An epic battle that brought out the best of bats and gloves from middle girls on both teams, ended in a thrilling 13-12 victory for Lakeland Bank over Stefanie Diamond Photography. The two top-ranked teams in the fourth-sixth grade girls division were evenly matched and split their regular season games both by scores of 6-5.
On a sunny Friday afternoon, the sold out crowd saw the lead change hands six times and sat at the edge of their seats until Atara Foreman sealed the game, striking out the last batter, jumping into the arms of her teammates.
But it was the play immediately beforehand that fans will be talking about for years. With LB holding onto a fragile one run lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning, SDP put their first batter on with a single. But shortstop Leanna Kahan snared a line drive from the next batter and quickly threw the ball to Lana Schmutter at first before the runner could get back to complete a breathtaking double play.
SDP got maximum production from their lineup, including a two-run HR blast from Batsheva Rubinstein which nearly cleared the fence in left. SDP was aided by handy glove work from Bina Levine who robbed LB of several hits.
Down 1-0 after the first, LB took the lead in the second on a two-out rally started by an RBI single by Ani Norman (who later made an eyes-closed catch at third) and capped by an RBI double by Atara Siesser. SDP took the lead in the third 6-5, but was quickly erased in the fourth after Schmutter smoked a three-run HR to right, which put LB up 9-6. In the bottom of the inning, Hayley Diamond hit an RBI triple and scored on the next play to keep her team in it 9-8.
LB’s Sofia Esses (who was also starting pitcher), Leila Goldstein, Abigail and Maya Warhaftig all reached base to rally with four critical runs in the fifth. With LB up 13-8 in the bottom of the fifth, SDP crossed home plate four times as well, highlighted by Tali Pfeiffer’s two-run triple to bring her team within 13-12. With hearts racing at every breath, the game ended in celebration after a scoreless sixth inning and golden glove handiwork of Kahan and lights-out pitching from Foreman.
By Ron Siesser, coach
