Category: Champs

On another picture perfect night for softball, we crowned our 2025 Youk Post season tournament champ. Once again it was Team Stu vs. Team Ken

Stu with the recap:

Stu Solomon walked off the mound and looked up into the sun-kissed sky tracking an infield pop-up. After the ball landed in the first baseman’s glove for the final out, Stu took off his pitcher’s mask and squatted as his teammates ambushed him from all angles.

Team Solomon powered past Team Groh for the 11-10 win to capture the 2025 Youk Award in thrilling fashion Wednesday night on Field 2 at Triple Creek.

Stu’s Blues were the visitors in every postseason game, and we came out swinging every time. Lead off man Cam “Run” Kirzner, Jeremy “Strong” Dock and Captain Stu got aboard and scored early, then Will “The Thrill” Coleman brought in 3 more on a JCC triple-turned-home run to right center.

Six runs on 7 hits is a great way to start out the championship game, but it was no walk in the park from there. Groh’s guy got a few hits, then a sequence of walks loaded the bases and plated their first 2 runs. 

After each team went down in order the second inning and we got one more run in the third, our opponents in orange wasted no time cutting in our lead. Four runs in the bottom half, including a no-doubt shot over the fence from “Pistol Pete” Soltesz, and all of a sudden it’s a one-run game.

Dock got on and scored his second of three runs to make it 8-6, then Kirzner and Coleman turned a crucial 6-3 double play across the infield with the tying run at the plate to end the fifth inning. Dan “The Man” McGrath and “Buffalo Ben” Charlton were anchors for us in left and right center as they have been all season.

Our defensive heroics could only last for so long as Groh’s bats came alive once more in the sixth to flip the game on its head, scoring 4 runs to give them a 10-8 lead and a chance to close it out in the top of the seventh. Down to our final out with Jeremy on base, Stu put the team on his back and extended the game with an RBI single. Dan added another hit to advance Stu, then Ben knocked them both in on the go-ahead two-out base hit to make it 11-10.

We made three quick outs, including an ultra clutch running grab from Eli “Ghost” Gould in shallow right field, to hang on for the dramatic one-run win. Team Solomon won 10 of its final 12 games to rebound from a 2-6 first half and finish the season on top.

So there you have it. Congrats to Team Stu and the guys. After they whooped Team Brafman last week, Captain Brafman told them he thought they were one of the better teams he’d seen over the last couple of years and they proved him right. 

Thanks to everyone for another great season. Please be on the lookout for the ASG announcement coming up soon and word on the end-of-the-year banquet.

League notes 

Happy birthday to Ryan “The One Man Gang” Marcus. Looking forward to having you back next year.

The Oy Vey 5K is back. please sign up here: Oy Vey 5K

Somehow the Reds are still in the playoff hunt. (Well that somehow is that the 300 million dollar Mets are going into the tank). Elly could be the second coming of Willie Mays and I won’t sign him or anyone to Juan Soto money. At least the Reds are keeping it interesting. But one has to wonder how many games they would be up in the wildcard or even the NL Central if management had signed a bat in the offseason like we all knew they needed. The Reds, when healthy, have 3 legit aces plus Singer who has been fantastic the second half and yet they are only 2 games over 500. Maybe they will pull it off, but again it’s on the front office this offseason to for once go all in (smartly) and get us some bats.

If you need New Years plans I’m sure that Roger will be happy to celebrate with you at the Cintas Center as it was announced yesterday that XU will host UCONN on Dec. 31. Who doesn’t want to ring in the New Year with Roger and the Muskies?

On a pictures-perfect Wednesday evening, we had two games with drastically different meanings played. On Field 2 it was the battle for the regular season championship, while on Field 4 it was the play-in game which Micah Kamrass called the “worst combined record play-in game in history.” 

With that set up let’s go to Field 2 first where Team Wagner took on Team Grefer for the regular season title:

Brad for the winners:

Team Wagner clinched the first trophy of the 2024 JCC Softball season by taking down Team Grefer 26-25 in a back-and-forth offensive nailbiter.  Grefer scored four in the top of the first, but Team Wagner battled back with six in the bottom with some help from Super Sub Jeremy Fogel, who cleared the RCF fence for a 3-run homer.  Wagner kept adding to the lead with hits from Michael Askin, Daniel and Zac Hiudt, Brad Wagner, Mark Levine, Landon Hawkins, Corey Norris, and Sub Scott “Dawg’s” Friend.  With a 17-8 lead, Grefer battled back to get within two at 17-15.  A few innings later, Team Wagner added a few more runs, including a Brad Wagner two-run homer over the LF fence—his first career HR.  

With the score 22-18 going into the seventh, Team Grefer turned on their super-secret powers and put up a seven on the scoreboard with big hits from Dan Grefer, Zach Mayer, Ryan Silverman, Kyle Grefer, and Oren Shmoel.  Landon Hawkins led off the bottom of the seventh with a double, followed by hits from Jeremy Fogel, Scott Friend, and Corey Norris.  After an intentional walk to load the bases, Daniel Hiudt hit the walk-off two-run single to win it for Team Graphite.

“It was a great team win, and our bats were able to overcome some defensive miscues,” Captain Wagner told the one and only reporter after the game.   

Team Wagner opens up the tournament on Sunday vs. Team Brafman on Field 4 with Wednesday Addams and Cousin Itt on the call.

Team Grefer takes on Team Harris on Sunday on Field 2 with Tupac and Biggie on the call.

And on Field 4 It was Team Kamrass vs. Team Buttermaker (Brafman)

For the first time all season, Marc for the winners. 

It was bound to happen at some point as Team Brafman finally got their first win of the season by beating Team Kamrass 13-3. Harry “Hood” Meisner last week set the tone by saying “everyone starts 0-0 and this is our time” and for once Team Brafman delivered. A 6-run first inning capped off by a 3-run moon-shot homer by Meisner started the day for Brafman. After a solo homer by Tyler “Bryce Harper” Stansbury in the bottom of the first, Team Brafman got right back at it. After a leadoff walk by Captain Brafman, Eric “the Mouth of the Midwest” Gruen hit his first career homer, a line drive shot to the LF fence. 

In the top of the 5th, Team Brafman continued to add to their lead with 3 two-out runs. Jamey “Smokin” Drennan and Jeff “The Natural” Weisbrot got on and Meisner hit a JCC homer to RF to put Team Brafman up 13-1. 

In the bottom of the 5th some fancy defense by Cam “Bearcat” Kirzner and Steve Shapiro led the way for the first win of the season for Team Brafman 13-3. 

A tip of the cap to both Eriz “Spuds” Zied and Eppy for keeping Team Kamrass off the scoreboard and for Steve “Z” for lending a hand catching. Jerry “Doc” Kirzner and David “The Dr. of Style” Weil also helped both in the field and at the plate. 

“We look forward to building off this momentum and playing League Champ Team Wagner on Sunday,” Brafman said post game. This game gives us the confidence we need to compete with them on Sunday. 

Reminder that the first round of the post season tournament starts this Sunday at 9:30. 

League notes

Happy birthdays this week to Ryan “the One Man Gang” Marcus and former player Drew “Kung Fu” Brown.

Please remember to sign up for the Oy Vey 5K this week. 

Let’s hope that the Reds front office doesn’t use the excuse that they had a lot of injuries to not go out and address the teams hitting needs. I’ll grant them that the starting pitching and even the bullpen for the most part has been pretty good this year, but man the hitting stinks. If they think getting Matt McClain, a guy who won’t have played for almost a year and a half, CES and the Candy Man back will make this team a playoff contender then we really need to look at who is in charge. As Brad and I talked about this week, if they actually cared about winning THAT would be a nice change of pace. 

You know my love for the older guys in the league and how it makes our league so special. After the game on Wednesday, I hustled down to Riverbend to see a couple of REALLY old guys who are still playing nightly. 83-year old Bob Dylan (who was fair) and 91-year Willie Nelson, who was better, put on a good show. Watching these guys play it really is amazing that they are still out there entertaining, and that they can still get it done (mostly). 

See everyone on Sunday