Livingston Temple Softball League 04/12/15

The weather could not have been nicer for opening day as the LTS league got under way for the 2015 season. In A division action, Sharey Tefilo Israel took over right where they left off with a 21-5 6 inning win over Pinebrook extending their winning streak to the point where we will stop keeping track. STI scored 5 in the 1st, 5 in the 2nd and Jason Grebin's home run in the 3rd led to 7 more on the way to the win. The 2nd best team in the upper divsion last season looked pretty good on opening day also with Temple B'nai Jeshurun  victorious over B'nai Shalom 27-7 in 5 innings. They were down 7-4 after the 1st inning but homeruns from Jason Miller and Rich Blann paced them in their comeback win. AABJD defeated Suburban Torah 18-10 led on offense by Josh Elstein (4-5, 3 run HR), and Rafi Abromowitz (3-5, 2 triples). Doug Eisenberg also had a triple for the winners. The final game in the upper division saw Temple Sinai get the best of Temple Sholom  16-11.

Temple Emanu-El made their debut in the B division with a 23-8 (6 innings) win over AABJD Ohr Torah. In the win, Tim O'Neil had 2 homeruns and Glen Handler had 4 hits. The E-Men scored at least 3 runs in 5 of the 6 innings. Chabad won the only 1 run contest of the day with a 5-4 victory over Ner Tamid. They scored 1 in the 6th to tie it up and Ner Tamid failed to score in the top of the 7th. Then with the bases loaded and 2 outs Howard Lipstein scored the game winner as Ner Tamid just missed a force play at 3rd. For the winners, Joey "Bats" Bottinger had 4 infield singles. B'nai Or and Agudath Israel were playing a very tight game but with 2 outs in the top of the 5th B'nai Or scored 8 runs to break it open. CAI got back within striking distance but left the tying runs on in the bottom of the 7th with B'nai Or taking the 13-11 win. For the winners, pitcher Neill Hamilton was 3-3, Adam Forman was 3-4 with 3 RBI's, Eric Axler scored 3 runs and Keith Barbarosh had 2 hits, 2 runs and 2 RBI's. B'nai Brith had no problem with Beth Shalom in their 16-5 win. Every starter on B'nai Brith scored a run and both Ken Merber and Jason Crimmins had homeruns. In the loss, Zach Cohen had a leadoff homerun, Neil Grossman had a triple and Jeff Wasserman still  has a nose for playing 3rd base. Also, B'nai Israel defeated B'nai Abraham 18-12. Double header next week. Games start at 9.