Hannington's softball teams
do it again!
Three-peat
victory for over-30 team
Hannington’s
over-30 softball team, sponsored by Attorney Glen Hannington,
won its third straight league championship on Sunday, August 17,
by defeating the American Legion team 18-17 in dramatic style.
Earlier that
morning, the American Legion team won a heart stopper in game
one by holding off the team of Schneiders & Schneiders 10-9 in
the losers’ bracket final to advance to the championship series
against two-time defending champions, Hannington’s Club.
In the
championship game, the Legion came out smoking with six runs in
the first inning and increased its lead to 11-3 after three
innings.
Hannington’s
chipped away at the Legion’s lead by scoring seven runs in the
next three innings but still trailed 16-10 after six innings.
Led by
regular season MVP and playoff MVP Jim Igo, Hannington’s scored
one run in the 7th inning and exploded for seven runs in the
bottom of the 8th to
take an 18-16 lead. The down-but-not-out American Legion team
led off the 9th inning
with back-to-back hits, driving in a run with the tying and
go-ahead runners on board. A fly out and force play at second
base secured the victory for Hannington’s. Coach Rich
Morganelli said that this was the best victory out of the three
championships thus far. “As one of the oldest teams in the
league,” he said, “we won on experience and our never-say-die
attitude.”
Regular
season MVP honors went to Steve Block and Jim Igo.
Over-55 team
wins championship
The 2008
Hannington’s of Canton over-55 softball team, sponsored by
Attorney Glen Hannington, won the prestigious Eastern
Massachusetts Senior Softball League Championship by defeating
Cambridge 8-1 and 14-2 in the season’s final games.
During the
season, Hannington’s averaged 16 runs per game while allowing
only six runs on defense. Offensively, the team was led by Ron
Pelligrini, Mike Swinamer, and Paul Donato.
Pelligrini,
who has been nominated for the National Softball Hall of Fame,
batted .780. Mike Swinamer can still hit with the best players
of any age, and he batted .650 for the season, while Paul Donato
averaged .630 with half of his 45 hits going for extra bases.
The
Hannington team’s batting average this year was an outstanding
.581, and it finished the season with a record of 22 wins and
four losses.
Many of the
Hannington players recently traveled to Loudoun County in
Virginia, where they won the Atlantic Coast Over-60
Championship, earning a return invitation to the National
Tournament of Champions to be held in Tampa, Florida in February
2009. In the Virginia tournament, Canton’s Pelligrini had 18
hits in 20 at bats for an amazing .900 average, while Mike
DiFelice hit over .600.
Hannington’s
manager Joe DeFelice will travel to St. George, Utah in October
to play in the World Series of Softball. His team, the New
England Renegades of Woburn, qualified for the tournament by
winning the New England regional title held in Branford,
Connecticut this past May.
The Over-55
EMass League is a senior softball league that was created in
1995 and has grown steadily since. In 2008, there were 22 teams
with approximately 320 players in the program.
It is the
second largest senior softball program in New England after the
Cape Cod Senior League. The EMass League is organized into three
divisions, and players are placed in the division according to
their abilities.
The American
Division, which dropped the age limit to 50 this year, has an
average age of 58. The National Division’s average age is 63,
while the Atlantic Division’s average age is 67.
If you
are interested in joining the EMass Over-55 League, you can go
to their website at www.emass-seniorsoftball.com or call
Coordinator John Stewart at (617) 969-0950 or Joe DeFelice at
(781) 828-6886.
August 28, 2008
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