Coming off a dominating performance in the Europe-Africa Qualifying Tournament, the South/Central All Stars, Israel’s Little League national champion, had an impressive showing in the regional tournament as they made it all the way to the semifinals.

With a combined score of 77-3 over five games in their previous tournament, the Israelis knew that they were walking into a tougher competition as they approached the Europe-Africa Regional Tournament. Not only were the teams better, the odds were less favorable. The qualifier featured seven teams with two moving on (eventually Israel and Lithuania), while the regional field consisted of 13 teams with only one champion making the trip to Williamsport for the Little League World Series in August.

Last year was Israel’s first year competing at this level and the team was sadly upset in a game against Switzerland that would have qualified them for the regional tournament. This year, the team breezed through that stage.

After their success, they received quite a bit of publicity and started getting shoutouts in the form of video messages from celebrities. Whether it was Israeli politicians like Naftali Bennett (former Israeli prime minister) and Isaac Herzog (president of Israel) or other Jews in the sports world like Jerry Weinstein (Israel’s manager, 2017 World Baseball Classic) and Beatie Deutsch (American-Israeli marathon runner), the kids were happy to get the encouragement. But nothing got them more pumped up than a live video call from Jacob Steinmetz, the Modern Orthodox minor league pitcher.

At this point, the team is familiar with their accommodations in Kutno, Poland. Having been there last year, they already had all the necessary contacts with the Chabad of Warsaw. The Little League International officials were aware of certain religious issues. The team knows that the complex fence can be used as an eruv on Shabbat and they were given space for their kosher food and hot plates—needed all week long as their only way to heat food.

But the biggest religious issue loomed large on the schedule. The two semifinal match-ups were to take place on Shabbat. Unlike other tournaments where it might be easy to move a game until after Shabbat, that would not have been possible here as Shabbat ended at 10:15 p.m. local time. Though the team is a pretty diverse group, some religious, others not, it was clear from the beginning— this team was not going to play on Shabbat.

The coaches did not want to get ahead of themselves. They pushed off having the conversation until Israel was clear of the first tournament. At that point, they started working with officials at Little League International on possible solutions if Israel were to advance that deep into the tournament.

Quite a bit had to occur for Israel to make it to that semifinal. The first step was advancing out of pool play. With 13 teams, lots were drawn that divided the teams into three pools (two of four and one of five). Israel received a mediocre draw. They ended up in what was clearly the middle of the three groups with regard to toughness. The other three teams in their group were the Czech Republic (reigning regional champions returning a few players from last year’s Williamsport team), France (always a decent team), and South Africa (underdogs given their lack of regional experience).

Israel’s first game was against France on Sunday. This was the optimal scheduling for Israel as the format meant that six teams would advance to the playoffs after pool play. To get one of those spots, a team needed to finish first or second in their pool. As the Czech were highly regarded and the South Africans were likely to struggle, the Israel vs. France game looked like the most important game in the pool.

Israel jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first as the French pitcher struggled with his control and the Israeli runners took advantage. Lior Margulis (Tel Aviv) started on the mound for Israel and threw three innings with seven strikeouts and held France to one unearned run. The score sat at 4-1 halfway through the six inning game.

But Israel decided to pull Margolis in order to save him to potentially use against South Africa a few days later. The relief pitching couldn’t keep France as quiet and the score stood at 4-3 after the fourth inning.

With the pressure on, Israel kept up their relentless movement on the basepaths. They were rewarded with a fifth run in the fifth and a sixth run in the sixth. That made the score 6-3 going into the last half inning.

France refused to quit though and made the game interesting. They scored two runs and had runners on first and second with two outs before Israel got a grounder to end the game 6-5.

Their game against the Czech Republic went somewhat predictably. While Israel almost got out of the first inning two different times (a near double play where the runner beat the throw by a hair and an error at third), the Czech were able to capitalize on the opportunity and led 9-0 after the first inning. Eventually, the mercy rule took effect in the fourth inning when the Czech stretched the lead to 10-0.

However, Israel knew that as long as they beat South Africa, they still had a great chance to advance. That realization may have given them a few early game jitters as they let South Africa get out to an early 2-0 lead.

After some scoreless innings, Israel came up in the top of the fourth and started getting some baserunners on. After pushing a few runs across the plate, they got to the top of their order where a flurry of singles stretched the lead to 5-2. It was then that Moshe Carmen (Efrat) stepped up to the plate. As he had done three times in the last tournament, Carmen blasted a ball over the fence. With an 8-2 lead, Israel was finally able to breathe.

With a final score of 11-4, Israel defeated South Africa and advanced into the playoffs as the sixth seed where the top two teams were awarded byes. Israel’s matchup was slated to be Spain (winners of the toughest pool) on Friday morning with the winner playing Germany on Saturday.

At this point, the real discussions began regarding Israel’s schedule. The managers of the team spoke with Little League International and stated that the team would forfeit if their game was scheduled for Shabbat. Little League International decided to allow for the game to be moved to Friday afternoon if Israel were to defeat Spain.

The team was ecstatic about LLI’s cooperation and were determined to make the decision count. They decided to start Eitan Weiss (Karnei Shomron) against a Spanish team that was certainly favored. The Spanish team was clearly larger than their Israeli counterparts, but slugging isn’t everything in Little League.

Weiss came out dealing from the very start. He allowed one early run, yet his breaking ball started to throw off the Spanish hitters. The Israelis had threatened in the first couple innings with no success, but as the third inning began they got a boost from the bottom of their order.

Israel manufactured four runs in the top of the third. They had a chance to put the game away, but left the bases loaded in that inning. Luckily for Israel, Weiss still had plenty of pitches left on the mound. He worked out of a jam in the fourth and Israel tacked on two insurance runs in the fifth and another in the sixth to make it 7-1 going into the last half inning.

As great as that sounds, Israel faced a classic Little League baseball situation. Weiss was running out of pitches and they were forced to replace him on the mound. He left with one out in the sixth inning after shutting down the Spanish and holding them to just one run.

The Israeli bullpen wasn’t as lucky. They let up three runs and loaded the bases with Spaniards. A grand slam would have won the game for Spain, but instead Yitzy Kralek (Bet Shemesh) fielded a grounder cleanly at third and took it to the base himself to end the game.

Team Israel barely had time to rejoice as their next matchup was later that day against an undefeated German team. Israel jumped on the board early and had a 2-0 lead after the top of the first inning. However, the bottom of the first derailed their momentum.

When the dust settled, it was 7-2 Germany. Israel was also unfortunately running short on pitching because of the doubleheader and couldn’t really stop the slow trickle of German runs. The game ended by mercy rule, 12-2 in four innings.

“We all knew it was a disadvantage and we ended up losing,” said David Weiss about the arrangement they made. “But when all is said and done, I would take that any day over playing on Shabbat because the precedent we set to the world was that we don’t compromise on Torah, we don’t compromise on Judaism and we don’t compromise on Shabbat.”

Due to the late game time on Friday, the team didn’t have time to travel home before Shabbat. But the third Shabbat in Poland would prove to be memorable. Not only was the team able to relax and watch the other semifinal game together, but some players and coaches were able to watch the Polish national baseball team practice as well.

As it turns out, the newly appointed manager of the Polish team is Dennis Cook. Cook was a relief pitcher with 10 different teams in Major League Baseball over the course of his 14 seasons. Israeli coach David Weiss grew up rooting for him during his time on the New York Mets. But when Weiss and his son, Eitan, met Cook, it turned out the honor was mutual. Cook had heard about Eitan’s performance on the mound against Spain the day before and complimented him on his accomplishment. David couldn’t have been prouder.

With flights out of Poland being tough to find, most of the team (those who didn’t fly home with parents) stayed in Kutno to watch the championship game. In a battle of the only two teams Israel lost to, the Czech Republic defeated Germany to earn the right to return to Williamsport.

“Overall I’d have to say that this was a great experience both for us as coaches and for the kids,” said Manager Mordechai Holtz about the adventure. “They really took the responsibility of understanding what their role is as representatives of Israel and representatives of the Jewish people. They really took it seriously and took it to heart.”

Who knows where the future of Israeli baseball is headed? Next year’s team will have the opportunity to make even more progress on the international stage. Gaining the experience in tournaments like this can only help the program and bodes well for the teams yet to come.

Making it to Poland is quite an accomplishment. But making it to Williamsport? That’s something for kids to dream about.

Nati Burnside is a freelance writer living in Fair Lawn and is a man of many interests. He can be reached at [email protected].