Livingston Temple Softball League 07/20/14

Sharey Tefilo Israel's win in the 1st round of the playoffs is the 6th game in a row they have won by 15 or more runs. Defeating Temple Emanu-El by a 21-6 margin moved them to 15-0 this season and they scored the 21 runs without a triple or HR. The only tense moment of the game was Dave Pressel's head first slide into the backstop on the 21st and game ending run. We were told after a few stitches at St. Barnabus he is fine. STI will now face B'nai Shalom who won a squeaker over Pine Brook 5-3. Great defense was the story of the game with highlight plays from Keith Bader, Michael Helderman and David Helderman. B'nai Shalom was ahead 4-3 in the 4th and scored an insurance run in the 5th with David Helderman's triple and Bill Chuven's RBI single. Michael Chuven had 3 hits in the win. Now they have the unenviable task of meeting a team in the semi finals that has beaten them 40-4 over the 2 games they played this season. In the other half of the draw in the A division, B'nai Jeshurun had a 5 run lead going into the 7th inning but with 2 outs B'nai Abraham scored 5 runs to tie it. In the bottom of the 7th though, B'nai Jeshurun got 3 hits in a row with Jason Conn getting the winner with his 3rd hit of the day to take it 11-10. They will now face the #6 seed Temple Sinai in the semi finals who defeated AABJD 10-8 to move on. During the regular season B'nai Jeshurun won both of their contests.

Temple Sholom had no problem as the #1 seed in the B division defeating Ner Tamid 19-4. After Ner Tamid scored 3 runs in the top of the third to tie the score at 4, TSWE's defense clamped down and they exploded for 15 runs in the next 3 innings to end it. Matt Kaplan was 4-4 with a bases clearing 2 out triple, Glenn Lieberman, Doug Rouse and Marc Wolf each were 3 for 3 and Marc Wolf had back to back triples. Jeff Goldberger's single knocked in the final run. Suburban Torah won the "early" game over B'nai Or by a 5-1 margin. B'nai Or had a 1-0 lead for 5 innings as both offenses slept through the game. But Suburban Torah's 4 run 6th was all they needed to coast to the next round. They now face the #1 seed who they played evenly this season going 1-1 and losing the runs for and against battle 28-27. Agudath Israel was having an easy time with Beth Shalom ahead 9-1 after 3 innings but by the time the top of the 7th rolled around Beth Shalom had the tying runs on base with one out. But they failed to push them across and lost the game 12-10. In the loss Mike Elchoness had a HR. In the win, Jason Kay was 3-3 with 3 RBI's, and Paul Aronoff had 3 hits, 2 doubles and 3 runs. Scott Reis also had a triple and a sure HR which the Hillside fence turned into a double. Next in line for CAI is B'nai Brith who just nipped Chabad 10-9.  B'nai Brith was also down 9-1 after 3 innings but held Chabad scoreless the rest of the way. BB chipped away but was still down 9-5 into the bottom of the 7th. Their first 2 batters scored making it 9-7 then Steve Miller's clutch 2 run single tied it up. a few batters later Andrew Kasdan ended it with an RBI single for the 10-9 win. Agudath Israel and B'nai Brith have not met since the first game of the season which was an 8-6 win for CAI. Out of the 8 games this weekend 5 were decided by 2 runs or less and a 6th was 1-0 for 5 innings. Good luck to the remaining 8 teams!