Triple Crown Championship Series
The 2005 Triple Crown season finished up last weekend and I want to say thanks to everyone that supported the series through their play and work. We had a great series and saw some good softball. Thanks to all the teams that came out to play, best of luck with your seasons. There was lots of great competition from the first tournament to third. In the Men's C it was Family Stone returning to play the 3rd tournament. The played spoilers and battled Us is Nutz for the Championship. Us is Nutz was looking to take home another Championship but Family Stone got one of their own. A great C bracket produced a different tournament champion for each tournament. The numbers of teams playing at this level are fewer but the competition still provides us with some of the best players playing the best softball on the island. In the end it was Lokahi Kanes that out lasted everyone to be crowned the State Champions and walk away with the jackets. Congrats to Gordan and the guys.

In the Men's D, what a battle. A couple nemesis showed up to play this last tournament and made a very good bracket even tougher. It was Hose taking home the Championship over the Fuji Market bunch in the IF game. Some great ball games all weekend long. The big battle came in the losers bracket between JJ's U No Dat and the Galaxy boys. One game for the State Championship and when the dust settled it was Galaxy Home Improvement taking the State Championship by defeating U No Dat 13-8. They lost their first game and battled back through the losers bracket. Beat U No Dat in the tournament and claimed the State Championship by 1 point.

Men's E, 10 teams showed up and played the 1 day tournament. O Case was crowned the State Champion but the Rising Sons bunch battled a very good bunch of teams to be the Tournament Champion. They fought off a very tough Rick's team twice and won a 1 run Championship game against Rick's. Mills II showed up and caused some teams to have to compete a little harder to get their wins. It was a strong bracket and the O Case bunch along with Lost Cause the pre tournament favorites both lost their opening round games and could not recover and were bounced before the final four.

The Women's bracket provided more excitement as 7 teams battled it out. The Family Stone ladies won not only the tournament but the State Championship. They battled with 808 to the bitter end for both the Tournament Championship and the State Championship. Both are very fine teams, but I see a couple of teams that can push them both once the have played together and built some experience and continuity.

The Mixed division made for the 2nd time. It was a scramble from the start. The 2 favorites Hawaiian Connection and 808 both came out of pool with one loss. They were the top 2 seeds but proved to be beatable. In the first round game Connection was knocked off again by I Trip while 808 handled the All Bus team to set up a rematch. In the pool play game earlier it was 808 run ruling I Trip. This time it was a 1 run game and I Trip knocked off the coed power 808.

All the teams that participated in the Hawaii Triple Crown Series are eligible to attend all of the Triple Crown Championships with the exception of the Premier Player Pinnacle Championship played in Vegas. The top 4 finishers in points of teams that played in the 3 tournaments in each division are the only qualifiers for this Pinnacle Championship held in Vegas on October 28-30, 2006

I wanted to say thanks to all of those who have been behind the efforts of making this season so successful for Triple Crown Softball.
SportStan, Andy Teruya, Stan Finch, Gary Shiraishi, Don Meinel, Family Stone, 808 Softball, Joe Gonzales and 808 Sports Net, Jeff Pacheco and his park crew, and Glen Kajiwara and the City and County of Honolulu Parks and Recreation


March 18-20, 2005

Results from the Triple Crown