CBY Men’s Club Softball League’s reigning A Division champions, the Knockers, defeated the Gashouse Gang by scores of 17-5 and 20-4, to capture the 2015 championship in a day-night doubleheader on Sunday, September 20 in Bergenfield. With the victories, the team, captained by Josh Aron, becomes the first in the long history of the CBY Men’s Club Softball League to capture three consecutive championships.
The Knockers entered the playoffs as favorites to prevail again after finishing atop the regular season standings with a 9-2 record, but after a long layoff in what was the most disjointed softball season in recent memory, it was far from a certainty.
The first postseason test facing the champs was a single elimination first-round game against fourth-seeded New Crew on Sunday, September 13 at Memorial in Bergenfield.
New Crew was one of two teams to get the better of Knockers during the regular season, rallying back from an 8-4 deficit to take the season opener 15-10. New Crew third baseman Chanan Vogel had a big role to play, going 4-4 at the plate with three singles and a home run that day.
Vogel and teammate Shai Gerson provided plenty of power in the playoff game as well, and New Crew opened up a 6-2 lead. But this time it was the Knockers who came out on top, as they filled Miriam Aron’s scorebook with hit after hit and cruised to a comfortable 18-9 victory and advanced to the finals.
Second-seeded Gashouse Gang, who had overtaken Mossad in their first playoff game, posed a different type of test for the Knockers. A younger, athletic team with great speed in the outfield and a number of strong bats, Gashouse Gang had underachieved in the regular season with a 6-5 record but was certainly capable of pulling off the upset.
Momentum from the Knockers’ resounding win over New Crew carried over into the finals, though, and the outcome was never in doubt.
The Knockers bested Gashouse Gang in all facets of the game, starting with pitching ace Yitz Greenbaum, who always seems to save his best efforts for the playoffs. Greenbaum outdueled his Gashouse Gang counterpart Simcha Sklar over the twin bill, showing pinpoint control and mixing up his pitches well to keep Gashouse Gang batters off balance. He recorded three strikeouts in the series.
The Knockers’ winning playoff formula in recent years has involved backing up Greenbaum’s strong pitching with nearly flawless defense; the Knockers followed that script this year, too. Their fielders made several highlight reel-worthy plays throughout the series including a stunning diving catch by Josh Aron in left field, and impressive grabs at full extension by shortstop Meir Stimmel and centerfielder Noam Block; they were only less stunning because the pair seem to pull off such feats regularly. Not to be outdone, second baseman Mordy Faber stopped a sharply hit ground ball by contorting his body and twisting around to flip the ball to Stimmel at second for a force-out in the clinching game. Dov Glickman, filling in at first base for Mo Rosenberg, stole a number of likely hits, including a rising line drive off the bat of Josh Potash for the final out of the season.
Unlike in previous years, the Knockers also exploded offensively throughout the postseason, averaging 17.3 runs over the three games; every player in the lineup crossed the plate in both games against the Gashouse Gang. The Knockers’ iconic third base coach Marc Aron might have strained his arm waving runners around, as the 55 runs scored in the postseason were nearly half as many as the Knockers scored throughout the eleven game regular season (a division-leading 116).
Speedy leadoff man Block followed a typically outstanding performance against New Crew by scoring five runs and driving in two in the finals, and cleanup hitter Glickman reached base safely on eight out of nine occasions he came to the plate in the series—walking twice, hitting five singles and capping off the scoring with a two-run homerun in the sixth inning of Game 2. Right fielder Ariel Auman turned the most heads, however, as he walloped the ball deep into the night sky and over the fence at Bergenfield’s PAL field, plating three runs and giving the Knockers a lead they would never relinquish in the final game.
Major contributions to the win also came from powerful third baseman Jeremy Nussbaum, who surprised many in the league by letting his play do the talking this season, and catcher Steven Berkowitz who was steady behind the plate and a regular presence on the basepaths, scoring four runs in the finals to complete a superb offensive season. First baseman Rosenberg played solid defense all year and provided numerous timely clutch hits to all fields. Outfielder Noam Aron showcased all five tools, longtime fixture Jonny Ben David provided a veteran presence and a number of key base hits and of course manager Simmie Friedman kept the team focused and motivated for a third straight successful campaign.
