This Month's News
August2015

Kitchener man claims third straight world softball title

August 22, 2015

Kitchener, ON

 

ORIGINAL STORY by Christine Rivet at Waterloo Region Record

Kitchener man claims third straight world softball title

Waterloo Region Record

The hardest-working man in fastball racked up another world title over the weekend.

That makes five — and three in a row — International Softball Congress open men's championships for Kitchener's Larry Lynch.

Lynch saw double duty as a first base coach for the open-division champion Hill United Chiefs of Six Nations and as the field manager for the Toronto Gators in the event's legends (over 50) division while the two events ran concurrently at the world tournament.

The ISC worlds, the same tournament held in Kitchener last August, wrapped up in South Bend, Ind., recently.

"It was a little like Superman changing his clothes in the phone booth," said Lynch, an ISC hall of famer who helped coach the Kitchener Twins to back-to-back world titles in 2008 and 2009.

The 60-year-old Lynch found himself running between diamonds and changing uniforms in dugouts in the town that brought the world the Studebaker car and Notre Dame University.

Even he couldn't keep which team he was supposed to be with straight.

"It was a little awkward, for sure. The guys all got a good laugh when I'd show up for a Chiefs game in a Gators hat," said Lynch, the former manager of engineering for the City of Kitchener.

"I paid quite a few fines (to the Chiefs) for that."

Somehow, he was able to pull it all together in the open division's championship final, when Hill United, also bolstered by Kitchener infielder Craig Crawford, rallied to defeat the Toronto Gators 6-4.

Just to be clear, Lynch's Hill United Chiefs defeated another Gators team — not the legends division Gators, but another squad bankrolled by owner Jack Fireman — in the open division for the title.

Fireman, a flamboyant semi-retired Toronto trial lawyer, has a reputation as a fierce competitor in and out of the courtroom.

But even Fireman, who once called Lynch "the best coach in the sport" hasn't been able to pry Lynch away from Hill United's star-studded open-division's lineup, a squad that went 50-1 this season.

"I'll stay with the Chiefs until they lose one," Lynch said. "Even then, I might have to come back to win another title."

Meanwhile, the Kitchener Twins, also competing in the open division in South Bend, were bounced out of the festivities early following a 5-4 loss to the Kitchener Cubs.

The Twins made it all the way to a memorable championship game at the 2014 worlds at Kitchener's Peter Hallman Ball Yard before they fell 3-2 to Hill United last year.

 

crivet@therecord.com

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