Maston Griffin has a passion for softball. Don’t let his age tell you otherwise.
The 72-year-old Bainbridge resident recently returned from a couple senior softball tournaments in Utah that saw his team go for a combined 10-2 record.
Griffin’s team, Southern Thunder, was made up of players from Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee. The first tournament they played in Oct. 9, 10 and 11, the Mesquite Senior Games, was a warm for the bigger tourney, the Huntsman World Senior Games.
Southern Thunder went 5-0 at the Mesquite Games, with the Griffin and his players competing against teams from Lansing, Michigan, Raincross, California, and other places across the county.
Their last game against a tough opponent was the biggest struggle for the team, but the came out on top 3-0.
“We played two levels up and beat them by three,” Griffin said. “That was the hardest games to win. We had to really, really dial in. The rest, we jumped on them early.”
Three days later, Southern Thunder was heading to St. George for the Huntsman tournament. There, they went 5-2.
“We ran out of gas,” Griffin said, noting two players were injured at Mesquite and weren’t able to play to their potential. “But we finished fourth out of 40.”
Griffin said he loves traveling and loves softball, so traveling to compete in senior tournaments is a perfect combination of the two.
“It’s just the competition,” he said. “During the rest of the year, we play basically the same teams. But out there it’s different.”
The biggest takeaway Griffin has, though, is all the friends he meets. He even has a couple fishing trips lined up with Canadian acquaintances.