Local Team Wins 80s Bracket To Close Cape Cod Senior Softball Classic

SOUTH DENNIS – The Cape Cod Sharks trailed 11-6 midway through the fifth inning of the championship game of the 80s bracket during the 31st Cape Cod Senior Softball Classic last Wednesday, Sept. 10.

With the six-day tournament — held in Harwich, Yarmouth and Dennis — rolling to the finish and already having determined winners in the younger age pools, just the 80-year-olds and up remained. And NH Nemesis, one of the 70 teams from 11 states in the annual competition, looked to be in position to take the last crown at Johnny Kelley Park.

But the local boys pulled through. 

The Sharks first put up five runs in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game, which remained even going into the final seventh inning. A solo home run put NH Nemesis back up by one run.

With three outs left for Cape Cod, left fielder Joe Barry, 82, hit an RBI single to quickly tie the game again. NH Nemesis turned a big double play that might have seemed to quell the rally, but the Sharks continued to threaten. After a couple more base hits, catcher John Lamberti, 84, shot a single to bring in the deciding run, with Cape Cod walking off to win the championship 13-12. 

The local boys had some magic.

“What a team,” shortstop Rob Robidoux, 85, said. “What a team.” 

The Sharks, sponsored by Margaritaville in Hyannis, formed midsummer as a team of players from two divisions in the Cape Cod Senior Softball League. They went undefeated in the tournament. 

“It produced this,” Robidoux (also the team’s manager) said. “It was a great group of guys.”

The Sharks’ win capped off a record year for the Cape Cod Senior Softball Classic. The 70 teams in the tournament were the most ever, as were the 11 states they all came from (five more states than last year, with the farthest team coming from Florida, according to tournament director Bob Kemple). Six teams in the 80s and 16 in the 70s groups played, which was “just amazing,” Kemple said. 

The youngest bracket in the competition was the 50s. Teams come season after season and age up through the tournament. NH Nemesis, for example, started playing 16 years ago.

“The 80s are inspirational to a lot of these younger players,” Kemple said.

One team had a 93-year-old catcher, according to Kemple, and throughout the competition overall, the play — all the while fueling the competitive juices in players — was “outstanding.” 

“The sportsmanship stands out and really the camaraderie you see,” Kemple said. “It’s almost surprising.”

More than 1,100 ballplayers completed nearly 200 games at Sandy Pond Field in Yarmouth, Kelley Park in South Dennis, and Bassett, Potter and Memorial Fields in Harwich. Kemple estimated the Classic brings about $1 million into the area. The tournament has “the Cape Cod flavor to it,” he said.

“To a T, people love coming here to play,” Kemple said.

For the Sharks, their walk-off final game win surely must have been even sweeter given the team finished as 80s division runners-up in last year’s tournament. 

With a winner’s plaque in their possession, Robidoux had one primary reaction he repeated to teammates as they donned “Classic Champions 2025” shirts after the game.

“I can’t believe we won,” he said.