Warriors nip RiseHi in early-season classic

The Morningside Translations Warriors edged their longtime nemesis RiseHi 6-5 at Gezer Friday, in another classic softball showdown between the modified-pitch league’s two dominant franchises.

Warrior pitcher Avi Dzik was in mid-season form, out-dueling RiseHi’s veteran hurler Eddie Harow and getting plenty of help from his defense. Offense was at a premium, and the Warriors won despite collecting only nine hits as a team.

In his league debut, rookie outfielder Chaim Schon hit the first pitch of the game out of the park to give the Warriors a quick start. Two batters later, second baseman Yaniv Tsaidi went yard himself to set the tone early.

Dzik, who went 3-for-3 in the game and collected the team’s other four RBIs, knocked in Yanky Itzkowitz for the third run of the inning to put the Warriors ahead.

Itzkowitz literally held on to the lead a few innings later with a spectacular catch, diving over the outfield wall and robbing RiseHi slugger Alan Tover of a potential go-ahead two-run homer.

Tover connected again in the top of the sixth, this time with a two-run blast that got his team within a run.

Other than that, though, it was a pitcher’s dual and Dzik was just too good down the stretch, securing the one-run victory.

With the victory, the Warriors improve to 2-0 on the season – the league’s only remaining undefeated team.

“This was huge,” said manager Aron Heller, who went 2-for-3. “Dzik was masterful today and we hung in there tough against a very good team.”

In other action, Ginot Shomron beat Beit Shemesh 13-12 in a come-from-behind thriller.

Ginot was missing vaunted starting pitcher, Fred “Jean-Shorts” Moncharsh, but Yishai Saltsman came off the bench to fill his shorts, so to speak.

Saltsman looked sharp the entire game, but Beit Shemesh came out of the chute hitting the ball very hard into gaps. Coupled with a handful of errors, Beit Shemesh walked out of the second inning with a comfortable 8-1 lead. Ginot started chipping away, however they still found themselves down 12-9 in the bottom of the seventh.

A string of hits gave Ginot two runs, with runners at the corners and one out.

Oren Wener, who had gone 0-for-3 to that point, ripped a line-drive between the right- and center-fielders.

One run scored, tying the game, and Sol Rosenbaum raced towards third all the way from first to make it home safely a step ahead of the throw, setting off a bench-clearing mob to celebrate the big win.