The 2014 Bnai Brith Men’s “A” softball league had a very exciting year. Coming into the 2014 season, “The Blue Team” had won four straight championships and was confident for #5. But the season started off slowly for them, as they lost three of their first six games. Although the team faced rough waters ahead, it was confident it would find a way to right its ship.
Meanwhile, two teams that started extremely strong were Hava Tequila and Elite–Tequila started off 5-0 and Elite started 5-1. Tequila, being a new team in the league, was creating a lot of buzz; everybody wanted to know what the team was all about. In the case of Elite, it had won the “B” division last year and had moved up to “A,” where the competition was a little tougher. Early on Elite did it with its offense, outslugging its competition by a margin of almost 3 to 1.
During the middle of the season Tequila hit a speed bunt, losing three out of four games. It lost two to the Blue team and one to Cut Fresh. The Blue team was in fact continuing to show it was the champ and Cut Fresh was beginning its own winning streak. Other teams that were showing signs of promise were Raritan Bay Realty (6-2) and Dog House (4-3). Two teams that seemed to be out of it early were Golems and Menschen; between them they had two wins and 10 losses.
As the regular season was coming to a close, Blue Team took control of the # 1 seed; Elite, Tequila, and Raritan were all battling for that valuable # 2 seed–the # 1 or # 2 seed was given a first-round bye and avoided a single elimination game. While all this was going on, Cut Fresh was the hottest team winning its last six games, to finish the regular season at 8-6 and solidifying the 5th seed. And so, at the end of the regular season, the standings were:
1. Blue Team – 10-4
2. Hava Tequila – 9-5
3. Elite – 9-5
4. Raritan Realty – 8-6
5. Cut Fresh – 8-6
6. DogHouse – 7-7
7. Menschen – 2-12
8. Golems – 1-13
In round 1 of the playoffs, Elite played Doghouse and although Doghouse did everything it could, in the end Elite’s offense was just too great, winning 10-4. Raritan played Cut Fresh in a magical game wherein Raritan took a commanding early lead and Cut Fresh battled to a 13-13 tie. In extra innings, Raritan had many chances to end Cut Fresh’s run, but it was not to be, as Cut Fresh scored 4 in the top of the 10th and Raritan only scored 1 in the bottom of the inning and lost 18-14.
In the Semi-Finals 1–best of three–The Blue team played Cut Fresh and although Cut Fresh was hot, it was quickly cooled off by a confident Blue team, winning two games in a row. Semi- Finals 2–best of three–Hava Tequila took an early command in game 1 and wound up winning easily 10-4. Game 2 would be a different story, after getting behind early, Elite stormed back behind its strong offense and won 8-5. Game 3 was all about pitching, as Elite was never really in the game and Tequila won easily.
Finals–best of three–Although the Blue Team won both games against Hava Tequila in the regular season, it had faced their other pitcher. What was very clear from the beginning was that both teams were ready for a WAR. Both games were extremely close; every time one team scored, the other would counter, with five lead changes during game 1. In the top of the 7th inning Tequila took a 9-7 lead and held off a late push by the Blue Team and won 9-8.
In the 2nd game, it seemed that the Blue team was better prepared and took an early 4-0 lead, but that slowly evaporated and in the end Hava Tequila was the 2014 Champion, winning 5-4 for a two- game sweep of the Blue Team.
Congrats to Hava Tequila!!!
By Adam Gold
