It appears Mapleton’s public works director manages a softball team as shrewdly as he manages a roads budget.
Larry Lynch and his team earned a gold medal at the recent World Masters Games (WMG) in Torino, Italy.
Lynch was the field manager at the games for the reunited Toronto Gators.
“This squad was my nemesis in the 1990s when I was head coach and general manager for the Waterloo Twins,” said Lynch. “We had an epic rivalry in that era.”
The Gators won the ISC World Championship in both 1993 and 1995, the first Canadian team to ever do it. They also won three Canadian national championships between 1993 and 1996.
Lynch says the Gator’s pitching ace Darren Zack was “the face of the game in the ‘90s and remains the most loved player of the game today.”
This year marked the 20th anniversary of the Gator’s first world championship and their owner Jack Fireman approached Lynch a couple years back asking him to lead a reunion squad to Italy to try and win another world championship as masters. Lynch had also joined Fireman in Israel at the 2009 Maccabi Games as the head coach of the masters men’s team, which finished with a silver medal at that event.
“I was fortunate to have played and coached with many of the members of the Italy bound team and we shared many fastball memories in the half dozen tournaments over 2012 and 2013 as the buildup to the WMG,” said Lynch.
Lynch says the WMG event was a special experience for everyone involved, noting, “The country was fantastic, the food delightful and wine was cheaper than buying water.”
The softball event was broken into three categories; recreational, competitive and elite. Likewise age groups were 35- plus 45-plus and 55-plus While the average age of the Gator team was 50, the team entered the 35-plus elite level which meant roster players were those with national team and or international experience. This was to be the best and youngest division of competition, but as it turned out, the Gators were the only team to register, so they played a division setup against the other teams in the competitive and recreational divisions. After being surprised by New Zealand in game one, the Gators fought to a 0-0 tie in a time-shortened game. The next day they played Ottawa and gave up two unearned runs early then stormed back to win 5-2. The team did not give up a run over their next five games. After seven round robin games, the team gave up zero earned runs and only allowed seven hits in total. They were awarded the gold medal in the elite division and finished up with a 7-1 victory over a tournament all-star team.
The win was one of three that Ontario brought home in softball with Ottawa 13’s winning the 35-plus competitive and Canada Classics the 45-plus competitive divisions.
Lynch’s regular club team, Hill United Chiefs, for whom he normally call the signals at third base, recently played an exhibition game in Moorefield.
While he was in Italy the chiefs won the Amateur Softball Association (ASA) Men’s National Championship, considered the highest level of softball completion in America.
