West Des Moines and Des Moines, Iowa
  The first weekend of play at the 2007 NAFA World Series concluded Mondayafternoon as the third of three Champions was crowned, with the Scarlett's Sox(Sioux Falls, SD) defeating Priority Mortgage (Grand Rapids, Mich) in thefinal.
  On Sunday New Image (Monfort, Wisc) defeated the Black Knights (Fargo,ND) to win the inaugural Class AA-Major title while earlier in the day Rude-Pac(Sun Valley, Cal) outlasted Odin Fastpitch (Odin, Minn) in the Class A-Major.

 Following aresummaries of the finals of each class of play.

 The 2007 NAFAA-Major World Champion was crowned at the Des Moines Softball Park in DesMoines, Iowa Sunday afternoon as Rude-Pac (Sun Valley, Cal) defeated OdinFastpitch (Odin, Minn) 3-2.

  Rude-Pac went undefeated on the weekend, posting a6-0 record.

  Odin was dropped to the Loser's Bracket by Rude-PacSaturday and won three games Sunday to set-up a rematch with Rude-Pac.

  Odin moved into the Championship Game with a 1-0victory of the Blues Sofball Club (Hastings, Mich).  Odin's Dusty Pfeifferhit an RBI double in the top of seventh for the games lone run.

  The Blues threatened in the bottom of the seventh,getting their leadoff runner on before popping up a bunt.  The next battersingled but Odin ended the game with a strikeout.

  Rude-Pac's Greg Baker was named the tournament MostValuable Player with Odin's Justin Davis walking away with Most ValuablePitcher honors.

  Rude-Pac becomes the first California team since 2004when the Yucaipa Bombers (Yucaipa, Cal) won the Class AAA title in Hutchinson,Kansas.

 New Image (Monfort,Wisc) defeated the Black Knights (Fargo, ND) 8-5 Sunday evening at Racoon RiverPark in West Des Moines to win the inaugural NAFA Class AA-Major crown.

  With the win, New Image becomes the first team inNAFA history to win World Titles in back-to-back years after claiming the AAWorld Title last year in Appleton, Wisconsin.

 New Image bumpedthe Black Knights into the Loser's Bracket Saturday afternoon, forcing Kegel toplay five games just to get into the Championship Game.

  A win by the Black Knights would have made them thefirst three-time NAFA World Champions after winning the 2000 Class A Title(Fargo, ND) and the 2003 Open Title (Eau Claire, Wisc).

  In the Championship Game, New Image jumped out to a3-0 lead in the first inning on RBIs by Jim Peccararo and Kris Agnew.

  The Black Knights countered with a run in the bottomof the first then tied the game in the second by scoring on a passed ball and aNathan Wiens RBI single.

  The Black Knights grabbed the lead by scoring anunearned run.

  New Image tied the game again the next inning on aTodd Burlage RBI double.

  In the sixth, New Image scored three runs on asacrifice fly by Brent Holman and singled by Harvey Knutson and Jim Peccararo.

  The Black Knights cut into the lead in the bottomhalf with a run, which New Image countered in the top of the seventh.

  The Black Knights' Nathan Weins was named the MostValuable Player while Jeramie Holman of New Image was awarded the Most ValuablePitcher award.

 The Scarlett's Sox(Sioux Falls, SD) defeated Priority Mortgage (Grand Rapids, Mich) 2-1 in the"If Necessary" Championship Game at Racoon River Park in West DesMoines, Iowa to claim the 2007 NAFA Class AA World Championship.

  Priority forced the "If Necessary" game bywith a 4-3 win.  Trailing 3-1 in the top of the sixth inning, Mike Gruppenhit a three-run homer to give Priority Mortgage the win and force the finalgame.

  In the final game, the Scarlett's, the 2005 ClassA-Major Champion, jumped out to an early lead on Tim DeJong's RBI single.

  Travis DeJong led off the Sox second inning with atriple then scored on Chris Becker's single for a 2-0 lead.

  Priority cut the lead in half in the sixth on anotherRBI single by Mike Gruppen.

  Sox catcher Tim DeJong was named the Most ValuablePlayer with team mate Kyle Eberts taking home Most Valuable Pitcher honors.

 Play for the secondweekend becomes Thursday afternoon with competition in Class A, followed byplay beginning in Class AAA that evening, with the 23-and-Under divisionbeginning Friday evening.

 The Class AAAchampion will be crowned Saturday with Sunday bringing the finals of Class Aand 23-and-Under.

 The Racoon Riverand Des Moines Softball Park will be both in use this weekend once again.

   The 2007 NAFAWorld Series website at http://www.2007ws.nafafastpitch.comwill serve as the information point for everything concerning the event.

 Due to sometechnical difficulties, we are still in the process of working out box scoresand other stats to post on the website.

Brett Bresnahan

breshz(at)minnesotafastpitch.com