A bonus BIG addition to the softball blog this week as we have both Wednesday, May 17 Sunday, May 21 to update. Another amazing weather week. Ryan must have sold his soul for the first half so far. Let’s keep it up this week.
Let’s first start with last Wednesday
On Field one, we had Team Zawatsky vs. Team Kamrass.
Micah for the winners:
Team Kamrass stayed undefeated with a 15-13 against Team Z. Playing without shortstop Zach Mayer (who likely would’ve been tossed had he been there for reasons discussed later) and playing against a sub Z found, who likely is better than many of the Reds, wasn’t enough to end the winning streak.
Fink pitched another great game and got out of a couple of jams. The combination of David Solomon and Scott Raskin gunned out another baserunner trying to steal. Bryce Anslinger moved to right center this week and had a few nice catches. And Captain Micah Kamrass finally achieved his dream of jumping the fence to make a catch, it just happened to be the foul fence.
The whole team did a great job hitting tonight. Big hits came from Super James Swan, Adam Heldman, and Michael Margolis.
A new rule controversy not yet seen in our league took place tonight. While a runner was trying to score, he collided with the umpire before he could touch the plate, and was then tagged out. The umpire made up “I think he would’ve been safe, so he’s safe.” A later check of the rules shows this is not the case. The umpire is part of the field of play and there is no such thing as umpire interference. So now we all know.
Team Kamrass keeps finding a way to score more runs than the other team. The plan is to do the same on Sunday against Team Wolf.
On Field Two it was Team Brafman vs. Team Fogel
Roger for the winners:
TEAM BRAFMAN 2
TEAM FOGEL 9
In a total team effort, TEAM FOGEL gave up two runs in the top of the opening frame and shut the door the rest of the way and let the offense and defense do their thing.
COREY “I AM NOT CY YOUNG” NORRIS pitched another gem and didn’t walk a batter and let his defense play a near flawless game.
“I’m not going to strike any one out or walk anyone so my defense has to be good and once again it was great. All I need to do is put the ball in play and I have confidence they’ll make the plays behind me, ” he said in a post game interview.
The play of the night was a SPORTSCENTER TOP 10 PLAY when reserve catcher DAN “DANNY” GREEN caught an attempted bunt.
“Hey, as I’ve said in the past, I’ll do whatever we need. I’ll play anywhere. Wherever the captain tells me to play, that’s where I’ll play, but one thing I won’t do is clean up the bench area after a game.”
There were hitting stars aplenty including BRANDON “THE GAMECOCK” WRONKER….SCOTT “WILL YOU PLEASE BE MY” FRIEND…..JASON “THE COWBOY” ESTERKAMP….JOEL “SPARKY” FOGEL……and even the veteran ROGER ROSENTHAL, who not only had a single and sacrifice bunt, but also “stole” second base.
By the way, on the hit, he slid into first base instead of running thru the base like you’re supposed to.
“I can’t believe I did that. I was telling a friend at lunch today that you don’t do that and what do I do?, ” he stated afterwards in the winner’s clubhouse.
KUDOS also go out to sub IAN CONWELL (TEAM WAGNER), who had perhaps the best game of his career as he hit the ball well and played an unbelievable RCF…..he also scored from second base on a sacrifice bunt.
After the game, ROSENTHAL said, “We’ve got to make a trade for you and give Team Wagner a MICHAEL JORDAN rookie card for your rights.”
On Field three we had Lefton vs. Wolf
Wes for the victors:
This week Team Wolf continued their dominance with a 15-0 drubbing of Team Lefton. Starting the game with the first 8 batters reaching base and scoring led by 2 RBIs each from Wes, Scottie and Mike Gray.
Team Wolf’s defense was just as consistent as their hitting. Dan LaCerva led the way with quality plays at both right field and second base. Mike Gray is the team’s true key to defensive success, pitching aggressively and in the strike zone. He has only allowed 1 walk on the year and shows no signs of slowing up.
This performance, following a 13-1 run rule of team Wagner last week, places team Wolf at the top of the standings. A showdown with also-undefeated Team Kamrass awaits on Sunday.
Finally, on Field 4 we had Team Grefer vs. Team Solomon
Kyle for the winners:
We beat Team Solomon 11-6 and the difference was our defense. Joey Hiudt set the tone early running down a ball in right field on the first play of the game, and everyone in the outfield made nice plays with Jack Cohen running down a ball in deep center, and Adam Cronstein making a sliding catch on the dirt. David Wertheim and Mark Levine also made some nice plays on the infield. Jon Ruben also pitched another great game by serving it up and trusting the defense behind him.
Offensively the trio at the top of the order of David Wertheim, Jack Cohen, and Adam Cronstein all hit the ball well. The bottom of our order also had some key hits with Rick Tenenholtz hitting one over the outfield and Mark Levine hitting a double to right field.
And onto yesterday
On Field 1 Team Brafman played Lefton
For the first time this season, Team Brafman was on the winning side beating Team Lefton 14-13 by the skin of their teeth. The big hits for Team Brafman came from Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley who went 5-5, Griff Harris and Tait “Richie” Cunningham who had three huge triples. Also Jamey “The Rookie” Drennan went 5-5 and even Team Captain, Marc Brafman, finally got a couple of hits. On defense a fantastic double play was turned by Dee Harris and Todd “The Mayor” Wasserman, while Mark “the Bruiser” Wolf and Alex Kraus both made all of the plays in the field. With a 6-run lead and two outs, Team Lefton came off the mat and had the tying run at second base. Only some great glove work by Drennan and Wasserman prevented the tying run from scoring on a rocket shot by Ryan “The Hebrew Hammer” Baum.
“I was just glad to throw strikes and let Lefton hit it,” winning pitcher Eppy said post game all the while telling Team Brafman bat boy, Jacob Brafman, about the time he ate a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts at a UDF post game. “The guy behind the counter didn’t think I could do it so I had to prove him wrong,” Eppy said. Team Brafman hopes to continue their winning ways Wednesday night vs. Team Zawatsky. (A special note: Congrats to Team Lefton’s Matthew Leader and Peter Brownell for both graduating from Sycamore yesterday. Both of them hit absolute bombs in the game. Leader had a triple and Brownell had a gap homer and another off the fence. Well done, boys!)
On field 2 we had Team Wes vs. Team Micah
Wes for the winners:
Team Wolf continues a dominant run with an 11-3 win in this weekend match-up against previously undefeated Team Kamrass who were missing some key players.
The key to success was another hot start, this time with 6 runs in the first inning highlighted by consecutive shots to the wall by Wes Wolf and Matt Brodof. Pete Soltesz & Michael Askin also led the way with multi-hit games and line drives sprayed all over the field.
Mike Gray continues his success on the mound with another gem. No walks and very few hard hit balls drove another all around performance by Team Wolf on defense.
Over the last three games, Team Wolf has outscored their opponents 39-4 and shows no signs of letting up. Next week they get another shot at perfection when they face Team Grefer.
On Field 3 it was Team Wagner vs. Team Grefer
Brad for the winners:
Team Wagner got back in the win column after a much needed bye week, and took down Team Grefer 18-14 on Sunday morning in front of a standing-room-only crowd. The victors were down 9-4 when they scored nine runs in the fourth inning to take a commanding lead. Chris Kunkel had a three-run triple, was on base multiple times, and played great at 2nd base including a rally saving catch. Howie Schwartz was stellar on the mound and helped his own cause with a two-run single. Other big hits came from Josh Rosen, AJ Goldhoff, John Spears, and Cam Kirzner. Captain Wagner discussed in his postgame interview with Charlie Goldsmith and P-Doc, that it was a rare must win first half game. Team Wagner looks to continue the winning ways on Wednesday when they play Team Solomon on Field 2. That game will be aired on 700WLW and 55KRC with a quadruple cast of Dan, Terry, Joe, and Byron on the call. Team Grefer takes on Team Wolf in a game that everyone will be amped up for. That game airs on the MLB Network with Pedro, Dennis, and Carmelo Martinez on the call.
And last but not least on field 4 we have Team Stu vs. Team Fogel
Stu for the winners:
People are saying the heated exchange between Tyler and Mark was the spark that ignited Team Solomon’s season. I’m not saying that, but people are saying that.
Team Solomon defeated Team Fogel 22-12. Hits were abundant throughout the lineup. Adam “Levine” Teitlebaum set the table going 3-4. Harry “ Superman” Misner, Tyler “ The Natural” Stansbury, Stuart “The Captain” Solomon, and Ryan “All Smiles” Silverman all had multiple hits to keep the scoring up. We can not overstate that Alan “The Mouth” Lessure was on base 3 times, scoring twice.
Defensively, Team Solomon limited any big inning with three separate and different double plays, the biggest one coming when Team Fogel tried to score from second on a sac fly. The relay from Ryan to Andrew Solomon to Tyler to Evan “Healthcare Hero” Weisser was a thing of beauty. As always Mark “Pa Pa” Weisser with a great pitching performance.
Team Solomon looks to continue their winning ways next week and into the second half.
League Notes
Congrats to Commish Ryan Silverman on his daughter Emma graduating from Sycamore yesterday.
Tuesday May 23 is JCC night at the Reds. They might stink but it’s always fun to sit in the moon deck on a nice night. Plus maybe we can heckle Willie Mays Benson if Bell is dumb enough to play him.
A tip of the cap to Mike Margolis on the graduation of his daughter from Wisconsin.
I don’t know if he won or not, but Brandon Guttman’s son was nominated for player of the week from CCD last week. We all look forward to both of them being in the league once again down the road.
Howard Goldwasser’s daughter graduated from Rutgers last week becoming only the second person I know to admit going to Rutgers. Speaking of which, how’d you like to be a parent of any student athlete at Rutgers and being forced to stay up till 2 AM to watch them play USC or UCLA. Because nothing says BIG 10 like Rutgers playing UCLA in any sport.
A belated happy birthday to David BP Snyder (and I hope you didn’t have to wear another beer after I spilled yours all over the floor last week)
Super Sub Tait Cunningham is engaged and will be married this July. Congrats!
How come everyone in Cincy knows it’s dumb to pitch to Aaron Judge with a base open in the 10th inning except David Bell?
And finally in this week in Roger.
Roger has nothing better to do with his time on a Sunday afternoon than look up Cincinnati Hills League stats online. (That is the league that Wyoming, Maderia, Indian Hill and Finneytown are in) He wanted to report that my old school, Finneytown, was outscored this year 177-3 in baseball. What’s worse is that unfortunately I too knew this stat, so I guess I had nothing better to do either.
See everyone tomorrow night at the Reds game and Wednesday at the field
Marc