The A-1 Golf Carts Tournament Champions: Kneeling (left to right) Ed Sowney, Chuck Hamby, Reg Reese, Stan Weiss, Bill Cheney and Dennis Bernaiche; standing (left to right) Manager Gary Hillabolt, Jim Dunn, Larry Wolfe, Art Sheskie, Tom Erpelding, Evan Hansen and Jeff Jay
Larry Wolfe
The Sun Lakes Senior Softball Association wrapped up the 2015-2016 season with a seeded six-team tournament on April 16. The seedings were based upon the teams’ spring season won-lost records. Hundreds were on hand to watch the exciting contests.
In game one, the fourth-seeded Mutual of Omaha squad, managed by Mike Gloyd, edged the fifth-seeded State Farm Insurance team, managed by Gary Hatch, by a score of 10-7. Chuck Schaan led the winners with three hits and a base on balls while Dick Bleich led the losing Insurers with three hits.
The second game featured the third-seeded A-1 Golf Carts team, managed by Gary Hillabolt, facing Manager Larry Kaufmann’s sixth-seeded Farmers Insurance team. The Golfers banged out 22 hits in a convincing 18-11 win. Bill Cheney and Larry Wolfe led the winners with four hits each while Denny Davidson, Larry Kaufmann and Hal Kime had three hits each for the losing squad.
A-1 came right back with a 13-9 victory over the second-seeded Brenden Financial Planning team in game three. Evan Hansen paced the winners with four hits while Tom Erpelding and Larry Wolfe had three hits each. Dick Bleich and Wes Reynolds each had three safeties for Manager Ken Brenden’s losing team.
After a break for lunch and an awards ceremony, play continued with top-seeded West USA Realty (managed by John Seigla and sponsored by Terry & Susan Young) facing the Mutual of Omaha Bankers. In a high scoring affair, the Realtors topped the Bankers 25-16. Bob Hutchins, Steve Schaider and Bob Zawidski each had four hits for the winners while Art Hamer and Tom Kasunic banged out four hits each for the Bankers. Two of Tom Kasunic’s hits were long homeruns.
The two survivors, third-seeded A-1 Golf Carts and top-seeded West USA Realty, then met for the championship in what turned out to be an epic classic. The realtors led most of the way until the golfers went ahead by two runs in the final inning; however, the Realtors tied it up in the bottom of the inning, forcing extra innings. A-1 scored five times in the extra inning and looked to have an upset under wraps; however, the Realtors staged another clutch comeback. After scoring four times to move within one run, the game was finally decided when the potential tying run was thrown out at the plate. The final score was 22-21 with A-1 banging out 30 hits and West USA Realty totaling 26 hits. The champion A-1 team was led by Bill Cheney, Tom Erpelding, Chuck Hamby, Gary Hillabolt and Jeff Jay with four hits each. Dom Colonna, Steve Schaider and John Seigla had four hits each for the runners-up. This exciting game provided the perfect ending to a great season.
Please see the general softball news article elsewhere in this edition of the Splash for more coverage of the awards ceremony and awards winners.