This team of Alvins Pharmacy—a group of girls in third, fourth and fifth grade—may have been known around the league as a team with several superstars that led them to a championship. That is only part of the story. The other part is the solid contributions Alvin’s Pharmacy received from every member of the team. They had fun and improved with each game, leading ultimately to a TBO middle girls championship. Alvin’s lost only one game all season.

Pitching was the key. Ella Buchsbayew, Arianna Chesner and Julia Fried pitched consistently, throwing strikes and fielding their position superbly. Halfway through the season the rules were changed by TBO to encourage more hitting; walks were eliminated. If there were four balls on a batter, instead of the batter reaching a free first base, she hit against her own coach’s pitching. Ella, Arianna and Julia pitched so well that they most often went through an inning without the opposing coach going on the field. In the field, Kayla Antosofsky, Miri Hochberg and Tali Pfeiffer also played “pitcher’s helper,” often making key outs. Dafna Schlosberg played a great second base. Aliza Guzman, Nurit Schlosberg and Leila Goldstein also contributed, making important plays all season long. Each player had a great attitude and some could often be seen doing hand-stand celebrations after a great defensive play.

At bat, Ella was a homerun king, while Julia, Dafna and Arianna each had batting averages over.700, with many extra base hits. Kayla was an impressive leadoff batter with over a.500 batting average. The other players managed very big hits too; Miri Hochberg had four hits in the semifinal game and Tali Pfeiffer had three hits in the championship game.

The championship was a hard-fought, well-played close game with Alvin’s beating Maadan Mets by a score of 6-4. The Maadan Mets were coached by Kenny Schiff and Ari Mermelstein. The champion Alvin’s Pharmacy team was coached by Josh Buchsbayew, Adam Stein and Allen Pfeiffer.

By Allen Pfeiffer