August 9 Recap
By Marc Brafman
The morning was hot and so was the action on the field. As Ernie Banks used to say “Let’s Play Two” on Sunday at Triple Creek.
It was a tale of 3 teams as both Lefton and Loon swept their action on Sunday while Team Brafman was on the other end of the spectrum by being swept. Let’s go to the action.
On Field 1, Team Lefton ended the first half at 4-2. In game one they beat a depleted Team Fogel 14-4. Lefton was led by super Sub Alex “Earl Bruce” Lefton who went 7-8 for the day. “We hit up and down our order for the second game in a row, and even with a shorter game scoring 14 runs is a lot. I Was really proud of the effort we gave,” Captain Jimmy Lefton said. In game two, Team Lefton beat Team Weisser in a back and forth game 9-8. With the score tied in the bottom of the fifth Rookie of the Year Candidate Jacob Zeidenstein hit a walk off single for the win. “Man, I’m just excited to help the team,” JZ said post game. “I haven’t been this pumped about anything since Grace Lefton invited me over to one of Rick’s selfie stations that he had set up at their house this summer. I know that it’s important to not only play well but look good when you play on Lefton so that game winning single really helped my profile.”
On Field 3, it was a tough day for Team Brafman who lost in walk off fashion to Team Schwartz in game one 11-10, and then lost another tough game to Team Fogel 11-8 in the second game. In the first game it was back and forth all game as Schwartz was led on offense by Taylor “May the” Schwartz be with you and Randy “Tex” Broyles who each had 3 singles. Not to be overlooked was the hitting of Eric “Jeter” Goldstein who had a couple of knocks and got on base with a walk. The game took a turn in the top of the 4th when Sam “The Hitman” Hecht had a huge two-run single to put Brafman up by a run. In the top of the 5th Jeff “The Natural” Weisbrot then hit a two-run homer for Brafman to put them up 3 going to the bottom of the 5th. That is when Team Schwartz mounted a comeback.
With one out Goldstein walked, Schwartz singled and Cronstein walked. After a Broyles fielder’s choice, Harry “Hood” Meisner was walked intentionally by Capt. Brafman to load the bases and set up the force out. That move backfired when Corey Schwartz smoked a game winning single up the middle scoring the go-ahead run from first. “That move showed so much disrespect for my brother. I don’t know what Brafman was thinking,” an elated Taylor said post game. “I haven’t been this excited since Leon brought me my favorite PB&J Sandwich with the crust off just how I like it when we lived together. What a great win for our team.” “I now know how David Bell feels,” a dejected Brafman said post game. “If Corey had made an out, I would have looked like Sparky Anderson. Instead he made me look like Vern Rapp.”
In game two on Field 3, Team Fogel, with Ken Groh subbing as pitcher, held Brafman in check to win 11-8. Fogel once again beat Brafman with death by a 1000 paper cuts approach on offense when the top of his order led by Mark Simons, Ken Groh, and Adam Knecht each had multiple hits. It was a back-and-forth game until the top of the 3rd when Fogel once again got multiple runs with singles and well-placed balls led by Eddie Gallop who capped off the inning with a single and scored on a couple of hits. Brafman showed the fighting spirit they have shown all season battling back to put the winning run at the plate, but Groh was able to snuff out the late rally.
Finally, over on Field 4 Team Loon relied on great defense and crafty veteran Jamey Kurtzer to sweep the DH and move to a league best 4-1. In Game 1 vs Team Groh, the offense was led by Shorty Adams and professional hitter, Keith Kombrinck. Defensively, Fink was a vacuum at SS all day and seemed inspired to play in front of his wife and two kids.
In game 2 vs Team Schwartz, Mark Tenenholtz took matters into his own hands with 2 HRs (over the fence). The first was a 2-run bomb, and the second was a Grand Slam which gave Team Loon some breathing room in a 12-6 victory. Mark also added a couple of diving catches to snuff out rallies and Jamey did the rest. “I have to stick up for Big Blue Nation,” Tenenholtz said post game. “Sure, our football coaches called out Big Brother OSU on a coaches conference call for cheating, and sure our best point guard couldn’t get out of town fast enough to transfer UC, so someone has to stand up for Michigan Sports, and today that guy was ME!”
With the sweep, Team Loon clinches the first half of the season with their record currently standing at 4-1.
See you all on Wednesday!