Larry Wolfe
The Sun Lakes Ponchos won the Major Division of the Southwest Senior Softball Championships held last month in Las Vegas. In addition to southwestern-based teams, the Major Division included squads from Colorado, Florida and Hawaii. After losing their first two games by close scores of 15-13 and 19-18, the Ponchos battled back to win six of their final seven contests, including two wins in the finals against the strong Tri-State team from New Mexico.
Hitting was the name of the game for the Ponchos as they hit a collective .704 for the tournament. They also bashed out 17 home runs with Paul Gayer leading the way with eight long balls. The team averaged 20 runs per contest. Defense also played a part in the victories as the infield turned 11 double plays and one triple play. The Ponchos outscored their opponents by 43 runs during the tournament.
Paul Gayer led all hitters with a .889 average. Larry Kaufmann, Tim Loeffler and Mike Wolfe also batted over .800.
Manager Denny Davidson said, “I really appreciated the team work and unselfishness of the whole team. Everyone was instrumental in helping us win the Championship.”
The team is sponsored by the Vasquez family’s Poncho’s Mexican Food and Cantina, located just north of Baseline on South Central Avenue. Denny Davidson is the field manager, while Bill Corso is administrative manager. Evan Hansen is planning and personnel manager for the team.
Congratulations to the whole squad for bringing another world class senior softball championship to Sun Lakes!