HILO – The Kona Gold may be a little more gray in the beard than the Kona Legends, but with age comes wisdom. So the Gold understood a kupuna softball adage: timely hitting matters.
HILO – The Kona Gold may be a little more gray in the beard than the Kona Legends, but with age comes wisdom. So the Gold understood a kupuna softball adage: timely hitting matters.
There’s a burgeoning rivalry in West Hawaii, but the pecking order remained intact Friday after the Gold turned back the new kids on the block, bunching together six hits in the top of the seventh and scoring five runs for a 9-6 victory to win the Division A county championship at Walter Victor Stadium.
“We’ve been there so many times we just expect we’re going to win,” Gold coach Dave Chaikin said. “It doesn’t always work, but you have to think like that.
“They are the ones trying to get us, we’re not tying to get them. They are chasing us.”
So is everybody else in the state.
The Gold will seek a threepeat at the Hawaii State Senior Citizens Softball Tournament, Aug. 4-6 in Kona. The Legends will be the island’s top seed based on better season record.
With most of their players near the 60-year-old minimum, the Legends were also better – not too mention faster – through six innings and led by as many as four runs.
“We used to be the young team until they came around,” Chaikin said.
Bob Fitzgerald attributed the Gold’s early hitting malaise to “senior moments.”
“A little senile dementia,” he said.
It lifted in the seventh. Richard Rasay hit an RBI double, Pete Hoffmann hit a two-run single to give the Gold the lead, and Bobby Dudley and Sol Alani added run-scoring singles. Bruce Boone’s double helped the Gold draw within 6-4 in the sixth.
After Alani secured his complete game, Fitzgerald celebrated with the exuberance of a youth baseball player.
“I know what it’s like to be on the other side and have to go around Kona,” he said. “A nice little rivalry.”
While the Gold’s skills haven’t shown signs of erosion, Fitzgerald said he hasn’t seen any signs that the Department of Parks and Recreation’s elderly services division has eroded since he left his post as county director.
“One of the best things about the job was the senior program,” he said. “It’s more than just softball.”
Seeking a title in its second season in the league, Legend coach David Fukumoto ripped a two-run triple to put his team on the board in the second and his run-scoring double in the fourth helped the Legends go ahead 6-2.
“It’s a game of chances,” the Legends’ Alvin Sato said. “They are the champs.”
The Punatics (B Division) and Waiakea Seniors (C Division) also won titles Friday.
Hilo Pomaikai and the Honomu Rockets will join the Kona teams at states. Of the 65 teams converging on West Hawaii, 27 will be from the Big Island.