LIHU‘E — Kaua’i Senior Softball League officials announced Friday that the playoff season has been canceled because an unnamed player was exposed to a person who tested positive for COVID-19.
The league, which was supposed to start its playoff format today, decided to cancel the playoffs, citing “an abundance of caution,” until the spring and summer of 2021.
The numbers of COVID-19 remain the same, with no active cases on Kaua‘i as of Friday, according to state Department of Health Kaua’i District Health Officer Dr. Janet Berreman.
An e-mail message distributed to league managers written by the president, Joe Bertucci, confirmed the playoffs’ cancellation.
“It’s with a sad heart that I have to announce the cancellation of our season-ending tournament due to potential COVID-19 exposure,” Bertucci wrote in the statement.
Kauai Senior Softball started off the 2020 season in January and paused play in March when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Games resumed in June, with the league following the federal safety guidelines of the National Senior Softball Summit’s recommendations for return to play. Those rules include having no social contact, no chewing or spitting, pandemic-specific dugout rules, game recommendations like using a new softball for each game, and spectator rules.
League officials were still in the process of coordinating with all of the parties involved in senior softball on Friday.
“I have not come to this decision in speed, as I’ve been dealing with this since yesterday,” Bertucci said. “I have been trying to get all the facts, and I completed that this morning.”
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Jason Blasco, sports reporter, can be reached at 245-0437 or jblasco@thegardenisland.com.
