EMASS REPEATS AS ATLANTIC COAST CHAMPIONS
Repeating is a rare occurrence on the national level of the
ultra competitive
senior softball tournament circuit but Joe Salzano's Bostonians
did just that by
defending their Atlantic Coast Championship this past weekend.
In the
oppressive heat and humidity of Loudon County, Virginia they
won 8 out of 9
games to earn a return invitation to the National Tournament
of Champions to be
held in Tampa next January.
The Bostonians, consisting of 11 EMASS athletes plus 2 players
from Cape Cod
placed 5 of its members on the all tournament team –
Dave Hadden, Roger
LaPage, Stu Gray, Al Penny and Dave Clark. Clark was named
tourney MVP.
The team won its first 4 games in the preliminary round and
thus earned the
number #1 seed going into the double eliminations. However,
they lost their first
game in the bottom of the 7th to the Virginia Cavaliers 19-18
and had to win all
four games from the loser's bracket on Sunday to repeat. Sunday's
games began
at 9:00 am and were played back to back to back to back in
temperatures
approaching 100 degrees concluding at 3:00 pm. Hitting dominated,
as the
Bostonian offense rang up 90 runs in the four games on “Steamy
Sunday”
compared to only 36 runs for their opponents.
The team roster: Dave Clark and Peter McClellan (both from
Cape Cod), Bob
Clifford (Quincy), Mike DeFlice and Ron Pellegrini (both from
Canton), Bob Gallant
and Al Penny (both from Peabody), Steve Jones (Wayland), Stu
Gray, Dave
Hadden, Roger LaPage, Jeff Philcrantz and Joe Salzano (all
from Cambridge).
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