Yavneh Youth League (YYL) concluded its season with Championship Sunday on June 15, with three upsets in four divisions, and an ice-cream party for its youngest group.

This year, the league enjoyed its largest reg­istration in history, with 26 teams, all focused on sportsmanship, skill improvement, and fun.

*Junior Boys*

In the Junior Boys division champion­ship, the Noodle.org Giants were under­dogs to the highly touted Lippe Gastroen­terology Nationals. It was a back and forth game the entire way. The Giants went up 13-12 in the top of the 6th and thanks to some stellar defense from Noah Beckoff, were able to hold off a game ending ral­ly by the Nationals. First year coach David Whitehead and co-coaches Josh Gelernter and Rabbi Yehoshua Gold were extremely proud of how the Giants battled the entire season, making a remarkable run to win an 8-team Junior Boy division in upset fashion.

*Junior Girls*

In the Junior Girls division championship, the Marcel Studio Mariners faced off against favored 8th Day Caterer Royals coached by Rabbi Josh Kahn and Zvi Pearlman. The Royals built an ear­ly 7-1 lead with some very timely hitting, but the Mariners never lost faith and came back to make it 10-8 at the end of the 5th. In the top of the 6th inning, thanks to some fantastic defensive play from Rachel Teigman, Adira Schreiber, and Aliza Poloner, the Mariners set the side down in order. Going into the bottom of the 6th down by 2, Adi­ra Shreiber hit a game tying triple with one out to score Rachel

Teigman and Esti Lebovic. Gabriella Mor­ris, struggling earlier in the season, came to the plate and after fouling a few off, lined a single to right field to knock in the winning run.

Rookie coach Asher Teigman told the girls after the game that he hoped the girls learned to always believe in themselves and to never lose faith; you can always come back.

*Senior Girls*

The Senior Girl championship matchup was a battle of the underdogs. Two teams, the County Draperies Yankees and the Ap­proved Funding Blue Jays, who combined for three wins in the regular season, both pulled major upsets in the semi-finals to get to the championship game. The pitching matchup was between two long-time standout 8th grade girls, Talya Markowitz and Hannah Lev­ine. Despite strong efforts by the Yankees to close the gap, the Blue Jays managed to hold off the Yankees, securing them the champi­onship.

*Senior Boys*

With an 8 a.m. start to accommodate bar and bat mitzvahs and graduations, the Gotham Burger Diamondbacks hosted the Zadies Bake Shop Brewers in the Senior Boys (SB) championship game in front of a great Fa­ther’s Day turnout. The Brewers were tied for the best record in Senior Boys, while the Dia­mondbacks needed to defeat the Tenafly Pedi­atric White Sox to even get to the semi-finals.

Both teams entered the game without their starting pitchers Yonah Hook and Shmuel Ross. In their place, Brewers 8th grade slugger Devin Berman faced off on the hill against 8th grade Diamondback star Noam Putterman. The game was a prizefight, with the lead changing hands several times, highlighted by strategic coaching by Brewers coaches Michael Berman and Steve Teicher, effectively snatching the go-ahead run in the 5th before Eitan Danzer made a sparkling play on a line drive at 1st to keeping the game in reach. The Diamondbacks fought back to take the lead in the bottom of the 5th and managed to shut down the Brewers in the last inning, claiming their second consecutive SB Championship for Gotham Burger. In addi­tion, this team was the first team in SB history to win the championship needing three play­off wins—all accomplished within seven days.