HS & Club Softball

Club Spotlight: 12U Florida Batbusters ’05 – Riverview

The “Riverview Warriors” from the Tampa area in Florida compiled an overall record of 186–65 within three years and 14 tournament championships before joining the Batbusters family. OC Batbusters, frontman, Mike Stith started his East Coast expansion when adding the Florida 12U powerhouse in the Fall of 2017. Renamed the “Florida Batbusters ’05 – Riverview”, the team has continued its winning ways under the Batbusters organization. This year the team posted a 74–26 record, captured seven tournament championships, and separated themselves as one of the top second-year 12U teams in Florida and the Southeast United States.

Coached by Steven Bedenbaugh with assistants Matt Hallock and Rob Matteis, this “all local” team has some notable victories. With ten out of eleven girls living within ten miles of each other, this team takes pride in keeping their local roots strong. Winning the 12U USA Elite Select Fall Florida Legacy Prospect tournament, taking first place in the 12U USSSA Angels 4 Autism event, second place in the 12U USA Elite Select Spring Florida Legacy Prospects tournament after falling to Georgia Impact 2023 Lunsford, and second place in the 12U USSSA Florida State Championship. Canceled due to lightning, the Florida State Championship first and second place was determined by runs allowed. The Batbusters were awarded second place after allowing only one run in the tournament, falling just behind as the Gold Coast Hurricanes Cintron allowed zero. Most recently, the team tied for 13th out of 48 teams at the 12U USA Elite Select World Fastpitch Championships in Kansas City this July.

The Florida Batbusters ’05 originally formed in the Spring of 2014 as an 8U Rec League All-Star team. They started playing some USSSA travel/club tournaments in preparation for the 8U All-Star little league Fastpitch District tournament. That team went on to win districts to win the 8U Little League Florida State Championship out of a field of 28 and headed to the 8U US Eastern Regionals that summer. The team left little league in the Fall of 2015 and started playing club/travel exclusively as the Independent “Riverview Warriors.” Come Fall 2015/Spring 2016 the team went 69-9 with 7 USSSA Championships, and that’s when everything started to take off.

As an independent organization, the staff decided they could not give the girls the exposure they deserved and needed. Mike Stith was looking to expand the Batbusters to the East Coast, and the team already came pre-packaged with a successful track record. It was all about timing for the new Batbusters, and it happened to work out perfectly. “You couldn’t have written it up any better.” Under Mike Stith’s guidance, the former Riverview Warriors were now a part of the most successful fastpitch organizations in the country. Totaling over 70 teams, 44 of the Batbusters teams call California home while the other 30 are spread throughout the U.S. in New York, New Jersey, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, and Florida.

All of the major/elite events the Batbusters played in over the last few years have been about consistency. Last year, as a first-year 12U team, the Batbusters were the only team in their age group left standing in a field of thirty other teams from Florida and Georgia at the USSSA G.R.I.T.S Super NIT. Losing only to the Florida Blazers ’04 (Now Atlanta Vipers McDermott) and GA Academy Power ’04, who played each other in the Championship. Going undefeated in 2018 all 12U USA Elite Florida Legacy Prospect Championship directly followed by a second-place finish in the 12U USA Elite Florida Legacy Prospect tournament have been the two highlights in Batbuster USA Elite Select play this season. Also, being awarded second place in the Gold Division for the 12U USSSA Florida State Championship was bittersweet, since they couldn’t finish the tournament due to weather. But based on their season and a second place awarded finish for the USSSA Florida States, the team received an invite to ProSwings Power 50 Showcase Invitational taking place in October.

The first year as a Batbusters team has been pretty successful. The team has exceeded their goal of 70 wins and competing at the 12U USA Elite Select World Fastpitch Championship in Kansas City was an excellent way to end the season. All three members of the Batbusters coaching staff have experience playing collegiate baseball. The three pitchers also work with Mo Triner, USF Hall of Famer, All-American and former Women’s Professional Softball League number two pick in 1999. Tiner conducts her pitching and hitting lessons out of the teams private indoor/outdoor facility in Riverview, Florida.

You hear a lot of coaches and organizations say, “prepare them for college.” But the Batbusters goal is to prepare them to be student-athletes in High School, first. Public schools in Florida do not have middle school softball programs. So, the first taste of going to school and playing will be once the players reach ninth grade or freshman year in the Fall. With 57 university and college softball programs just in the state of Florida, the Batbusters believe once they pave their athletes the way through high school, that college will take care of itself. If every one of them wants to be a student-athlete and play college softball, they will have the opportunity to do so.

Off the field, they know to represent their community every time they go out because they are a local team. They also have core values and standards they must adhere to, now that they are Batbusters. Simply put, be a good person and treat others as you wish to be treated. One of their greatest advantages is their team chemistry. The players go to school together, run into each other at neighborhood and local community events, attend church together, etc.

Being all around good people is one of their strengths as a team but the Batbusters also have an advantage in their pitching staff. They have three starters that are entirely different from one another and give them the opportunity to go deep in tournaments, keep teams off balance, and preserve innings on their pitching arms. Fastpitch is primarily dominated in the circle. This team has one of the top pitching staffs in Florida. They have spotted a 1.88 ERA this year, and offensively the team is averaging seven runs per game. So, if the team can be consistent in their approach at the plate, pitching staff does their job, and defensively they make the routine plays then everything comes together nicely.

Another talent of the Batbusters is they can hit through their line-up, no problem. Repetition is the secret ingredient in their winning recipe. The team hits every practice. If there is one thing about the Florida Batbusters ’05, it’s that they get their swings in. Also, defensive fundamentals are taught every practice, and the team gets a lot of reps in. Outside of the reps, the coaching staff challenges them to work on things that they could not do physically or have thought of mentally. Through repetition, these tasks have become more natural during games and create plays a lot of other teams cannot.

The team looks forward to getting back to practice in August and start competing as a first year 14U team in September.

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