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CRUISERS
BATTLE ON ISLAND!
March 3, 2002
Honolulu, HI -
The Madden
Cruiser softball had been speaking of playing in
Hawaii for the past year and a half. This past
weekend, the talk became reality as the ball club
scratched and clawed it's way out to Oahu for a
once in a lifetime experience. Softball in
HAWAII!!
The trip
originally began with fourteen
confirmations.
The Hawaiian Cruisers!
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Once the
deposits were requested, the ball club only had 12
SoCal Players ready to go. Still more than enough
to get the game on! Slowly but surely, for various
reasons, players began to drop out. Eric Bolle,
Scott Shumaker, Joe Ferandnez, Chad Bickley, Jason
Sullivan... One by one... As players began to drop
out, a few others began to take spots. Mike
Rosenfeld and old timer Tom Lopez opted to join the
crew. Some of you may recall Lopez from his days on
the team back in 1995. He happened upon the site
sometime in July of last year, and has stayed in
touch with the team. Why not Hawaii to reunite with
the ball club??
Charles "Scar
Tissue" Summers was a late addition to the club,
when T-Lope told him about the trip. "Hawaii?
T-Lope? How can I pass that up" said Summers. The
late signing of Summers however was offset by three
more cancellations in the last week. Bruce
Wondelrick (work), Nick Cantu (knee injury) and Pat
Sullivan (Bronchitous?) all passed on the trip days
before the team was to take off. This left the team
with seven viable players, and a honckering for
Pina Coladas.
The team did not
waiver at this initial sign of adveristiy. The
players, wives and Girlfriends all hoped on their
respective planes at LAX (home of multiple bomb
threats this week)
Los Angeles International Airport
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and headed
to the OUTRIGGER REEF (on the Beach). A week of
fun in the sun, golf, snorkeling and other such
activities filled their agenda. Then finally the
big weekend approached and the ball club headed out
to Lanikuhana Field.
The Cruisers
first game was scheduled for 10:00am Saturday
morning. "A late start? This can't be right?" said
lead-off hitter John Rodriquez. Tournament director
Cecil Hale suited up with Madden and brought on to
of his teammates (Alan & Brandon) to round out
th crew.
The team was
slated against a big Samoen team called "Full
Contact". Suprisingly, Full Contact didn't do so
well and the Cruisers walked off with an easy 12-0
mercy rule win. The Cruisers only batted .375 in
that first game, but played solid defense. After
the game, Hale told manager Dan Romero that Full
Contact had won the tournament the week prior.
Visions of sugarplums, trophies and championships
danced in the Cruisers heads!!
However, the
clock struck midnight at 2pm later that day... A
team by the name of "WEPA" came out to play, and
boy could these boys hit. They quickly jumped out
to a 7-2 lead.... and didn't stop there. The
Cruisers bats did their best to keep up, however
Wepa lead by a 28-17 count heading into the bottom
of the 7th. Chasing 11 runs, the Cruisers kicked it
into high gear. After Cecil Hale popped up to lead
off the inning, the next twelve batters reached
base via hit or walk. In the process the Cruisers
were able to TIE the game. After recording the
second out, the Cruisers had a runner reach third.
Wepa then intentionally walked Andy Solis &
Charles Summers in hopes they could send the game
to extra innings. That they did, and the Cruisers
had to check themselves again.
Wepa would have
none of it, and brought the sticks out again. They
plated four more runs to take a good lead yet
again. It got worse as the two of the first three
batters recorded outs... so now the comeback had to
be done with two outs. Breaking down 11 the inning
before, it didn't seem too far fetched. The
Cruisers began to hit again, and the Cruisers wound
up tying the game at 32 a piece. With john
Rodriquez on Second base, Andy Solis came up and
won the game with a single, completing the greatest
comeback in Madden Cruiser history.
Cruisers with that comeback
feelin!!!
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"That was the
greatest game I've ever been a part of. Chaaales
had fun too" said Tom Lopez.
One more win, and
the Cruisers were in the undefeated finals. The
next game brought on a tough "Nutz" team. The team
batted well and played flawless defense. The
Cruisers were able to hang for a while, but three
runs in the top of the 7th gave the Nutz a 18-9
lead. The Cruisers could only manage one run, and
headed to the losers bracket on Sunday.
The next day the
team took on Wepa again... well a team CALLED Wepa.
Apparently they weren't happy with their loss to
us, so they brought 5-6 new players out who could
PLAY. Wepa put a quick 15 runs on the board to
start the game... and the rest is history.
Cruisers go home
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They held on
for the 21-9 mercy rule win after five innings.
Interestingly, the Cruisers batted their best on
the day in this game coming in at a .674 clip. The
loss put the team in 5th place for the day... a
satasfiying finish.
All in all the
trip was deemed a fantastic success. Our three
Hawaiian Brethern had HUGE days and really did a
great job on both sides of the ball. They actually
held this tournament to raise money to come out to
Vegas in April. The Cruisers are planning to roll
out and meet them again on April 20th in the NSA
28TH Annual Heritage Days Classic. "Vegas is closer
than Hawaii" said Andy Solis. Everyone had a blast
on the trip, and the team is looking forward to
doing something like this again. If you have the
chance, we highly recommend an Island visit for a
little ball.
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