B’nai Brith’s first softball game against Temple Sinai last Sunday provided more sports excitement than anyone, player or spectator, could have imagined. BB saw a 12 run lead evaporate against a relentless Temple Sinai who turned a 13-1 deficit into a 14-13 advantage. B’nai Brith came back to tie it at 14 and scored four in the top of the 8th on the way to an 18-14 win. Strong hitting by Andrew Kasdan, Alex Lee and Ian Rappaport helped keep B’nai Brith in the game and Paul Velelis had a three run homer for the winning team. Clutch pitching by Wayne Neumann in the bottom of the 8th allowed BB to hold on for the win.

Sharey Tefilo (9-1) won two more games, clinching another regular season A division title in this rain shortened season. Against B’nai Brith (2nd game) the score was 4-1 going into the 5th when TSTI scored six runs to put the game away. They went on to win 11-2 with Matt Katz, Cary Bayer and Steve Weissman each getting two hits, while Dave Dennenberg made several great plays in the field.

In their first game, TSTI scored six runs in the 5th and eight runs in the 6th to break open a close game on the way to a 28-13 win over Pine Brook. Eric Rothfeld led the attack with five hits, Cary Bayer had four, and Jason Grebin, David Kramer, Matt Katz and Jeff Gaier each had three.

AABJ&D edged Chabad 25-24, highlighted by Jeff Falkenstein hitting for the cycle and Jay Gertleman’s home run. In their first game, though, AABJ&D fell to Temple Sholom 24-15 with Steve Holinstat going 5-6 (2 HR’s, 6 RBI’s) and Mark Fortgang 4-6, only a single short of the cycle in the win.

Temple Sholom’s second game was a 22-18 loss to Temple Sinai, but in that contest Nate Treff was 4-4 and scored four times. Also, for TSWE, Jeff Goldberger was 4-5 and a double short of the cycle.

The B division race is coming down to the 7/10 matchup between Agudath Israel (8-1) and B’nai Jeshurun (7-1) on what will likely be the last day of the regular season. Agudath only had one game last week which was a 9-2 win over AABJ&D / Ohr Torah. Paul Aronoff had two homers in the win and was 3-3. Agudath played great defense led by Robert Field’s tremendous diving catch.

B’nai Jeshurun won both ends of their DH for their 7th straight win. They are also averaging a league low six runs allowed per game. However, their next meeting vs. Agudath is against the highest scoring team in the league (17 RPG).

Ner Tamid lost both of their games, but Justin Festa had four homers and a double on the day for NT.

B’nai Or was down 8-5 to Temple Emanu-El in the 6th inning but batted around for eight runs on the way to a 16-8 win. Eric Axler had a three run homer and five RBI’s while Bill Schlosser and Fred Kain had four hits each.

For Beth Shalom, Steve Siegal had a grand slam, four runs scored, five hits and eight RBI’s in a 23-7 win over AABJ&D / Ohr Torah. In their 2nd game, Beth Shalom was down 12-4 to B’nai Israel only because they threw out a runner at the plate and two runners at 3rd base (long strike from deep left center to 3rd by Eli Montag) with three outfield assists. Then they batted around in the bottom of the 6th to take a 13-12 lead only to fall in the 7th, 16-13. In the loss, Eli Montag, Aaron Attermann and Steve Siegal all had home runs.

There were no games July 4th weekend. The next games will be July 10th.

Reprinted from http://livingstontemplesoftball.blogspot.com