Author: Alexa DiSpirito

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 2, 2023

USSSA Slowpitch Expands Into Europe Through New Partnership With 360 Softball 

USSSA-sanctioned leagues and tournaments are set to start in European countries in 2024, giving the softball community opportunities to play slowpitch across Europe and North America.  

VIERA, Fla. — The United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA), the No. 1 multi-sport association in the country, today announced a partnership with 360 Softball Europe to bring USSSA Slowpitch to European countries beginning in 2024. 

The new partnership will offer greater opportunities for the softball community to play in USSSA-sanctioned Slowpitch leagues and tournaments throughout Europe and North America. 

Marc Stein, president of 360 Softball Europe who has successfully operated the European Slowpitch Softball Championships (ESSC) and other premier softball events with his team, takes on the role of USSSA Director of Slowpitch, Europe. 

“The partnership with USSSA is an important step for the development of slowpitch,” Stein said. “It opens up new opportunities for players in Europe and in the United States. USSSA entering the European market is exactly what we need for growth and expansion within the sport, and we look forward to a great future together.”

Added Sean Melvin, USSSA National Director of Slowpitch: “This is another giant step in the right direction of having a true USSSA World Tournament. This is something we’ve been working on for a long time, and we’re excited about the opportunities this will present for USSSA Slowpitch on an international level.” 

More details about USSSA Slowpitch’s European program will be released over the coming months. For more information on USSSA Slowpitch visit USSSA.com/slowpitch. More information on 360 Softball can be found at softballeurope.com.

On April 14, 2023, USA Softball, the National Governing Body of Softball in the United States announced that the Suncoast Backlash FP (-10) fastpitch softball bat model SBFPB-10 is no longer authorized for use in USA Softball Championship Play.

USSSA adheres to the USA Softball Bat Performance Standard for fastpitch bats used during USSSA fastpitch sanctioned play.  Effective immediately, the Suncoast Backlash (-10) bat model SBFPB-10 will no longer be authorized for use in USSSA sanctioned play due to failure to comply with required standards.

Note that this action only affects the Suncoast SBFPB (-10) fastpitch model configured in length/width ratios of 30/20, 31/21, 32/22, 33/23 and 34/24.

Directors,

Unforeseen circumstances within USSSA.com, DC and DC2 technology have led to significant downtime and frustrating outages for many of you recently. We know how critical of a role this technology plays in your day-to-day operations, and we can’t express how truly sorry we are for the inconveniences this has caused.

We have made the decision to revert to the old usssa.com for the time being (effective Monday, April 10th) as we continue further research and development. At this time, it appears that the issues we have been facing with DC and DC2 are directly correlated to dependencies within the new usssa.com.

Additionally, with your help, we have been gathering feedback from ALL audiences since the new website was launched and we feel this decision will also allow us to ensure we are providing our valued customers, with all the tools, features and proper user experiences they have told us they preferred about the old usssa.com.

The National office will continue to work diligently behind the scenes to incorporate the necessary precautionary measures needed to ensure this does not happen again.

USSSA bat models listed below are temporarily suspended from USSSA and GSL sanctioned Tournament and League Play until further notice:
 

Juno Athletics

The  following bat models listed below that have UTH-43 markings on handle will signify temporarily suspended models:

JA20MR1PT 

JA21MR1 

JA21MK18 

JA21FW1 

JA21FV1 

JA21MR1WS 

JA22MRI 

JA22BO12 

JA22FW2 

JA22SOS1 

JA22KB1 

JA22RH1 

JA22TKB 

JA22FW3

JA23MRI 

JA23FW4 

JA23GC1 

JA23SCX2 

JA23RH2 

Suncoast
 

SR12MUCETE 

SRM12AASE 

SR12MUCE 

SRMAASE 

SRMAASB 

SRMUSE 

SR12MUSE 

SRMUSB 

SR12MUSB 

Warstic 

24003  

Louisville Slugger

SPU028 

*Credit card processing has been reinstated.

As you are aware, we still have data that is currently unavailable from Friday, March 17th – Thursday, March 23rd. Below are next steps for how you can handle this gap in event entry data in order to get to them as quickly as possible:
 

1.) Reconcile your tournament entries between 3/17 and 3/23. 

2.) If a team ENTERED an event during that time frame, please put them back into that event within DC. 

3.) If a team ENTERED & PAID for an event during that time frame, please put them back into that event and mark them as PAID in the system using the adjustment tool. 

4.) If a team was CREATED during this window and then ENTERED or PAID, they will not currently be in the system. Enter them as a “TBD” team and make note of these use cases if it is for an event this weekend you need to produce a schedule for.
 

The highest priority for the Tech Team right now is to get the teams created during the 3/17-3/23 window BACK into the system. If for any reason we are unable to get this reconciled by Wednesday, we will provide a mechanism to do this manually. 

Please make sure to tell teams they DO NOT need to pay again for any transaction that occurred between 3/17-3/23. We have that money; they do not need to pay again.

We greatly appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.
 

Good evening,  

An update regarding current usssa.com, DC and DC2 technical issues —  

The Tech Team has continued to work through last night and today on data retrieval and system load times.  

Please note: We have temporarily disabled credit card payment processing.  

Reminder: Because of the outages we are still facing within DC and DC2, if you are not actively running an event this weekend, it is recommended to perform as little operations as possible inside the system through the weekend, to avoid any additional data loss.
The Tech Team will continue to monitor all systems throughout the weekend. 

We will provide another update on Monday. We appreciate your continued patience. 

Good evening, 

We’re providing another update regarding the technical difficulties we’re currently facing with usssa.com, DC and DC2. The Tech Team is still actively working to troubleshoot all issues at this time. Our main priority this afternoon was ensuring all directors running events this weekend were taken care of and could operate appropriately.

At this time, you may have noticed that the data has reverted to last Friday, March 17th. While the information (roster moves, team registrations, etc.) between then and this morning is unavailable to you at this time, we are actively working on its retrieval to your view as the director.  

Because of the outages we are still facing within DC and DC2, if you are not actively running an event this weekend, it is recommended to perform as little operations as possible inside the system through the weekend, to avoid any additional data loss. 

Again, we thank you for being patient as we urgently work to resolve all issues. We greatly apologize for the inconvenience this is causing. We will send another update no later than Monday.

Good Afternoon, 

As you all are aware we are experiencing technical difficulties with usssa.com, DC and DC2. The National Office and Tech Team have been working around the clock for the last 24 hours and are utilizing all resources to troubleshoot and identify root causes in order to get these issues resolved immediately. There is not a higher priority than solutioning this.  

We will share more information as soon as we have an update. Thank you for being patient as we work to resolve all issues. We greatly apologize for the inconvenience this is causing