It was a late night game for the Lions as they took a trip to Fort Lee, hoping to secure a win over SAR before the field lights went out. Coach Daniel Landa and his MTA team were ready for any challenge that crossed their path, but focused on the task in front of them: an opening day win. When asked what to expect from his first game as coach, Coach Landa said, “It’s just a regular game for us. It’s us against them. We are ready to win and our guys know that and are all on the same page.” The Lions took their coach’s words literally and played strong from the first inning up to the end of the game in the seventh. In the first inning, Abie Schwartz stole a base and scored on a sacrifice fly by Gavriel Rudman, giving the Lions a 1-0 lead. That wasn’t the end of the scoring for the Lions. Ben Richman, Isaac Kantowitz, Shmuel Rosenthal and Noam Kornwasser all scored in the fourth, putting some pressure on SAR with a 5-0 lead. Although suffering two runs in the fifth, Rudman pitched the lights out in his first start of the year. A birthday two RBI triple for Schwartz gave the Lions a 10-2 lead entering the sixth. Schwartz then recorded two of his five strikeouts in his 2.1 innings of relief, closing the game for the Lions with a final score of 10-3.

By Donny Book