August 24 Recap
By Marc Brafman
Ryan couldn’t have dialed up nicer weather last night and the action was just as hot as the sun. And it was a CRAZY night as the 2-3-4 seeds all lost to the underdogs. Will Team Z be this year’s Loyola of Chicago? We will find out in the coming weeks.
On Field one, Team Weisser knocked off Team Grefer
Mark for the winners:
We beat Team Grefer 5-4 in a very well-played game. Team Grefer had bases loaded with two outs with Dan Grefer at the plate. Ground ball to Weston Wolf who fielded the ball, ran to second and threw a strike to first for the final out.
Pete Soltesz with a very nice catch in LF. Key hits by Alexander Wold and myself and nice baserunning by Scott Wolf. Scott Wolf ended up fracturing his thumb while fielding a ball at 2b in the first.
Ben Margolis hit a nice home run to LCF for Team Grefer.
I will be in Europe the next two weeks with Jamie Kurtzer taking the bump in my absence.
On Field two it was Team Solomon getting back on the right track vs. Team Kamrass
Team Solomon began their playoff run with a total victory over Team Kamrass 9-3. This could have been the spot for a let down from Team Solomon. We had lost 2 straight and had the pressure of being the #1 Seed.
The game was tight for the first two innings with Team Solomon up 1-0. Great defense kept Team Kamrass at bay all game. Team Solomon turned on the offensive Jets in the bottom of the 3rd. We had three straight hits from Dan “Everything is So” Green, Adam “Metal Spikes” Cronstein, and Jeff “Captain America” Weisbrot. Tyler ” The Silent Assassin” Stansbury had a very long fly out scoring two on some heads up baserunning by Cronstein. Ryan “ROY” Marcus hit a very nice single to score Weisbrot to make it 4-0. Up steps Stuart “El Capitan” Solomon. He ropes a ball into the gap in RCF for an Inside the Park HR, which would prove to put the game out of reach.
The defense continued to hold for the rest of the game. Bottom 5, the game could have shifted towards Kamrass, but with two outs Adam lead off with a single followed by a perfectly placed ball from Weisbrot down the right field line that kicked by the RF, for an inside the park homer. Next Stansbury came up to the plate and hit a towering homer over the fence in straight away CF. This finally put the game away.
Matt “Swags” Wagner after the game, “This was a great team win. I really hope to stick to my roommate’s dad (Ricky) next week.”
On Field three Team Lefton Beat Team Brafman (and the sun)
Jimmy and Marc combo: For the third straight time Team Lefton and Team Brafman came down to the wire. This time Team Lefton got the better of Team Brafman winning a thrilling and very well-played game 8-7. Big shout outs go to Matt Brodoff at 3rd who made 3-4 really good plays to keep Team Brafman off the bases. Trailing 7-5 going to the top of the 7th Team Lefton got some timely hitting from Ricky Lefton, Jerry Kirzner and Stu Weinstein. After a fly out and a bases loaded walk to Cam Kirzner Lefton took an 8-7 lead. Team Lefton got out of a bases loaded two out jam to win the game in the bottom of the 7th. What a team effort Jimmy said afterwards. Big his from Ricky, Stu Weinstein, “The Special One” Mike Rothstein kept us in the game and we finally broke through. We are excited to get another shot at Solomon. A special shout out to Griff Harris who somehow caught at least 3 hard hit balls hit directly into the sun. And as always, he made it look easy.
Over on the loser’s side Captain Brafman would like to thank his entire team and all the subs who played for him this year. We had a great year coming in 2nd in the first half of the season and had a lot of fun along the way. Last night just didn’t break our way. We’ll get them next year. He also hopes that Alan “Speedy” Lessure recovers from his leg injury that knocked him out of the game last night.
Finally, on field 4 another huge upset as Team Z took down Team Fogel.
David Wertheim for the winners:
David Wertheim here pinch-hitting for Captain Z this week. This is my first piece of writing since my infamous event columns for Paul Daugherty so sorry if I’m a little rusty. I’ll try to be quick to the points here.
There was a large crowd of about 25 people watching a much-hyped matchup on Field 4 between the No. 3 seed Team Fogel and the No. 6 seed Team Zawatsky. The game started slow, with a 3-2 lead for Team Z after three innings, but the underdogs exploded for 12 runs over the last four innings en route to a 15-7 coast-to-coast upset victory, with Fogel not leading for a single second of the game.
Zawatsky preached a “why not us” mentality to his team before the game, and the entire lineup seemed to take this message to heart. Every single player on Team Z had at least one base hit, with five players (Wertheim, Ryan Silverman, Harry Meisner, Rabbi Yitz, and Andy Gollin) notching at least three hits each. The defense was solid as usual, with pitcher Ken Groh enjoying an excellent outing that included a three-pitch strikeout of Scott Friend to end the game. Larry Newman played a solid second base (as always) and had two hits, while Oren Shmoel made some big catches in the early innings and had a couple hits of his own. Phil Ganson, who was very vocal on the bench and in the field, played a good game at third base and hit some balls hard. It was truly a team effort for a squad that had been underestimated by many.
Next week, Team Z will take on Team Weisser on Field 4 in a battle of lower-seeds for the right to advance to the championship game. Who would’ve thought! Come out and watch what should be a great matchup (and use up those concession cards).
League notes (short version)
Reminder that the games start at 6:00 PM moving forward
Sign the Jason Faust shirt
Get your ASG votes in. The game is coming up soon on a Sunday at Triple Creek this year
Oy Vey 5K is in Nov. Registration coming soon
See everyone next week. Just because your team lost doesn’t mean you still can’t come out to watch and cheer on the other teams
Marc