KAILUA-KONA — For the teams in the Mayor’s Cup senior softball tournament, the three-day gauntlet of games was not a sprint or a marathon. It was a derby.
A total of 18 teams — 12 in the 60-and-over men’s division and six on the 50-plus women’s side — congregated in Kona for the seventh edition of the tournament that featured a hefty serving of home runs.
Top Dawgs took home the men’s title, slugging their way to a 26-10 victory over Vanguard Ohana in the championship game on Wednesday.
“I’m hurtin’,” said Top Dawgs captain David Fukumoto, who is also known as Kona Dave around the softball field. “It’s a long tournament for everyone, but always a good time.”
He is one of a few local Big Island players on the Washington-based squad that has won the last two titles at the Mayor’s Cup.
So, is a three-peat try on the horizon?
“We’ll be back next year,” said Fukumoto, who used to live in the Tri-Cities area. “It’s like a family reunion when these guys come out. It’s all about hanging out with your old buddies, having fun playing softball.”
The Dawgs didn’t lose a game on the way to the title thanks to some hot bats, most notably that of Brett Krueger, who hit balls so far that most of the time the outfielders didn’t even move. A grand slam early in the game helped the Dawgs stay on top and never look back, hitting the 5-run per inning mark multiple times.
“Huge home runs,” Fukumoto said of Krueger. “He’s a big guy. I think a bunch of them landed on top of the bank out there.”
It was a valiant effort by Vanguard Ohana, which played its way out of the losers bracket and into the championship game. However, that route meant a whopping five game on the final day, which meant their bats had a little less juice in the final matchup.
“We had to do that last year,” Fukumoto said. “We felt their pain.”
On the women’s side, Team Coral bested Team Green 17-7 for the tournament title.
The event is also for a good cause, benefiting the Hawaii Island United Way, raising tens of thousands of dollars for the organization over the life of the tournament.