If it’s not raining it’s 100 outside but we will take the heat over the rain. Let’s get right to the HOT action on the field. On field one we had Team Brafman vs. Team Fogel
David for the winners:
David Wertheim subbing in as the blog writer again this week. On a hot night at Triple Creek, Team Fogel pulled off a cool two-game sweep over Team Brafman.
Game 1 featured utter dominance from southpaw Jimmy “The Heat” Lefton, coming off a visit to St. Louis for his son “Big Al” Alex Lefton’s wedding. Jimmy hurled a gem, allowing just 1 run. After the first two batters of the game reached for Team Brafman, and one scored, Jimmy and the very solid Fogel defense didn’t allow another runner to pass second base. The highlight was an absolute dot on the outside corner by Lefton, channeling his inner Randy Johnson, to strike out the big power threat Mark Tenenholtz.
Howie “Tom Brady” Schwartz did Howie things, keeping the Fogel bats quiet and impressively snagging a line drive off the bat of this writer. However, Team Fogel did enough and won the game 6-1.
Game 2 featured Brafman getting on the board first but Team Fogel quickly answered and never looked back. The stars of the game were Lefton again for his pitching and hitting, “Big Game”Bob Pelberg for a couple hits and a great play at catcher to throw out Jon Ruben who tried to get greedy, Brad Wagner for breaking out of his slump with a few hits, Mark “Morf” Franklin for a couple great swings and a nice catch in RF, and this writer, who was on base all 3 times (including a bunt single after chirping Joel Buckley and Brafman for their propensity to lay one down… rules for thee but not for me). Team Fogel won this game relatively stress free in a 10-5 victory that looks closer than it really was.
Team Fogel now gears up for a showdown against Team Solomon next week in a game that may just decide who wins the first half.
On field two Team Groh vs. Team Silverman
Roger recaps the action:
TEAM GROH split with TEAM SILVERMAN. losing the opener, 10-9, and coming back in the nightcap with a 5-4 victory……
In the opener, TEAM GROH was up the whole game until the end when TEAM SILVERMAN got four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to notch the win…..
“Tough loss for sure, but give credit to them for staying with it until the end to pull out the win”, captain KEN GROH said afterwards.
DAN MCGRATH, ADAM CRONSTEIN, DAVID SNYDER, GROH and NICK O’BRIEN each collected three hits with MCGRATH and CRONSTEIN hitting homeruns…..
In the second game, the game was nip and tuck the entire way until the least likely candidate, ROGER ROSENTHAL, who in the past has been known to hit to rightfield laced a two out game wining RBI single down the right field line to score the winning run in the bottom of the sixth inning…..
“It’s about time I came up with a big hit. I’m just glad we could pull out the second game after a tough loss in the opener, ” ROSENTHAL said while being mobbed by his teammates.
“I knew I picked Roger for a reason. His BIG mouth and his one BIG hit of the year,” GROH said afterwards.
STU WEINSTEIN pitched well and got out of three bases loaded situations without giving up a run and GROH came in to relieve, after pitching the entire opener, to notch the win…..
Hitting stars were….MCGRATH, BRYCE ANSLINGER, CRONSTEIN and O’BRIEN…..
Of note, O’BRIEN was thrown out of the game, and will be forced to miss one game, after disputing a call at third base…he’ll be docked one game’s salary of $50,000.00.
“I guess I’ll have to not buy that new car I wanted for at least another week or so,” he said afterwards from the stands.
TEAM GROH is now 4-2 in the first half and 2-0 in the second half and have another twinbill next week vs. TEAM GOLDHOFF.
The doubleheader will be televised on TBS with STEVE JARNICKI and BEN SCHREIBER doing the play-by-play and color.
The first 10 fans in attendance will receive an 8 x 10 autographed photo of former JCC softball legend, DAN CRONSTEIN, father of ADAM CRONSTEIN.
On field three it was Team Krantz vs. Team Wolf
Landon chimes in
Game Recap: Team Krantz 11, Team Wolf 4
On a muggy, humid evening that may have affected both hydration levels and the scorekeeper’s memory, Team Krantz earned an 11-4 victory over Team Wolf.
Team Krantz jumped out early, scoring three runs in the first inning and four more in the second to build a 7-0 lead. Leading the offensive charge were Ryan Marcus and Dee Harris, who put together outstanding nights at the plate, going 6-for-8 and 6-for-7, respectively.
Team Wolf refused to go quietly. Landon Hawkins continued his impressive season by lacing line drives all over the field—sometimes with just one hand on the bat—while Ben Charlton turned in a flawless defensive performance in left-center field. David Solomon also crushed a triple at some point during the evening, though the official historian cannot confidently confirm which game it occurred in.
With Team Krantz holding a 7-4 lead entering the fifth inning and wary of a trademark Team Wolf comeback, Mark Wolfe delivered the play of the game. Wolfe launched a triple to the left-field wall, sparking a four-run rally that provided all the insurance Team Krantz would need and sealed the 11-4 final.
Finally, on Field 4 it was Team Solomon vs. Team AJ
Stuart “MVP, Most Valuable Person” Solomon drove in five runs on one hit to lead Team Solomon past The Orange Crush 8-5 on Wednesday. Solomon hit a grand slam to center field in the first inning, scoring four runs, and hit a sacrifice fly in the third inning, scoring one.
The Orange Crush got on the board in the first inning after Tyler “Soon to be Father” Stansbury tripled, scoring one run.
Team Solomon flipped the game on its head in the bottom of the first, scoring seven runs on eight hits to take the lead, 7-1. The biggest blow in the inning was a grand slam to center field by Solomon that drove in four. Another huge hit was the bases clearing triple by “Dangerous” Danny Meisterman to cap off the 7-run inning.
Team Solomon added one run in the third. Solomon hit a sacrifice fly, making the score 8-5.
Solomon earned the win for Team Solomon. The starting pitcher surrendered 13 hits and five runs over five innings, striking out one and walking two. Solomon got out of a bases loaded, no out jam to strand all three runners. The inning was capped with a massive strike out of Matt “Mr. Bearcat” Miller. Mike Gray took the loss for The Orange Crush. The starter went four innings, allowing eight runs on 11 hits, striking out one and walking none.
James Swan “Dive” and Kade”llac” Carlyle each collected two hits for Team Solomon. Adam “Pacman Jones” Heldman turned an amazing double play in the game. Heldman dove to his left to snag a sharply hit ground ball, tagged 2nd and threw the runner out at 1st. Team Solomon was sure handed in the field and didn’t commit a single error. Solomon had the most chances in the field with one.
Fingers crossed we get next week in and end the first part of the season. I believe it’s a show down between Groh and Stu for the first half title.
League notes
First a HUGE shout out to Rick Lefton, the entire J staff and Brad Wagner for another amazing J Classic yesterday. Dr. Bob, Joel Buckley, Z, Corey Norris, Mike Rothstein, Howie, Anton, Brad, Ryan Small, Stu, AJ, Eddie Gallop, Rick Tenenholtz, Zach Mayer, Jimmy, and Gary Fisher were just some of the guys that played or participated in the event. The men’s pickleball champs were won by former players Gary “Dave Winfield is my buddy” Askin and Randy Sandow. If you have never come to the Classic, I would encourage all of you to do so. Along with the Oy Vey 5K, it is a great fund raiser for the entire JCC. Once again, great job everyone.
On that note let’s all wish Zach a speedy recovery from his fluke injury while on the golf course. Get better soon, Zach.
Happy birthday to Howard Goldwasser and former player Ben Barnett.
I get asked a lot about Brendan Sorsby and all I can say is, I will believe he will be on the field when I see it. It was fun today in our all staff meetings to toss out songs about him that I would play if I were the DJ of the game. (Take the Money and Run, Go Down Gambling, The Gambler, Rambling Gambling Man, you name it).
This week was the 82nd anniversary of the Ol’ Left Hander, Joe Nuxhall, playing his first game with the Reds when he was 15! Jacob is 13. I can’t imagine him suiting up for the Reds in two years although how much worse can he make the Reds bullpen?
I rightfully have taken a lot of smack talk from IU fans about the Rose Bowl and the run that IU was on. But fear not dear softball fans, Bama isn’t going anywhere because they became the first program in history to reach the college football playoffs, both men’s and women’s basketball tournament, Sweet 16 and the men’s and women’s College World Series. Not too bad of season for my Tide even if we haven’t won a National Title (yet).
At the J classic yesterday we were discussing bringing back Family Night, so please let your captain know if you would like to help out with that. This would be something we would bring back next year.
Reminder, Wing Night is next weekend at the Spring House. Please try to go as it’s a great night and we can’t thank Big Gig Franklin enough.
See everyone next week.
Marc