NikkeiWest--Northern California Japanese American Newspaper

It’s been a long losing road for the NikkeiWest team in its inaugural year playing in the Northern California Senior Softball Association league. But the rookie team finally broke through its losing record going undefeated and winning their division the weekend of Aug. 6-7 at the Pleasanton Sports Complex.

Playing in their sixth tournament of the year, the 50 and over aged players finally came together and outscored the five other teams in their division 99-60. The mediocre defense with some inconsistent pitching was out shadowed by their offense that hit a season high nine home runs.

The now labeled “senior” ballplayers were averaging 20 runs per game while limiting the opposing teams to about 12 runs per game. One reason for the run discrepancy could be that the other teams were about 10 years older. Because NikkeiWest struggled early on the year in the team building stages, the team was the lowest rank in the 50-year-old division. The ranking positioned them to play teams that were older, more mature, but lacking in speed and agility.

“We’ve been told we probably have the fastest team around. Everyone is watching us,” said Manager Jeffrey Kimoto. “The team is predominately Asian American, which could account for our speed since we are smaller than the other players.”

The one team that gave NikkeiWest trouble was the tournament director’s team, California Starzz, who has beaten NikkeiWest by one run in each of their last three meetings this year.

The momentum of scoring nine to 10 runs in the first two innings in their last five games came to a sudden halt when NikkeiWest played their last game against Starzz. Two runs came in the third and fourth inning but Starzz was still leading 13-6.

The fifth inning started to come around for the rookie team. Wayne Sakai hit a single, followed by a double by Rick Mejia, and a single by Chris Shimasaki. With two outs and two runners on base, Kimoto using a 28 oz. end-loaded Super Senior Reebok Melee Legend, hits a towering homer over the 20 foot high 280 ft. fence mark in left center field.

Because of a five run limitation rule, additional runs could not be scored until the last inning of the game.

With the score 13-11 and still down two runs, the nine-run sixth inning barrage was started by the next players in the lineup, Bryan Wataji, Mel Mejia, and Glenn Sakai, who all reached base on singles. The icing on the cake came when Rick Nails hit a monstrous grand slam over the centerfield fence that helped seal the victory and first tournament win for the team—and finally beating Starzz 20-13. The team shutdown Starz in the bottom of the fifth and sixth inning.

Leading the team in homers during the tournament were Rick Nails, Rick Reddaway, Chris Shimasaki, Richard Quan, Jeffrey Kimoto, and Chris Bailey.

The team will be playing next in Manteca at the Big League of Dreams Sports Park on Aug. 20-21.

The Northern California Senior Softball Association sponsors nearly 50 local tournaments per year throughout Northern California, from Redding to as far south as Merced. Players must be over 50 years of age.