Walk-Off Home Run Caps Cape Cod Senior Softball League All-Star Games

HARWICH – The last play of the Cape Cod Senior Softball League’s all-star games Friday, after nearly 30 innings spread across the afternoon, acted as a most fitting exclamation point.

Team American trailed Team National with two outs in the bottom of the final seventh inning during the Division 1 showcase when the league’s home run leader, Rich Rideout, stepped to the plate. Already having hit two homers in the game, Rideout launched a third — a game-winning, day-ending blast.

“That’s what I do,” he said. “I thought they were gonna walk me, and they pitched to me and that’s what I do.”

The walk-off home run in the Division 1 contest highlighted the senior softball league’s four games held at Potter and Memorial Fields in Harwich last week, the organization’s second annual all-star event in its nearly 40-year history. Players and managers selected the all-stars among the more than 400 players above the age of 50 across four of the league’s divisions, which are split up by ability.

“It’s something we’ve got here,” commissioner Jim Gunning said. “It’s a little bit of magic.”

Each division named 26 all-stars, split up into sides of 13 that mixed and matched players from different teams for the games. Each game honored a most valuable player afterwards. The day acted as a mid-season celebration for the league, according to Gunning.

“The teams are trying to win, but it’s to have a good time, which is for the most part the theme of all we do,” Gunning said.

Rideout was named MVP of the Division 1 game (final score 18-17 Team American), a decision surely made quite easily, probably before the last home run ball had even landed. His 22 home runs so far this season are by far the most in the league’s top division.

“I’m just happy to play with my teammates,” Rideout said. “If it’s not for my teammates, I wouldn’t be here.”

Division 3’s home run leader, Scott Rosenthal, similarly provided the big play in that group’s all-star game, also earning MVP honors. Tied 10-10 in the seventh, Rosenthal hit an inside-the-park grand slam to center field for Team National, which hung on to win 21-17 in extra innings. 

Rosenthal said that the night before the game, his coach had texted him about not swinging at low pitches. That was in the back of his mind as he stood in the batter’s box before he hit the slam on a pitch that was, in fact, low.

“But before any pitch, I try to just zone out of everything, because I hear people talking behind me, and all I say is watch the ball hit the bat, and I got a good piece of it,” he said.

 The two sides of all-stars in Division 3 clearly evenly matched each other. Team American responded to Rosenthal’s inside-the-parker with four runs of their own to go into extras tied 14-14. Then Team National put up seven for the win. 

The slate of all-star clashes throughout the afternoon began with the American side taking the Division 4 game 13-9. The MVP was shortstop Bob Buck, a league hall of famer.

“You win it with defense, and a lot of us hadn’t played together before but we seemed to play pretty good defense together,” Buck said.

In the Division 2 game, Team American won 14-13, bolstered by a four-hit, multi-RBI performance by MVP Larry Kanupp. 

“It’s really nice, really fun to play with a bunch of different guys,” Kanupp said.