Back in March we were pretty certain this softball season was not going to happen. With the Town's help and a lot of perseverance by our new leader we made it all the way through the finals. It was a season like no other and we lost one of our veteran STI players - Mel Prager.  Sharey Tefilo Israel even lost a game somehow. In the end, though,  STI proved to be much the best again winning the A division championship one more time (7 out of the last 8 years). They defeated the #2 seed B'nai Brith 27-12 for the 2nd year in a row. In the B division the top seed was AABJD who was beating the opposition at an 11-1 rate over the 1st 7 games. But they could not handle Agudath Israel in the final who were on fire in a 23-5 victory. Hopefully we will be back to normal for next season. 

2019 A Division Champions Sharey Tefilo Israel

Above - Left to right

Front row (Left to Right):
Matt Katz, Michael Somekh, Cary Bayer, Ken Gorman
Second Row (Left to Right):
Dave Denenberg, Marc Berger, Jeremy Celmer, Jeff Becker, Jason Grebin, Dave Kramer
Jared Goldberg, Jeff Gaier, Mark Licht, Bill Perlman
Back Row (Left to Right):
Harrison Mercado, Dave Pressel, Arnie Budin

Missing from the picture:

Steve Weissman, Larry Feigenbaum, Corey Feigenbaum, Mel Prager

Sharey Tefilo Israel won their 6th A division championship in the last 7 years with a 7-2 win over B'nai Brith.  They have now won their last 23 games in a row. The last time they lost a game was to B'nai Brith in June 2018. In the top of the 1st it was Matt Katz with a spectacular 2 out diving catch in left with runners on 2nd and 3rd saving at least 2 runs. That set the tone for a defense that made very few mistakes if any all game. In the top of the 2nd Paul Bonastia had the first RBI of the game for B'nai Brith but Harrison Mercado and Jeff Becker followed suit in the bottom of the 2nd for a 3-1 lead for TSTI. In the bottom of the 3rd Jared Goldberg blasted a 2 run homer to make it 5-1. Jeff Becker added another RBI single as did Dave Kramer to put the home team up 7-1 after 5. The visitors could never mount a rally and Greg Weintraub's 2 out RBI was the only other score for a 7-2 final.

 

2019 B division Champions AABJD / Ohr Torah below

Left to right. 

Front -
Jerry Blugrind, Doron Brand, Steve Kops, Cory Kops

Back -   
Chai Brand, Asher Malech, Eric Feiler, Joel Tennenberg,  
David Younger, Alex Malech, Amir Goldstein          

In the B division semi finals Ohr Torah defeated Suburban Torah 20-3 and AABJD got the best of B’nai Or 16-12 to set up an all AABJD championship game. It was Ohr Torah’s 2^nd straight trip to the B division final. Last year as the 6^th seed they were the visitors. This year as the 3 seed they were the home team against the 4 seed AABJD who jumped out to an early 5-2 lead in the first inning. They extended that lead to 13-2 after 4 innings. But Ohr Torah tightened their defense and stormed back with 6 in the 5^th and 5 in the 6^th to tie it up at 13. After a scoreless 7^th both teams scored 2 in the 8^th. After a scoreless 9^th and top of the 10^th the game went into the bottom of the 10^th tied at 15. Asher Malech led off with a double and Alex Malech finished off a 6 for 6 game with a bomb to center for the winning RBI. The 10 innings was the longest  championship game in league history and this was the back end of a DH for both teams which started at 9 AM and ended at 1 PM.