Livingston Temple Softball League 06/26/16

No one involved in B'nai Brith's 1st game against Temple Sinai last Sunday could have thought there'd be a softball game more exciting and tension filled than that one (What did they know?). BB saw a 12 run lead evaporate against a relentless Temple Sinai who turned a 13-1 deficit into a 14-13 advantage. But B'nai Brith came back to tie it at 14 and scored 4 in the top of the 8th on the way to an 18-14 win.  Strong hitting by Andrew Kasdan, Alex Lee and Ian Rappaport helped keep B'nai Brith in the game and Paul Velelis had a 3 run homer for the winners. Clutch pitching by Wayne Neumann in the bottom of the 8th allowed BB to hold on for the win. Sharey Tefilo (9-1) won two more games clinching another regular season A division title in this rain shortened season. Against B’nai Brith (2nd game) the score was 4-1 going into the 5^th when TSTI scored 6 runs to put the game away. They went  on to win 11-2 with Matt Katz, Cary Bayer and Steve Weissman each getting 2 hits, while Dave Dennenberg made several great plays in the field. In their 1st game, TSTI scored 6 runs in the 5^th and 8 runs in the 6^th to break open a close game enroute to a 28-13 win over Pine Brook. Eric Rothfeld led the attack with 5 hits, Cary Bayer had 4, and Jason Grebin, David Kramer, Matt Katz and Jeff Gaier each had 3. AABJD edged Chabad 25-24 highlighted by Jeff Falkenstein hitting for the cycle and Jay Gertleman’s homerun. In their first game though, AABJD fell to Temple Sholom 24-15 with Steve Holinstat going 5-6 (2 HR’s, 6 RBI’s) and Mark Fortgang 4-6 only a single short of the cycle in the win. Temple Sholom’s 2nd game was a 22-18 loss to Temple Sinai but in that contest Nate Treff was 4-4 and scored 4 times. Also for TSWE Jeff Goldberger was 4-5 and a double short of the cycle.

The B division race is  coming down to the 7/10 matchup between Agudath Israel (8-1) and B'nai Jeshurun (7-1) on what we are assuming will be the last day of the regular season. Agudath only had 1 game last week which was a 9-2 win over AABJD / Ohr Torah. Paul Aronoff had 2 homers in the win and was 3-3. Agudath played great defense led by Robert Field's tremendous diving catch. B'nai Jeshurun won both ends of their DH for their 7th straight win. They are also averaging a league low 6 runs allowed per game. But their next meeting vs. Agudath is against the highest scoring team in the league  (17 RPG). Ner Tamid lost both of their games but Justin Festa had 4 homers and a double on the day for NT. B'nai Or was down 8-5 to Temple Emanu-El in the 6th inning but batted around for 8 runs on the way to a 16-8 win. Eric Axler had a 3 run homer and 5 RBI's while Bill Schlosser and Fred Kain had 4 hits each. For Beth Shalom, Steve Siegal had a grand slam, 4 runs scored, 5 hits and 8 RBI's in a 23-7 win over AABJD / Ohr Torah. In their 2nd game, Beth Shalom was down 12-4 to B'nai Israel only because they threw out a runner at the plate and 2 runners at 3rd base (long strike from deep left center to 3rd by Eli Montag) with 3 outfield assists. Then they batted around in the bottom of the 6th to take a 13-12 lead only to fall in the 7th  16-13. In the loss, Eli Montag, Aaron Attermann and Steve Siegal all had homeruns. No game July4th weekend. Next games will be July 10th.