Domingo Aponte 11/27/1937 -01/06/2003

By TOM HARRIS

Staff Writer

ASHTABULA — With nine home runs, 19 RBI and more than a few sparkling defensive plays, Jayson Aponte made history at the 2003 Beacon’s Best Softball Tournament.

For his two-day onslaught, which helped power Wireless Solutions to the tournament championship, Aponte was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, becoming the first player in Beacon’s Best history to win MVP honors twice. Aponte was the MVP of the 1998 tournament.

But the 2003 award was special. It was Aponte’s tribute to his father, Domingo, who died two months before last year’s Beacon’s Best.

“I had a different reason to play hard last year,” Aponte said. “In all those years, my dad only came to one of my games. He always said it made him too nervous. But, no matter what, he always asked how I did.

“I felt like he was there with me last year.”

Aponte said it was his mother who guided him into sports, but his father’s influence was there, if in a different way.

“My father had nothing to do with me getting into sports,” Aponte said. “He was a very quiet man, but we were always quite close.”

The MVP award capped a tremendous tournament effort by Aponte on a stage that gives the award a little extra meaning.

“It’s an excellent award,” Aponte said. “It’s very fulfilling to play well when you’re facing the best teams in the county and the area.”

Aponte didn’t come charging out of the gates last year. It took him an at-bat or two.

“I had a tough time in our first game, but once I got rolling, I really hit the ball pretty good,” he said.

Actually, Aponte found his stride before that first game ended in a 27-6 win over VFW/Safety Forces.

“I made an out in my first at-bat in the tournament,” Aponte said after the championship game last year. “But after that, I got my swing, and it felt pretty good.”

Aponte finished that first game with three homers and eight RBI.

On Sunday last year, Aponte had two home runs and two RBI in a 10-8 win over Crow’s Nest Sunday and three hits in the winners’ bracket final against Gwinn Brothers.

In the championship game, an 8-6 win over Gwinn Brothers, Aponte went 4-for-4 with a pair of two-run homers. In the fifth inning, he pulled in Jeff Kramer’s fly ball at the fence in left field and then fired a strike to shortstop Andy Juhola to double up Tim Miller, who was trying to advance on the play.

The personal accomplishments are nice, but softball is about the team.

“The team — I enjoy the team,” Aponte said. “One player doesn’t make much difference in whether you win or lose. No matter how good one guy is, you need all 10 guys to win.”

Aponte, who normally plays softball four or five nights a week, was idle last week after straining a muscle in his rib cage at a tournament at Kent.

“It’s killing me that I can’t play,” he said. “I’m having withdrawal, and I’ve only missed a week.”

But Aponte will be on the field at Softball City — this year under the banner of Kelly’s Gardens, which is essentially the Wireless Solutions team from last year — when the 2004 Beacon’s Best begins.

“I’m counting the days,” he said.

He’s counting no longer — the action begins tonight.

After winning the 2003 MVP honors for his father, Jayson Aponte is pumped about the 2004 Beacon’s Best