Seven Fallbrook players contribute to senior softball championship

Seven Fallbrook residents, including player-manager Dan Haveron, were among the 16 players on the Top Gun 65 Silver team which won the Senior Softball USA world championship October 17-20 in Phoenix.

The Top Gun 65 Silver squad had a record of 28-4 during 2011 and won four Senior Softball USA major tournaments, including the world championships. “It’s kind of unusual for a senior softball team to go 28 and 4,” Haveron said. “These guys hit the ball well and played good defense all season.”

The 69-year-old Haveron, who was raised in Phoenix and moved to Fallbrook seven years ago, played second base for the team as well as managed it. Haveron brought the team together four years ago. “We took it from a rag-tag bunch that couldn’t win a game hardly,” he said. “Just kept building on it and building on it.”

The senior softball age brackets are in five-year increments, so a player in the 65-and-over age group must be at least 65 although any player 70 or over may choose to remain in 65-and-over play or move to the older age group. Top Gun 65 Silver had four new players for 2011. “Made a world of difference in our overall play,” Haveron said. “The guys won four major tournaments, which was an accomplishment.”

In addition to Haveron, the Fallbrook players were utility player Jerry Avila, outfielders Steve Baker and Howard Clark, catcher Tony Heffdorfer, shortstop Frank Sperling, and third baseman Bob Storm. Avila batted .933 in the world championships. The team also plays in a local league at Ingold Fields.

Last year Top Gun 65 Silver was in the AA division. In February Haveron asked to be moved up to the AAA division for 2011. “We wanted to get a better competition level,” he said. “We ended up beating everybody even in the AAA level. Now we move to major for next year. We’ll see what happens then.”

Twelve teams competed at this year’s world championships in the 65-and-over AAA division. Four were from California, two were from Chicago, two were from Arizona, two were from Colorado, and two were from Texas. The teams began with four pool play games, although all twelve teams were actually in a single pool and not every team played each other during the October 17-18 pool rounds. “I thought the way they set this up was pretty good because we didn’t have to play a California team until we got into bracket play,” Haveron said.

Top Gun 65 Silver began the tournament with an October 17 victory over the Chicago Seniors and concluded the day with a win over the Denver-based Scrap Iron team.

The only tournament loss for the Top Gun 65 Silver squad was in an October 18 pool game against the Chicago Classic Gray Sox, which beat the Top Gun squad by a single run. “We didn’t hit. We had four innings of goose eggs,” Haveron said.

Top Gun 65 Silver closed pool play with an October 18 victory over the San Antonio Legends.

The pool play results determined seeding for the bracket games. Top Gun 65 Silver’s first bracket game October 19 was a 19-16 triumph over the California Crush team based in Orange County. Top Gun 65 Silver concluded the October 19 contests with a 15-10 win against the Houston-based Texas Leftovers.

The October 20 semifinal match against the Chicago Seniors was decided by a 23-13 score in the California squad’s favor, setting up a match in the finals against the

http://www.robson.com team based in Chandler, Arizona. That team is sponsored by a land developer whose projects include senior complexes. “They always have very good teams,” Haveron said.

Top Gun 65 Silver took the championship with a 23-15 victory over the http://www.robson.com team.

“We didn’t blow anybody away. We just beat them,” Haveron said.

The tournament games lasted seven innings, and there was no ten-run mercy rule and no time limit. Top Gun 65 Silver had taken fourth place in the 2010 world championship tournament.

Top Gun 65 Silver had already qualified for the Tournament of Champions which will be played in Polk County, Florida, in February 2012. The winners of 20 major tournaments are invited to the Tournament of Champions, and the world championships were the third qualifying tournament for Top Gun 65 Silver. The team is working on fundraisers and sponsorships, as the approximate travel cost to participate in that tournament is $1,500 per player.

The Tournament of Champions will be the last with Top Gun 65 Silver for Haveron, Sperling, and an East County player. Although the team had no player losses from the 2010 team to the 70-and-older division, those three will play in the older age division in 2012. “Most guys move up,” said Haveron, who will turn 70 in May. “There is a very definite drop in reaction time, in your ability to react to the ball.”

Haveron will manage the Top Gun 70 team next year. “I’ve got to take that from the ground up,” he said.

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