andy Gomer ; a frequent sponsor of DC-area and East coast programming.

Ahern Rentals , who provided lots of the “stuff” that makes this tournament possible.

– Pro Kennex as the presenting sponsor, with Mike Martinez on the grounds all weekend supporting his many PK players.

– @Soda man and @Coffee Girl vending services, with proprietor @Rick Koll active in multiple pro draws in addition to his constant support of outdoor events on the west coast.

– @Gearbox Racquetball , represented by owner Rafael Filipini and director of Marketing @Anthony Herrera all weekend.

The Strat Hotel & Casino , our host hotel and host site for the event.

– @LPL Financial and proprietor @Rosco Halsey , who I got to meet at dinner one night and who loves the sport.

Also thanks to the many silver sponsors on the weekend, which include @Team dovetail ad Mike Kinkin , @Melissa’s Produce for providing fruit and snacks, The Root Team and @RaRandy R , who supports so much for our sport, APcom /@MZ cCompita Mz and their venerable owner @Abel Perez , a great guy from San Antonio who loves one wall. Sean Love racquetball, Philip’s Plastics and @Progressive Cabinet Corporation fill out hte rest of the silver sponsors.

2022 3WallBall Outdoor Championships Preview

Can Micah Rich lead his team to a two-fer of pro national outdoor titles? Photo Mar22 by Steve Fitzsimons

Hello racquetball fans. Welcome to the 2022 3Wall Ball Outdoor Championships, held in fabulous Las Vegas on the grounds of the The STRAT Hotel and Casino.

r2sports link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38918

There’s hundreds of players, four events, and a ton of fun. We’ve already written a pretty comprehensive preview for the @USA Racquetball newsletter, so we won’t step on that too much.

Click here for that preview:

https://www.teamusa.org/…/Sept…/19/WOR-Update-September-

The pro draws are stacked on both sides this year, which will make the tournament a neutral viewer’s paradise. #1 Men’s pro double seeds Daniel de la Rosa and @Alvaro Beltran face a tall road ahead, with the top of their men’s pro doubles draw completely stacked with talent. The Women’s Pro doubles draw features at least 5 teams with reasonable expectations to win it all; one of these favorites is not even going to make the semis.

So, tune in all weekend. Follow both the @IntInternational Racquetball Tour and the LPRT to get live broadcast announcements: both teams are here and broadcasting both show courts.

One last thing: see this link for the 2022 event Media Guide, a huge program with a ton of biographical and WOR historical data.

https://www.dropbox.com/…/3WallBall%20Outdoor%20World…

Outdoor Cup Series Standings post Outdoor Nationals.

Michelle De La Rosa adds to her lead atop the LPL financial cup standings. Photo 2022 Outdoor Nationals from Stephen Fitzsimons


Hello Outdoor Racquetball Fans!
With Outdoor Nationals in the books, the second leg of the three-leg Outdoor Cup Series for 2022 is in the books. This post is to give you an update on the cup standings for outdoor Men and Women pros and publish the full standings.

(If you want to read the standings after Beach Bash, published in Late March, click here: https://blog.proracquetballstats.com/…/outdoor-cup…/)

LPL Financial Women’s Outdoor Cup Series
Click here: https://rball.pro/uvy for the updated standings after Outdoor Nationals.
Top 5 Women after Outdoor Nats:

  1. Michelle De La Rosa : 855 pts
  2. Hollie Scott : 598.75 pts
  3. Carla Munoz : 437.5 pts
  4. Kelani Lawrence : 325 pts
  5. Katherine,neils : 321.875 pts
    Michelle De La Rosa extends her lead at the top with two 1st place finishes at Outdoor Nationals, and will be very difficult to catch in Vegas for the top prize. Hollie moves up from 5th place after Beach Bash to #2 on the back of three 2nd place finishes in three divisions in Huntington Beach. Munoz, who missed Beach Bash due to previous commitments, roars into the top 3 thanks to two titles in California. Kelani and Katie remain in contention, but it looks like the prize money will come down to the current top 3 ladies.

6-10 goes Masiel Rivera , @Erika Manilla , Jessica Parrilla , and then tied for 9th are @AAngela Veronica Vera Ortega and @VicVictoria Rodriguez .

KWM Gutterman Men’s Outdoor Cup series
Click here: https://rball.pro/br0 for the updated Men’s cup standings after Outdoor Nationals.
Top 5 Men after Outdoor Nationals:

  1. Daniel de la Rosa : 1081.25 pts
  2. Andres Acuna : 613.125 pts
  3. Eduardo Portillo : 600.625 pts
  4. Javier Mar: 510 pts
  5. @Alvaro Beltran : 504.68 pts
    Daniel, unsurprisingly, has a massive lead atop the standings thanks to two titles in Florida and another in California; he likely has sewn up the cup title unless he misses Vegas altogether. Acuna, who was not in the top 5 after Beach Bash, roars into 2nd place thanks to his singles title in California. Lalo moves up to 3rd from 6th place thanks to his 2nd place finish in Mixed Doubles in Huntington Beach. Mar and Beltran remain in the hunt, but Mar’s absence in California prevents him from building on his fantastic Beach Bash results.

6-10 goes Robert Sostre , Josh Tucker , Jason Geis , Micah Rich, and @Greg Solis .

As always, thanks greatly to 3Wall Ball and Mike Coulter for organizing the cup series, thanks to LPL Financial and Kwm Gutterman for underwriting the cups for both the Women and the Men, and thanks to the players for making outdoor majors as much fun as they are.
See you in Vegas!
WOR – World Outdoor Racquetball
@USA Racquetball

2022 Outdoor Nationals Wrap Up


Micah Rich (pictured) and Jason Geis win their 2nd straight Outdoor Nationals men’s pro doubles title. Photo 2022 Marina Park shootout via Stephen Fitzsimons

Congrats to your winners on the weekend:

  • Men’s Pro Doubles: Jason Newberg and @Micah Rich
  • Women’s Pro Doubles: Michelle De La Rosa and Carla Munoz
  • Mixed Pro Doubles: Michelle De La Rosa & Daniel de la Rosa
  • Men’s Singles: @Andres Acuna
  • Women’s Singles: Carla Munoz
  • CPRT: @Josh Tucker and @Greg Solis

    Executive Summary: Geis/Rich hold off DLR/Beltran in the final for the 2nd year in a row, the DLRs continue to dominate in Mixed, mDLR gets another weekend outdoor double, as does Munoz, and Acuna goes back-to-back titles in indoor and outdoor, and a HoFamer takes the CPRT with a future outdoor HoFamer in Tucker.

    R2 Sports App home page for event: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38652

    Triple Crown Reports: These links list the “triple crowns” of Outdoor racquetball majors; its a nice way to see all the past winners in one place.
  • Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/j47
  • Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/2vv
  • Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/y43
  • Men’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/86z
  • – Women’s Pro Singles: https://rball.pro/x8g

Lets do a quick recap of the pro draws.
Men’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/i2u
Thanks perhaps to the new outdoor player ranking system in place, the seedings were un-assailable at this event, and the draw was almost entirely chalk. Out of the 13 pro doubles matches played on the weekend, there was just one upset by seed (#10 @Robert Sostre and Andree Parrilla over #7 Thomas Gerhardt and Danny Lavely in the round of 16.

1 seeds and defending champions Gies/Rich destroyed the indoor-pro team and finalists at Beach Bash of Acuna/Portillo 1,3 in the quarters to set the tone for the rest of the weekend. They advanced frequent Marina Park shootout rivals @Rocky Carson and @Jesus Ustarroz in the semis to advance to the anticipated final.

From the bottom-side, #2 DLR and Alvaro Beltran (the 2019 winners here) defeated the 2018 winners in Josh Tucker and Brandon Davis in two games to advance to the title match.
DLR/Beltran came out firing, winning the first game 15-3 and giving the crowd a buzz; this is the third time in two years these two teams have met in a 3-wall outdoor pro doubles final. However, Rich/Geis came back and took game two 15-12 … but not before some real drama. At game point against, a ball came across the court to Alvaro on the right-hand side, who prepared to take a backhand. However, Geis was pinned and moved off the court. Beltran took the shot and hit Geis, looking for an avoidable hinder, but the referee (and line judge) ruled the ball was struck in a way that it wouldn’t have made the front wall; point against DLR/Beltran and game two. DLR and Beltran were furious, and had to be separated from the referee. Not a great look for two veteran pros.
Once everything settled down, the tiebreaker was a back and forth streaky affair, with DLR/Beltran taking the early lead but Rich/Geis running a few points at the end to take the title.

The expected Las Vegas rematch should be interesting.

Women’s Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/gfq
Michelle De La Rosa and Carla Munoz won their 4th straight Outdoor Nationals women’s pro doubles event, and 6th outdoor pro major together, by twice holding off the reigning USA indoor national doubles champions Kelani Lawrence and Hollie Scott . The 7 ladies teams played a double elimination draw, and thus in the match report the winner’s bracket final is listed as the “semis” and thus it looks like the semis and finals were a duplication in the database. We don’t get too many double elimination draws (I can count on one hand the number I’ve seen across all federations doing data entry for 20+ years), so the code/database isn’t built to handle it perfectly right now.

Bravo to @Angela Veronica Ortega and @Victoria Rodriguez, who advanced to the loser’s bracket final and finished 3rd by defeating some seasoned outdoor and pro teams.

Mixed Pro Doubles: https://rball.pro/8q6
The De La Rosa husband-wife team continues their dominance over Mixed Pro racquetball, winning this event for the 6th time in the last 7 years, and winning their 17th mixed pro outdoor major doubles title together. They remain on track to do the “triple,” winning all three outdoor major titles in one year.

They topped up-and-coming outdoor regulars Eduardo Portillo and Hollie Scott in a close final, but were given a scare in the semis by the Parrilla bro/sis combo, who beat them in game one 15-4 before the DLRs made the inevitable adjustment and blew them out 2,3 from there on.

CPRT Doubles:

@Josh Tucker and @Greg Solis, who have a combined 9 outdoor nationals pro doubles titles between them (but never one together), took the CPRT 40+ pro draw as the top seed. They beat SoCal expert 40+ players @Scott St Clair and Tony Burg in the final.

Men’s Singles: https://rball.pro/3cu
Andres Acuna , who won this event last year at Outdoor Nationals and was the #1 seed, took out #2 IRT player Andree Parrilla and then #2 seed veteran outdoor player Danny Lavely to repeat as singles champion here. It’s been a nice two weeks for Andree, who took the World Games in Birmingham on Tuesday, hopped on a plane, then took the title here in a completely different racquetball discipline. Oh and apparently he got married recently.

A nice month for the Costa Rican. Bravo.

Women’s Singles: https://rball.pro/3it

@Carla Munoz , the #1 seed and defending champ, defended her title here by ousting the improving Ortega, then two fellow LPRT touring vets in Lawrence and Scott to take the title. After missing Beach Bash, Munoz had some catching up to do with the cup series, and she took the double this weekend. She took out Scott in the final, fitting in that Hollie won the Beach Bash singles title.

Outdoor Cup Series status: we’ll do a separate post later this week on the machinations of this weekend’s results on the Cup standings.

Wor HOF class of 2022 Induction

On Saturday afternoon, the latest WOR Hall of Fame class was inducted. 1979 champs Dave Trenton & Steve Fey were added to the Hall; these were important transitional players who helped get outdoor Racquetball from its Paddleball roots of the 1970s into the power game dominated by Southern and Hawkes in the 1990s.

Thanks for all the streaming on the weekend, headlined by the LPRT team with SoCal’s JT R Ball often on the mike, bringing on outdoor legends to help commentate. It is always a treat to listen to these specialists.

Next up?
Per our handy master racquetball calendar …
https://docs.google.com/…/1V6OTid6rZ356voXVkoV2sN7KMMb…/
… we’re in the dead of summer now; no events next weekend, then in two weeks time there’s a tier 3 IRT event in Alejandro Landa ‘s name in Juarez that should get some big names.

August is shaping up to be super busy: Worlds, the return of the Paola Longoria experience in Mexico, and a big Outdoor event in Chicago.

Thanks to your tournament directors this weekend @Geoff Osberg and @Jesus Ustarroz. Thanks to @3wa3Wall Ball ‘s @PeggiPPeggine Tellez and @Mike Coulter for all your support for the event and for your weekend experience help. Thanks of course to title sponsor @RaRandy r and his company Team Root for underwriting the event, to the presenting sponsor Pro Kennex, and to all the other sponsors who make this event possible.

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WOR Outdoor Nationals preview

Jason Geis (and partner Micah Rich) are the defending pro doubles champs. Photo: Steve Fitzsimons


Welcome to the 2022 Outdoor Nationals!
The 48th annual event runs from July 14th – July 17th 2022 at the Marina Park outdoor courts in Huntington Beach, California.
This tournament was first held in 1974, on the grounds of Orange Coast College in nearby Costa Mesa, California. It was the brainchild of two kinesiology professors by the names of Bob Wetzel and Barry Wallace, who had converted from playing handball to outdoor 3-wall racquetball in the early 1970s and were so enamored of the sport that they began teaching it at the college.

They organized the first ever “National Championship” to be held on the July 4th weekend in 1974, and convinced all the top indoor pros of the day to compete in it as well. After much cajoling, Bob Kendler (head of the NRC, which was the main “pro tour” of the day) signed off on the event and encouraged his players to attend.
The first Outdoor Nationals included a who’s who of the top “indoor” pros of the day, including historic names like Charlie Brumfield, Bill Schmidtke, Steve Keeley, Steve Serot, Craig McCoy, Dr. Bud Muehleisen, and a precocious 16-yr old named Marty Hogan, who was just about to take over the pro tour and forever transform the sport. These top NRC pros competed with the best outdoor players of the day, a list that included Wallace and Wetzel, Jim Carson (who would later become the director of this tournament for a number of years), R.O. Carson (father of Rocky Carson), Rich Carson (R.O.’s brother and Rocky’s uncle), and Mark Susson. In the end, Brumfield topped Serot to take the first ever Outdoor Nationals singles title. Brumfield also teamed with his long-time doubles parter Dr. Bud to win the first pro doubles title.
After some time, the tournament moved from the Orange Coast college to nearby Golden West College, and then in 2006 moved to its current location in Marina Park. This will be the 16th iteration of this event that has been held at Marina Park, and the pink and green courts are now the de-facto home of outdoor racquetball in Southern California.
The courts are big, very big: the front wall is nearly 23’ tall, the courts are 22 1/2 ‘ wide, and the back line is an inch short of 46 feet, making these courts the largest regularly-played courts in the country. The size of the court (and the height of the front wall) makes for some very specialized strategies, and you’ll see these strategies in play all weekend.
The 2022 event is shaping up to be a very strong field, thanks in no part to the two Outdoor Cup Series going on. Outdoor Nationals is the second leg of the LPL Financial LPRT Outdoor Cup, and is also the second leg of the KWM Gutterman Men’s Pro Outdoor Cup. With thousands of dollars on the line going to the best finisher amongst the three Outdoor “Majors,” interest in competing is high.
R2 Sports App link: https://www.r2sports.com/website/event-website.asp?TID=38652
Here’s a quick preview of the Men’s and Women’s pro draws (doubles, mixed, and singles). Play starts 9am PST Friday 7/15/22.

The Brackets are not yet available as of this writing so we’ll talk about the leading teams in each draw.

Men’s Pro Doubles
Last year, the talented team of Micah Rich/Jason Geis topped the presumed “best doubles team in the world” in Alvaro Beltran/Daniel De La Ros en route to taking the title. However, Alvi and Daniel got some revenge a few months later, beating Rich & Geis in the Vegas final. Both teams are back for 2022 (presumably as the #1 and #2 seeds), and they’ll be joined by a dozen other top pro teams competing for the title.
Some of the teams to watch for this year include:

  • Andres Acuna/Lalo Portillo : Acuna has proven to be a quick study on the outdoor courts, and Lalo is recovered from a knee injury and should be in full form. These two made the final of the 2022 Beach Bash and are a formidable team.
  • Rocky Carson/Jesus Ustarroz are a long-time pairing and are 2-time winners here. They continue to play together in the regularly held shootouts on the court and are usually found in the back end of the draws. But they’ve been bedeviled in the latter stages of this event the last few years, losing in the final of 2018 and the semis in both 2019 and 2021. They’ll still be a top seed and will look to get an upset on Saturday of the event.
  • Brandon Davis/Josh Tucker won this event together in 2018, and Tucker is a constant presence in the semis of this event. He’s been a semi-finalist or better ten times since 2007, with three titles. Davis is no slouch either; he’s been in the semis or better five times since 2011. This is the team nobody wants to see in the quarters, or perhaps at all in this tournament. They’re both frequent players on the Marina Park courts and are cerebral tacticians when it comes to the outdoor genre.
  • Greg Solis/Scott Davis: Solis has 6 Men’s titles dating to 1995, and made the final last year with Tucker. This year he’s entered with Brandon’s brother Scott, himself also a mainstay in the quarters and semis of this event and a finalist in 2014.
  • Andree Parrilla/Robert Sostre: Parrilla doesn’t have much outdoor pedigree, but Sostre certainly does. He’s won no less than 11 Men’s Major outdoor titles in his career, and is now teamed up with one of the most skilled indoor pros out there.
  • Don’t forget about solid pairings such as Natera/Fernandez, Coe/Koll, and Lavely/Gerhardt, all of whom are solid teams.

From the round of 16 onwards, there are no easy matches at Outdoor Nationals. This will be a neutral’s paradise to watch from afar.

Women’s Pro Doubles
Last year, Michelle De La Rosa/Carla Munoz cruised to the Women’s doubles title, dominating the 5-team round robin. This year the draw will be significantly deeper, with a number of LPRT players pouring into the draw. Here’s some teams to watch for:

  • Kelani Lawrence/Hollie Scott: the newly crowned USA National indoor champs are teaming up to give it a go in outdoor, and Scott’s one-wall pedigree should help power this team.
  • Jessica Parrilla/Maria Renee Rodriguez are teaming up for the first time to compete here this weekend. Parrilla has competed in outdoor before, while this is a first for MRR.

– Heather Mahoney/Jazmine Trevino bring some California presence to this draw. Mahoney is fresh off Junior Nationals, where she captured the 18U title with ease.

Mixed Doubles
The mixed draw is of course headlined by the husband-wife pair of Daniel & Michelle De La Rosa; they’ve now won 14 major outdoor titles together since 2014, and they have not lost a match together since the final of the 2018 3WB event in Las Vegas. Who can challenge them? Here’s the teams shooting for an upset this weekend:

  • Rick “Soda Man” Koll/Maria Renee Rodriguez: Koll always competes well in Mixed and has a number of titles to his credit. MRR is newer to outdoor but may prove to be a quick study.
  • Micah Rich/Kelani Lawrence: this could be my pick to make some noise this weekend. Rich of course is one of the best outdoor players out there, while Kelani can hold her own against any female player on the right side.
  • Alan Natera/Carla Munoz: for years Munoz has played with Sostre in mixed and was a regular finalist. Now she’s trading the hall of famer for her husband in Natera (understandable), and will look to make it an all husband-wife affair in the finals against the DLRs.
  • Andree & Jessica Parrilla: perhaps the best brother-sister combination in the history of the sport teams up to play mixed in California; these are two top 10 touring pros who both can play.
  • Eduardo Portillo/Hollie Scott: Scott is quickly becoming an outdoor force, and Portillo can hang with most any player.
  • Robert Sostre and …. A game day decision to see who pairs with Sostre. As of this writing, the hall of famer and multi-mixed titlist was seeking a partner. Sostre can carry a player to the final; can he find a partner to break through and win it?
    Men’s Singles features 8 brave players battling it out on the massive Marina Park courts. And there’s some big-time names in this draw. World Games champ Acuna, IRT #2 Parrilla, Hall of Famer Sostre, and fellow Hall of Famer Greg Solis are the favorites here. Solis is searching for that elusive singles title; he’s been a runner-up several times.

Women’s Singles: Carla Munoz is back to defend her 2021 singles title, and she’s got a slew of regular touring pros challenging her for the 2022 title. Lawrence, Parrilla, Rodriguez, and Scott are in the draw, along with outdoor specialists Victoria Rodriguez and Mexican Junior Angela Ortega. Scott has won the last three Beach Bash singles titles, but 3-wall is a different beast in singles than one-wall. This should be a competitive draw.

Look for Streaming on 3Wall Ball , led by the invaluable @jt rball.
Thanks to the Tourney Directors @Jesus Ustarroz and @geoff Osberg for putting this event on! They’ve been running Outdoor Nationals for 10 years now and continue to do a fantastic job. Thanks to @3WBall and Mike Coulter and Peggine Tellez for your help as well.
Reminder to Players! Please like and follow this page so that when I tag you, you see it. Facebook will only retain tags of people that like/follow a page, which means lots of you are not getting the notoriety of getting tagged and noticed on Facebook. If your name is here and it isn’t tagged … it probably means I attempted to tag you but Facebook stripped it.
Associations
@WOR – World Outdoor RacqueWoR
@USA Racquetball
onewallball / Ruben Pagan
3wallball / Mike Coulter / mc vegas
AGE Solutions / Andy Gomer
team root / Randy Root
KWM Gutterman / Keith Minor
APCON/MZ Companies / Abel Perez
Team Dovetail / Mike Kinkin
Daily Racquetball
Hashtags #racquetball #proracquetball #outdoorracquetball #irt #lprt #wor

Capital City WOR Championships Recap

Brenda Laime had a nice showing at the Stratton Woods event last weekened. Photo 2020Vegas by Stephen Fitzsimons


One of the biggest non-major outdoor events of the year was last weekend, the Capital City WOR championships held on the Stratton Woods courts in Herndon, VA (just outside of Washington DC).
r2 link: https://www.r2sports.com/portfolio/r2-event.asp?TID=39432
83 players from 11 states descended on the one-wall/three-wall complex to play both iterations of outdoor racquetball, plus some paddleball events, and celebrated the great weather with some great ball.

Here’s a recap of the Pro/Open divisions.
Singles 3-wall: IRT top pro Sebastian Franco won the small 3-man RR group to win the iron man competition that is 3-wall singles. All three matches between Franco, @Juan Pablo Rodriguez, and Nathan Tucker were close though. A few points either way and its a different winner.


Singles 1-wall: Maryland’s @Dylann Pruitt took out NYC’s 1-wall specialist William Rolon in the Singles 1-wall final.


Men’s 3-wall Open/Pro Doubles: #1 seeded local team Mauricio Zelada & Sergio Rivera held off the competition to take the title. In the semis they took out Maryland-based team of Pruitt/Bleyer. The vanquished finalists were top outdoor players Sebastian Franco & Thomas Gerhardt, who outlasted the NY pairing of Goldenberg/Sostre in the semis.


Men’s 1-wall Open/Pro Doubles: The biggest draw of the event featured 15 teams playing one-wall top-level doubles. In the top side of the draw, #1 NYers Sostre/Rolon took out team Formulaflow #5 Zelada/Mercado in one semi, while #2 Franco/Gerhard took out team onewallball.com #3 Pagan/Benny in the other semi. In the final, Sostre & Rolon prevailed in two.


Men’s 3-wall Combined 75+: the final came down to NY’s best versus Florida’s best, as Sostre/Goldenberg took out Hernandez/Mijares to take the title.


Women’s 3-wall Open/Pro doubles: tournament director @Aime Brewer took the “Queen of the Court” competition over three fellow outdoor ladies pros to take the “doubles title.”
Women’s 1-wall Open/Pro: USAR Hall of Famer @Aimee Roehler teamed up with LPRT touring pro @Brenda Laime to win the 3-team Women’s 1-wall RR title.


Mixed 3-wall Open: Pruitt & Laime teamed up to win a solid 3-team RR group for the title.

Mixed 1-wall Open: Laime got the Mixed doubles “double,” winning the 1-wall event with fellow FormulaFlow Pro Mercado. They took out the accomplished mixed doubles team of Pagan/Roehler in the final.

Thanks to Tourney directors Brewer and Carrie Hoeft for their tireless work on this event. Thanks to photographer Ken Fife for taking pictures all weekend and posting them for all to see. Thanks to lead sponsor @Andy Gomer and AGE Solutions, along with other sponsors who made this event possible.

Outdoor Cup Series Standings


The first Outdoor “major” is in the books. Beach Bash was a hit, and was well attended by one-wall specialists from the east coast, outdoor specialists from all-over, and by touring pros on both sides.


This was also the first of the three tournaments that will determine the winner of the 2022 Outdoor Cups. The Ladies cup series is sponsored by LPL Financial and the Men’s is sponsored by Kwm Gutterman , both companies run by huge racquetball enthusiasts and we thank them for their patronage.

Here’s the Cup standings after Beach Bash.

Women’s LPL Financial Cup Standings:

  • 1st: Michelle De La Rosa, 355 pts
  • 2nd: Masiel Rivera, 245 pts
  • 3t. @Katie Neils, 212.5 pts
  • 3t. @Erika Manilla , 212.5 pts
  • Hollie Scott , 205 pts.

Michelle De La Rosa, who would have won this competition last year if it existed, rightfully takes over the lead on the back of her Mixed Doubles title and finals finish in Pro Doubles. Rivera’s two second place finishes (in Singles and in Mixed) push her to 2nd place. Doubles partners Neils/Manilla, who took the Pro doubles title in an upset, tie for third place. Hollie Scott, despite winning the Singles draw, comes in fifth based on the small draw size in her win.

Also In the running after the first event in 6-10th place include @Kelani Lawrence , @AAnita Maldonado , @Susan Stephen , @KKathy Guinan , and Aimee Roehler .

LPRT full cup standings Worksheet: https://docs.google.com/…/1gUgDx40hqxGPJydLNyUR…/edit…



The Men’s competitions at Beach Bash included more than 50 potential players who competed in one of Singles, Doubles, Mixed, or CPRT. After the first set of competitions, here’s the top 5:


Men’s KWM Gutterman Cup Standings:

  1. Daniel de la Rosa , 550 pts
  2. @Javier Mar, 510 pts
  3. Mario Mercado , 375 pts
    4t. @Eric Faro , 325 pts
    4t. @IIgnacio Espino , 325 pts

    DLR, as expected, takes two titles and opens up a lead at the top. He’ll be tough to beat as long as he continues to dominate Mixed with his wife. But, a chink in the armor on the pro doubles side as he and @Alvaro Beltran took an early upset. Javier Mar had an astounding re-introduction to outdoor, winning pro doubles with 3rd place Mercado and racing to the singles final. Mercado continues to show why he’s one of the best doubles players in the land and may be kicking himself for not entering mixed (where he always does well). Faro and Iggy may not be long for this leader board once Outdoor Nationals rolls around as one-wall Florida-based specialists, but they had a solid weekend, taking the CPRT draw.
    Rounding out the top 10 include Eduardo Portillo , @Robert Sostre, @Andres Acuna , Sebastian Franco , and then a tie for 10th by the CPRT finalists @MaxMax Heyman and @Seran Ramkissoon. So, lots of players lurking who will definitely be at the next two majors.

  4. Men’s Full cup standings Worksheet: https://docs.google.com/…/1HBH6v9KhPIuUkwYjjWlI…/edit…


    Next stop, Outdoor Nationals for the second leg of the “Road to Vegas.” the R2site for Outdoor Nationals is live now and signups have begun!
    @World Outdoor Racquetball
    @3WallBall Outdoor World Championships
    @3Wall Ball
    @Mino Keith
    @MC Vegas