3rd Marine Logistics Group Todd Hodgkinson makes a rare miss of a stab at a ground ball against 1st Marine Aircraft Wing during Saturday's double-elimination winner's bracket final of the 2010 Marine Corps Western Pacific Regional Softball Tournament at Field 1, Gunners Fitness and Sports Complex, Camp Foster, Okinawa. 3rd MLG won 9-3, then later dethroned two-time champion Wing 8-1 in the tournament championship game. (Dave Ornauer/Stars and Stripes)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Pitcher Todd Hodgkinson supplied the fireworks with his glove. First baseman Ron Webb lit the match with his bat. As a result, 3rd Marine Logistics Group ended a six-year Marine Corps Western Pacific Regional Softball Tournament title drought.
Webb drove in three runs with a pair of doubles, while tournament Most Valuable Player Hodgkinson made four plays, three of them rally killers, with his glove as 3rd MLG dethroned two-time champion 1st Marine Aircraft Wing 8-1 on Saturday at Foster Field 1.
“Ron’s got a huge stick. He was huge for us in this game. Huge,” 3rd MLG coach Travis Oakley said of Webb, who batted 14-for-23 with nine RBIs in the tournament. “And Todd was just a jungle cat for us. Just phenomenal. Without Todd, there’s no way we would have ever won this.”
Webb’s RBI double in the fifth inning gave MLG an insurance run for a 3-1 lead. His two-out, two-run double in the sixth proved to be the backbreaker.
“The only thing I ever think about is to step in there and hit the ball as hard as humanly possible,” said Webb, 38, a gunnery sergeant and a two-time All-Marine from Hagerstown, Md. “All I tried to do was hit it hard. I don’t care where it goes; I just try to hit it through somebody.”
Hodgkinson, who suffered a broken nose in last year’s regionals, made 28 defensive plays in 10 games in the tournament, either knocking down or catching line drives, six of which began double plays. He credited the broken nose for making him more solid defensively.
“That broken nose made me aware of where I’m at, every play in every situation,” said Hodgkinson, 44, a master sergeant from Southgate, Mich. “I wasn’t prepared last year. Now, I’m ready for the ball at any time.”
Wing had won the tournament three times in the last four years, but didn’t get the job done at the plate this time, coach Jeremy “Meaty” Hinkhouse said.
“They hit really well when they needed to. They outhit us,” Hinkhouse said. “And Todd pitched a great game and played tremendous defense. He showed that old guys can still play.”
MLG got the only runs they would need on Francisco Poo’s two-run first inning single. Wing answered in the fourth on Drew Pollack’s sacrifice fly, but with two runners aboard, Thomas Harris lined into a double play to end the threat.
Hodgkinson followed Webb’s fifth-inning double by taking advantage of a five-man infield, leaving just three outfielders, and looping an RBI single to the right-center-field gap. Jason Trierson and Razy Molina preceded Webb’s decisive sixth-inning double with RBI singles.
Wing’s O’Brien leads All-Marine tryout camp selectees
Josh O’Brien of 1st Marine Aircraft Wing headlines six players selected to attend the All-Marine men’s softball tryout camp Aug. 27-Sept. 17 at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C.
O’Brien is the lone tryout camp veteran among the bunch, having gone last year but failing to make the team.
Joining him will be 3rd Marine Logistics Group’s Francisco Poo, Jose Pena and Tommy Macias, R.J. Robertson of Marine Corps Base Camp S.D. Butler and Rodney Buentello of Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni.
Players who make the All-Marine team will play in the All-Armed Forces tournament Sept. 18-24 at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. The All-Armed Forces team then plays in the Amateur Softball Association’s national championship tournament Sept. 30 to Oct. 4 at ASA headquarters in Oklahoma City.