Another great night for softball (Adam has Mother Nature on Speed Dial this year so far)
Before we start with the recaps, a reminder that it’s “WING NIGHT Presented by Big Gig Franklin” next week at the Silver Spring House. The entire league is invited so please try and make it. A huge thank you to Gig for his continued support of the softball league. This includes Team Solomon who is on the bye.
Now onto the action. On Field 1 it was Team Brafman vs. Team Fogel
Marc for the Winners: In one of the cleanest team wins that I can ever remember Team Brafman beat Team Fogel 14 or 15 to 4 or 5 (Sorry, I can’t remember the score, BUT I do remember the hits from a steady Team Brafman). Playing in front of his Dad who Team Brafman now requires to come to every game, Harry “Hood” Meisner went at least 4-4 with a ground-rule double, TWO long homers over the fence and I believe another single to pace the offense. Not to be outdone, Rabbi Yitz had 4 hits including an inside the park homer, and while he might have hit for the JCC cycle, he contributed clutch hits all evening. Captain Brafman continued his hot hitting as did Rick Lefton and Jeff “Oscar Meyer” Wiener. Back to Harry…when the Yitz kids run out to the outfield when he comes up and literally catch the balls going over the fence you know you are having a great night.
On defense, Jimmy Lefton continued to find the fountain of youth on the mound while Zach Mayer, Gary Fisher, Mike “The Special One” Rothstein and Corey Meyers all made the plays in the field. Mayer as usual was steady in the field and made a between the legs, ala Brandon Phillips, flip to Gary to get a force out at 2nd. Jimmy summed it up post game: “We haven’t even scratched the surface on how good we can be.”
For Fogel, Joel “Sparky” Fogel hit a two-run homer and Ryan “The Hebrew Hammer” Baum also had a couple of good hits.
Team Brafman looks to continue their hot start next week vs. Team Wagner.
On Field 2, it was Team Simons vs. Team Wagner.
Marc for the winners:
In an epic rematch to begin the second half of the season, Team Simons locked horns with team Wagner. It started off as a dull, low scoring game, until it wasn’t. Team Simons tacked on the runs making it 9-1 going into the bottom of the 5th inning. The knockout blow was not delivered and Team Wagner was able to make it a ballgame. Team Simons ultimately prevailed 10-5 in 7 in a hard fought win.
On Field 3 it was Team Stu vs. Team Grefer
Stu for the winners:
Team Solomon won yesterday 22-7. “The Team showed that we are really here for each other,” said David Snyder, former Wise Temple President, and oldest on the team by more than 20 years.”This locker room is like nothing I have experienced before.”
The offense started out hot, scoring 10 runs in the first inning. Cam “Crooked Nose” Kirzner went 4-4, scoring 4 times. There were hits by every member of the team. Matthew ” Gift of God” Brodof, Steven “Wreath” Shapiro, Stuart “Steward” Solomon, Ben “Son of the Right Hand” Charlton, and Jeremy “The Lord Exalts” Dock all went 3-4 with a number of the hits coming in 2 out rallies. The most fun of the hits was Stuart’s over the fence HomeRun to straight away center field. The ball hit the top of the red fence lining and over for the home run. Brandon “Prince” Lindsey had a huge triple after pitcher Scott “Come On Man” Wolf taunted him for taking too long to get into the box.
Great defense from David “Beloved” Snyder made several very nice plays at 2nd base to limit Team Grefer. Eli “Ascended” Gould was excellent behind the plate throwing the ball back to the pitcher, not throwing balls into the outfield. While Dan “G-d is my Judge” McGrath continues to put dollars into the “Pop Up Jar”, his defense was outstanding, snagging several hard hit balls in LCF.
Team Solomon looks to be a 2nd half team and a force to be reckoned with down the stretch.
After the game Oren Shmoel had this to say “Stuart’s team is so amazing. I love their vibe and I hope they win the rest of the games. It was a great honor to lose to them tonight.”
Finally on Field 4 it was Team Groh vs. Team AJ
Kenny for the winners:
Tyler Stansbury and Sam Castellini started off with hits and they both came around to score in the 1st, but the 1st half champs won the inning by scoring 3 in the bottom half. With 2 outs in the 2nd Mathew Kraus and Danny Meisterman ripped singles and both came around to score on a Tyler hit to left. Steady Sam drove him in and Groh scored in the 3rd to make it 6-3. But Goldhoff scored 4 runs to take a 7-6 lead after 3. But Team Groh had 8 straight hits in the 4th, all singles except a Soltesz 2-run triple and Groh took a 12-7 lead. Pete drove in Jack Cohen to make it 13-7 and AJ’s squad cut it to 13-9. Jon Ruben led off the 6th with a double and Kraus hit a SF and then after a hit by Danny, Tyler launched one over the fence. Team Goldhoff scored 5 to cut the lead to 16-14 but David Solomon finished the scoring with a 2-run single and the score held up for a 18-14 win. Rookie Michael Heldman had 3 hits in a good JCC game. Thanks for umpiring, Gary Grefer.
League Notes:
Once again reminder that it’s Wing Night at the Silver Spring House next Wednesday.
Also next week it’s the J-Classic
This is an event near and dear to a lot of our hearts. It’s the biggest fundraiser of the year for the J, and means a lot to Scott “Shorty” Adams. If you would like to come to dinner, register for the raffle or come out and support the JCC please go to this web site: J Classic – Mayerson JCC
A happy birthday to Alex “Big AL” Lefton this week. We miss ya in the league
Editors note: Last blog I mentioned that Linda Rothstein was injured catching a pass thrown by Laurie Lefton. In fact it was Mallory Lefton who made the throw. My mistake and lets all wish Linda a speedy recovery.
Matt Miller would like to thank everyone who helped find his dog. Good news he is back home safely after a few days of running around.
In “What’s Roger Selling” this week, he came up to me last night with two Alabama shirts that he apparently found at the thrift store. He also had with him a game used Stan Kimbrough shoelace and a helmet signed by the 1997 Cincinnati Cyclones (or Maybe it was the Mighty Ducks. I can’t remember)
Until next week!
Marc