A wonderful night for softball on Wednesday leads to a good blog a day late:
Leading off is Keith for Team Fogel who beat Team Wolf:
After a one run loss to open the season, and a not so close loss last week, Team Fogel got a win over Team Wolf last night. Mark Weisser was on the mound doing his magic for Wolf and Adam Heldman was making fine catches in deep left-center.
It was a close game at 6-5 in the 7th inning. Team Fogel had men at 2nd and 3rd with two out. Jeremy was walked to load the bases. Then it was time for the “big play” for Team Fogel. Joel hit a hard grounder in the hole between the 1st and 2nd basemen and two runs scored.
Matt Miller had two tomahawk hits and a deep drive over the right fielder, and as catcher cut down two runners. A Jeremy Fogel to Landon Kurtz throw from left center to 3rd base produced two bang-bang outs. Landon made additional good catches at third and Josh Rosen and Brad Gallop ran down a few balls in right center.
Eddie Gallop started that late-inning rally by leading off and lining a ball through the hole between 1st and 3rd . Jamie Kurtzer and the defense finished the game with a 9-5 win.
Next up is Ken Groh whose team beat Team Solomon:
Another close defensive game tonight with Solomon being carried by Dan McGrath, David Snyder and Cam Kirzner. Team Groh had Jack Cohen, Sam Castellini and Tyler Stansbury flashing the leather. From memory and not the book, Tyler Stansbury hit #3 out of the park putting Groh up 2-0 with Jack on base after a 4 foul at bat. Solomon plated 1 in the 2nd after a McGrath triple. Then Cohen tripled to make it 3-1. Eli Gould doubled and came around to make it 3-2. In the bottom of the 5th Solomon scored two to go up 4-3 but after Mathew Kraus collected his 1st JCC hit the team rallied behind him to score 3. Team Groh held off a bottom 7 rally to win 7-5.
In the sad gm of the night Team AJ beat Team Brad:
This is about as bittersweet of a recap as I hope to ever write. Unfortunately, last night we lost Zach Fritzhand for the season to an injury, and we are thinking about him and hoping for a very easy recovery. He was having an amazing season so far (8-10 on the year with 7 RBIs in 3 games) and it stinks to see it end like this for him. We wish him nothing but the best.
As for the game last night, the Goon Squad came to play in a big way with a 15-1 win in 5 innings vs Team Wagner. Every single person contributed on offense and defense, which was very needed with our 1 and 5 out for the night. We really broke the game open in the second inning starting with massive contributions from the bottom of our order. Sam Klinkowitz hit a Klinko bomb that got him a 2-run triple, followed by hits from Michael Heldman and Howard Goldwasser. The rally was on and we scored 8 runs that inning.
Like I said though this was a team effort through and through. Jamey Drennan pitched great and had 4 RBIs, Adam Cronstein was a vacuum in LCF, I went 3-3 with a triple and three runs, Ryan Small and Ian Conwell had 2 hits as well. Our MVP on the night though is the aforementioned Howard Goldwasser with 2 hits and the biggest catch of the game.
Next week we will play Team Wolf with a chance to keep it rolling.
Finally on field 4 Team Brafman got another win vs. Team Grefer
Thanks to a couple of Subs (Michael Askin and Anthony (Not Alex) Skrapitz) and a great pitching performance by Jimmy Lefton, Team Brafman won 10-7 over Team Grefer. This was a team win all around with big hits coming from Captain Brafman, Zach Mayer, Corey Myers and Jeff “Oscar Meyer” Wiener (who also played a great first base). The defense led the way especially the left side of the infield of Meyer and Skrapitz who were perfect all night. Zach “The Wild Horse” Zakem played a great game behind the plate who kept the ball in front of him all night. For team Grefer, Dan Bernstein hit a 3-run homer that might have just landed.
Team Brafman looks to continue their winning ways after their bye week next week.
League notes
Instead of the normal League notes I wanted to share Rick Lefton’s post from earlier this week from his leading the Cincy delegation on the March of Living. I took this from Rick’s Facebook page but I thought it was important to share with the league. Thanks Rick for taking all the Cincy kids over to Poland this year.
It will be impossible for me to describe our day today…there is no way that words can match the range of emotions and circumstances we experienced today. The March of the Living “March” and ceremony were today…we marched from Auschwitz to Birkenau with over 7,000 other delegates as a reminder to people everywhere that our people…the Jewish people…survived the Holocaust and the people marching “The Living” were there to “March” in memory of those who perished and could not march for themselves.
Our delegation was honored and surprised to be selected to lead “The March”…we were moved to the front and given the important task of carrying the March of the Living banner at the front of the pack! Such a cool experience for our students as they were given unexpected VIP treatment and were placed right in front and next to press row so there will be plenty of images and videos from news outlets featuring our group! It was a once in a lifetime experience and very impactful!
Once we completed that task, the March of the Living ceremony in Birkenau kicked off and we settled in to enjoy what’s typically a very meaningful ceremony. There was rain in the forecast but it was looking like it would hold off until later in the afternoon…but that was not meant to be. Rain started shortly after the start of the ceremony (which normally lasts about 2 hours)…no big deal…we were prepared with rain jackets, ponchos, and umbrellas but it was obvious very quickly that severe weather was bearing down on us. The ceremony was abruptly ended about 20 minutes in and they announced that people needed to evacuate Birkenau and to please stay off the railroad tracks because lightening was in the area…oy. The sky opened up and we got pounded by the heaviest rain I have ever been in with no shelter anywhere in sight and thousands of people trying to hustle back to the fleet of buses used to transport everyone. It was terrifying and being in a place built to be terrifying for other reasons made it even more surreal. There was panic…real panic in that crowd.
Fortunately with the help of local security, police, and volunteers working the event we made it out and back to the bus OK but soaked to the bone. I didn’t hear any complaining from our students as it was not lost on them where we were, and the real unspeakable tragedies that had happened there over 80 years ago. I was extremely proud of our group and it made a memorable day an extremely memorable day!
We finished up the evening with a nice dinner at the Krakow JCC which has been doing incredible work supporting refugees from nearby Ukraine. The Krakow JCC CEO Jonathan Ornstein who is a transplanted New Yorker shared the details of the vital work they are doing…it was a real pleasure to be there as a fellow JCC Professional and a great way to end an unforgettable day!
Sorry for the long post…this whole day could be a book someday so you got off easy!
See everyone next week