The Killer B’z finished their regular season on a three-game losing streak, giving them a chip on their shoulders as they entered the postseason.
In the first round, they soundly defeated the Mighty Ducks 13-1.
The second round found the B’z trailing the Rattlers, a team they’d played three years in a row in the semifinals. Late, in the game Jon Neiss and Jacky Fleischman rallied the team and got the B’z comeback started. But in the seventh inning, with two strikes and two outs, they were still on the short end trailing by 2 runs. That’s when Dr. Joey Shatzkes delivered, keeping the B’z season alive and allowing Michael Graber to follow with another big two-out hit to send the game into extra innings. They shut the Rattlers down in the extra frames and walked away with a 13-9 victory.
Their opponent in the best-of-three championship series was the very talented Legends. The B’z knew they had a tough match ahead of them. During the regular season the Legends had beaten the B’z handily, and in the first game of the championship series the Legends won 12-3. But the B’z were not demoralized and were still confident heading into game 2.
Game 2 was a nail-biter, deadlocked at 1-1 until the bottom of the 6th inning. The B’z started buzzing and scored four times. The 5-1 victory brought both teams and the series to a decisive third game. The B’z carried the momentum from game 2 with them and opened up a 5-0 lead. The Legends kept up their fight and made it tight at 7-5 but ultimately the B’z won 9-5 to take the championship.
MVP honors were handed out to pitcher Jacky “Action Jackson” Fleischman and his battery-mate Ari Satz without whom he could never have ”gotten the ball over.” However, the B’z truly won as a team with contributions from all. Congratulations to Jacky Fleischman, Ari Satz, Yitzi Karasick, Roni Schwartz, Jonathan Neiss, Avi Weissberg, Yoni Goldenberg, Yossi Friedman, Mendy Strulowitz, Joseph Shatzkes, Michael Graber, and Andrew Dube. A big thank you also to all the commissioners: Yudi Sheinfeld, Dave Norman, Alan Teller, and Doug Marks.
