The MTA Lions baseball team began their season with games against TABC, Heschel and Flatbush. The Lions, who had reached the semi-finals last year, are an even stronger team this year and are looking forward to an even better season.

On Opening Day, Monday, April 23, the Lions played against TABC. In the bottom of the second inning, the Lions’ Azriel Goldberg (‘21) came around to score. TABC fought right back with three runs of their own in the third inning. After tying the game in the fourth, the Lions took over in the fifth. Coby Sorotzkin (‘19), who had three hits in the game, led the inning off with a single, followed by a monstrous double by Sam Weisman (‘18). Weisman came around to score on a ground ball by Daniel Landa (‘19), who also scored later in the inning, giving the Lions a 6-3 lead. MTA held the lead due to the outstanding pitching of Sorotzkin, starter, who went for three innings with five strikeouts, and Landa, who pitched four scoreless innings with six strikeouts of his own.

Next up was Heschel on Monday, April 30, who pushed two early runs across in the top of the first inning. The Lions cut that lead in half in the bottom of the inning when Landa hit a ground ball that drove in Akiva Richman (‘19), who had two hits for the night. However, the fifth inning was once again the Lions’ big inning. Down 3-2, the Lions had the bases loaded when Weisman hit a bases clearing triple. Once again, Landa had a very strong pitching performance and the Lions held on to win the game 5-4.

The next game against Flatbush on Monday, May 7, turned out to be a blowout. The game ended after three innings with MTA winning 20-0. Sorotzkin pitched three no-hit innings, and nearly everyone on the team reached base safely.

With a record of 3-0 the Lions are looking forward to playing HAFTR, the only other undefeated team in the league.

By Akiva Richman (‘19)