Livingston Temple Softball League 04/26/15

AABJD gave Sharey Tefilo Israel all they could handle in the 1st 6 innings of a 2 hour marathon. After AABJD scored 7 runs in the bottom of the 6th STI was only ahead by 1 at 20-19. But the team that has not lost in a few years came up with 6 more runs in the top of the 7th to get the 26-19 victory. STI won their 2nd game over Temple Sholom  22-3 to go to 5-0 for the season atop the A division. The STI offense was led by Jeff Becker with 2 HR's and one each by Jason Grebin, Ken Gorman, & Cary Bayer. In the field, 2 diving catches by CF Steve Weisman stopped AABJD's momentum as well as rifle throws by Matt Katz to 3rd for an out and a beautiful throw from Mike Somekh to David Pressel for the tag at home producing a run stopping out. Pinebrook (4-1) is only 1 game behind after sweeping their twin bill also. Excellent pitching by Mike Marchant and an insurance HR in the 7th inning by David Reiss was too much for Suburban Torah in their 1st game 13-10 win. In the 2nd game, David Katz (6 for 6), Jason Abfier (5 for 6), and Mike Brachfeld (4 for 5) led a solid all around offense. Pine Brook never trailed in this game and put the game away with 14 runs in the 5th inning defeating AABJD 28-18. Temple Sholom had their offense clicking in game 1 with timely hitting and runs scored in every inning but one. Matt Kaplan was 4-4 and there were homeruns from Scott Suydam, Jeff Shapiro and Mark Fortgang in a 20-5 win over B'nai Shalom. Temple Sinai also had 2 wins in the upper division (12-10 over B'nai Jeshurun and 20-12 over B'nai Shalom).

Chabad is tearing up the B division lifting their record to 5-0 with another sweep. They defeated B'nai Israel 15-12 in a 1st place battle and went on to beat B'nai Abraham 12-2. There is a tie at 4-1 between B'nai Or and B'nai Brith for 2nd place as both of those teams added 2 more wins. B'nai Brith got by their 2 games with a 1 run margin in each defeating AABJD/Ohr Torah 10-9 and Ner Tamid 12-11. In their win over Ner Tamid Rob Crum had his 2nd HR of the day early in the game for NT and NT also pulled ahead by 2 runs in the top of the 7th (Carl Bergmanson 2B - 2 RBI's) but gave 3 back in the bottom of the 7th to lose it. In the 1st game for B'nai Or Eric Axler made a diving catch in centerfield to end a 5 run 6th inning for Ner Tamid (Rob Crum 3 run homer). For the winners Craig Rosen went 3-3 with 3 RBI's in the 10-5 win. In game 2 Eric Axler had 2 hits and 2 runs, Keith Barbarosh was 3-4 with 2 runs and 1 RBI. B'nai Or scored 6 in the 2nd inning on the way to a 9-1 win over AABJD/Ohr Torah. Beth Shalom defeated Temple Emanu-El 8-7 in a comeback win in the 1st game of their double header. It was a back and forth game with the E-Men holding a 7-5 lead into the top of the 7th highlighted by great defense all game on both sides. Eli Montag blasted a 2 run sac fly to tie it up and Jeff Wasserman knocked in the go ahead run for the winners who held the E-Men scoreless in the bottom of the 7th. Beth Shalom got off to a great start in the 2nd game up 13-1 early against Agudath Israel with everyone in the lineup hitting (Eli Montag 5 RBI's) and held on for the 18-9 win. Agudath Israel's 1st game was an 11-4 win over B'nai Abraham. Mark Davis homered for the winners. Also in game 2, Temple Emanu-El came back with a 17-4 win over B'nai Israel.