Competition heats up across the Israeli diamonds

The Sox scored seven runs in the top of the first inning, but the Blackhawks clawed back to take a 9-8 lead after three innings.

By JERUSALEM POST SPORTS STAFF
Women's softball league 521 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Women's softball league 521
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Philip Stein’s Sox continued their early surge in the Jerusalem Softball League with a 17-13 victory over the Bodner Flom Blackhawks last week at Kibbutz Gezer.
The Sox scored seven runs in the top of the first inning, but the Blackhawks clawed back to take a 9-8 lead after three innings.
In the sixth frame, the Sox scored eight more runs, banging out 10 hits. The Blackhawks never gave up and in their final at-bat rallied for four runs, only to fall short in another exciting game between the rivals.
For the first-place Sox, third basemen Seth Gerson led the way going 5-for-5 with two runs batted in. Ariel Gilor and Tzvi Harow each scored three runs and Ron Gorodetzer and Oren Wener each added two RBIs, with Gorodetzer picking up his seventh win of the season on the mound.
Polar Air Ball 14, Beit Shemesh 12 Polar Air came out swinging and scored five runs in the first inning, but Beit Shemesh came back in the bottom of that inning and responded with five runs of their own.
Determined to win the game, Polar Air scored five more in the second inning in what looked like a potential slugfest, but PA pitcher Yishai Saltsman held Beit Shemesh scoreless for the next three innings while getting four more runs from his offense to take a commanding 14-5.
Beit Shemesh, however, would not give up, and tacked on five runs in the fifth inning to come to within four runs of PA . With time running out in the last inning, Beit Shemesh rallied for two runs in the final at-bat, and had runners on second and third and the potential winning run at the plate with two outs.
The Beit Shemesh batter smashed a hard grounder down the line that, if not handled cleanly, would have surely brought in both runners.
PA third-baseman Earl Harow, however, made an amazing back-handed catch then turned and threw a perfect to first base to get the batter out and end the game.
In other results, Optica International recorded its fifth straight victory last week with a 20-4 blowout of Polar Air.