The Beginning
In 2014, the Sun City Sidewinders were looking to start a 55 team. Donnie Lewis was our manager and head cheerleader. Tom Petrizzio, Emery Hunt, King Ott, and Jim Walters were the first players selected and still with us today.
We started the season as a 55AAA and won some games but needed to add more seasoned players to compete. We did win one local tournament in year one
For more up to date information on our teams, see the Blog and Photo sections of this site.
2016
As the team added more seasoned players, we became very competitive and won our first TOC in PHX with the Worlds.
In May our 55 team came through the losers bracket winning the If game for the championship in Reno.
In summer, the team added wins in Prescott and Flagstaff to add to their season tournament wins.
2017
In mid 2017, our original Sidewinders 55AAA team amicably split from the Sidewinders due to most of our players not meeting Sun City residence requirements and the Az Scorpions were started. As the first year progressed, we realized we had a number of players aging out of the 55s. As luck would have it, the Ambush team was splitting up and had a number of players eliable for playing 60s.
In November 2017 the start of the 2018 season, a second Scorpion team was formed giving us teams as follows:
- 55AAA
- 60 Major
For more up to date information on our teams, see the Blog and Photo sections of this site.
2018
The season was a success for both teams.
The 55s won:
- Mountain Madness I
- Aurora Co TOC and an invite to Florida Tournament of Champions.
The 60s won:
- Doc Metcalf Tournament
- Western States Championship
- Mountain Madness II
I would like to thank our Managers for this season.
Larry managed the 55s with assistance from Frank and Ron. They did a great job in building this team during the year and by year end, they won a TOC and an invite to Florida.
Larry has given the job to Frank for the 2019 season and continues is a lesser role.
Ken managed the 60’s to a very successful year in addition to leading the team in hitting. Unfortunately, his knee is not cooperating and he had to leave the team and rehab.We wish him the best in his rehab, and who knows, we may see him again in our future.
Steve has taken over for the 2019 year.
For more up to date information on our teams, see the Blog and Photo sections of this site.
2019
The 55s AAA crushed the PHX Worlds going 6-0 and winning the championship game 31-12 for their first TOC of the year. They followed this up going 6-0 in the Toys for Tots tournament championship.
Two weeks later, they got “the Letter” announcing they were now being moved up to the Major level. We are confident that they will have great success at this higher level.
The 60s won the Doc Metcalf tournament championship in January going 5-1 and 3-0 on Sunday’s elimination round.
The 55s won the Spring training championship at Rose Moffort in March. This was their third tournament win this year.
In July our 55s and 60s teamed up to win the 55 Major Southwest championship in Prescott.
Our 60s came in 2nd in Aurora Co. Scoring 11 in the bottom of 7th in semi finals. Eventually losing the championship and taking second.
For more up to date information on our teams, see the Blog and Photo sections of this site.
2020
This year the Scorpions will no longer have a 60 team, instead most of the team is moving up to a 65 Major team managed by Bill Corso. The 55 Major team stays intact with a few of last year’s 60 team dropping down to play 55’s.
In the first major tournament of the year, the 65’s won the PHX Worlds going 6-1 for their first TOC of the year. The 55’s had 2 tough 1 run losses and did not place in their tournament.
In the February Spring Training tournament, both the 55’s and the 65’s won their respective divisions.
The rest of the year ended due to Covid.
2021
This year we are starting out with only a 65 team as the 55 broke up and moved to several other local teams.
This year started out in Phoenix and a 12 team field. We seeded 5 and lost a heartbreaker to R&R 26-23 moving us to the losers bracket. We won 5 consecutive games 18-4 vs Rezults, 18-12 vs N.Idaho, 19-18 vs R&R (revenge), 23-15 vs Last Call, and 23-18 vs AOS to get into the finals. We lost to Houston Fire, a very good team who was much fresher than we were.
The Holiday Bowl in December started slow (1-2 in seeding) On Sunday we went undefeated and won championship.
Fountain Hills had a local tournament in late January. We finally broke the bad habit of a bad game early and played 5 excellent games going 5-0 and beating AOS in finals 24-20.