August 23 Recap
by Marc Brafman
On a very nice Sunday morning, six teams took the field to finish the first half of the year and continue the second. Let’s get to the game recaps:
On field one, as the old baseball saying goes, momentum is the next days starting pitcher and that was the case as Team Brafman rebounded from their loss on Wed. to defeat the previously undefeated Team Fogel 11-7. Brandon “The Bird” Wolf was outstanding all game and made some HUGE pitches late in the game to keep the potent Team Fogel offense in check all morning. In a battle of, in my humble opinion, the two best defensive players in the league Jeremy (Hamilton) Fogel and rookie Joel “Hallelujah” Buckley showed why they are the best all game. Jeremy tracking down balls early in the game when Fogel only had 3 outfielders and Joel turning two HUGE and I mean HUGE 5-3 double plays to keep Fogel off the board. “The ball has a way of finding me when I’m hot and today was just my day said Buckley. I’m glad I was able to help us get the win. On offense, for one of the first time all season, Team Brafman was able to come up with a couple of big two-out rallies. First, Sam “The Hitman” Hecht had a big two-run single in the first, and later in the game the cagey vet, Duffy “Shout at the Wolf”man, had a two-run triple.
Besides Buckley, Team Brafman also played great defense all over the field. Zach “The Wild Horse” Zakem at 2nd, Tyler “Big Bad” Wolf in RC, Jeff “The Natural” Weisbrot at SS and Mike “Flash” Creemer behind the plate, who held onto a tipped 3rd strike with the bases loaded, helped seal the win.
For Team Fogel, Joel Fogel made an amazing diving catch in RF, Rookie Adam Knecht had a triple and Jeremy also hit a homer in the losing cause.
Team Brafman improves to 2-2 in the second half while Fogel falls to 2-1
Over on Field 2 it was a double header:
First from team Schwartz:
Team Groh was hot out of the gate scoring 4 in the top of the 1st. Schwartz cut the deficit in half plating 2 in the bottom of the 1st. From then it was smooth sailing by Groh who tacked on a few more runs taking a 7-2 lead to the bottom of the 5th. Corey Schwartz hit an inside the park home run helping cut the lead to 7-5, but the rally stopped there. Groh pitched a great game and the offense was led by Tyler Stansbury and Pete Soltesz.
After pitching a gem, Ken Groh opted out of pitching in game 2. Tyler Stansbury took the mound instead. He surrendered two runs in the top of the first, but helped himself out with a home run over the fence in the bottom to take a 3-2 lead. He hit 2 bombs over the fence in game 2. Unfortunately for team Groh, that was the last lead they saw. Team Schwartz scored six in the second. Eric Zeid and Todd Wasserman had big hits to start the rally. Ben Rodriguez shed 75 pounds this offseason, which has made him the best RF in the league. He ran all the way into the infield and made a web-gem sliding catch. After the game, Ben said, “I have made diving catch after diving catch, yet my coach won’t put me in LCF. I use that disrespect as motivation.” Schwartz added another six runs in the fourth behind the red hot bats of Harry Meisner, Adam Cronstein, and Randy Broyles. Randy pitched a great game, keeping the potent Groh lineup off balance. Schwartz took a 15-5 lead in the 5th and the game ended in a 15-9 final, as the teams split the double header. After game 2, Randy followed the new JCC tradition, which requires the winning pitcher to take off his shirt and wave it in the air. We all request that you please leave your shirt on, Randy.
Side note: Rookie Ethan Reisenfeld started college this weekend and could not make the Sunday games due to “too many spirits” the night before. Coming from someone who has played some of his best games with blood shot eyes and a severe hangover, there is no such thing as too many spirits before a softball game. He’s just a kid. He will learn.
Editor’s note: the second-game final score is still up for debate as Team Schwartz didn’t keep the scorebook in their big inning and had to take a straw poll on who scored. Next time guys, keep score. Not all captains will be as nice as Ken was…
And from the Groh side of things:
In the 2nd-half game Team Groh won 7-4 to push their record to 3-0. Randy shut down the last 6 guys in the lineup easily but Zach Swadner, Sam Castellini, Tyler Stansbury and Pete Soltesz all had 2 hits each and the last 3 guys drove in 2 each as Tyler had a triple and homerun. After Team Schwartz got off to a 2-0 lead, team Groh scored four in the first and added another in the third to make it 5-2. Schwartz cut the lead to 5-3 after three, but Groh pushed across two more in the fifth and Schwartz could only leave the tying runners on base.
In the 2nd game, Tyler Stansbury took the mound and struck out a hitter in the 1st as Coach Groh was questioned about the number of guys he struck out in game one (0). Team Schwartz put up two in the first and Groh answered with three in the bottom as Swadner had a leadoff homer. Team Schwartz had a good combination of great hitting and suspect defense to open up the game in the next few innings. Groh mustered a late rally but fell short 15-9. Swadner, Stansbury and Groh each went 3-3 but it wasn’t enough. “Tyler didn’t get out today and put 2 over the fence. Ryan Baum did great behind the dish.
On a side note since my babysitter overslept the umpire was subjected to my kids throwing dirt on him thru the fence and daddy did take them to get smoothies after the game for a punishment.”
Finally, on Field 4 it was Loon vs. Weiser:
Team Loon played one 7-inning game and defeated Team Weisser to complete a season sweep of the wily veteran. Loon’s squad was playing catch up all day- they battled back from deficits of 3-0, and 6-3 before scoring 4 big runs in the 6th and held on for a 7-6 win. As usual with Team Loon, it was a total team effort. Mitchell Evans was the catalyst in the deciding 6th inning when he led off with a single. Matt Brodof’s double scored the tying run, and Loon took advantage of some shaky defense to secure the win. With the win, Loon improves to 1-1 and 6-2.
League notes will return Wed.
have a nice start to your week everyone, and keep those masks on!