By JPOST.COM STAFFisrael softball 88(photo credit: )
Penticon and Dimona will face off in the Israel Softball Association finals next week after both teams won their semifinal series on Tuesday night.
Penticon eliminated Ziontours from the ISA playoffs with a 10-4 victory in the second game of their best-of-three series and Dimona knocked out the Galil "Golan Plastic Products" Twisters 17-1, also for a two-game sweep.
Penticon broke out to a 5-1 lead in the top of the fourth but Ziontours fought back to make it a one-run game in the bottom of the sixth (5-4).
Penticon responded by scoring five in the top of the seventh and put the game out of reach.
Ami Baran kept the ZT bats off balance most of the game. When Ziontours threatened in the bottom of the sixth, Baran dug down and got two of his three strikeouts to quench the rally.
The Penticon defense also stepped up. Its middle infielders - shortstop Mark Mayerfeld and second baseman Sam Goldberg - made all the plays and the outfield of Brian Aron, Daniel Maddy, and Golan Haley cut off the long balls to limit the extra-base hits.
On offense, David Fleightman went 3-for-3 plus a walk, scored three times and had two RBIs, while Hirsch was 2-for-4, including a triple, and drove in four runs.
Dimona took advantage of a short-handed Galil team, scoring eight runs in the first three innings with two outs and ending the game after five innings on the 15-run rule.
Dimona hurler Yarone Ben-Israel was almost unhittable, pitching three perfect innings before allowing two hits and a run in the fourth, and striking out seven in five innings.
Benkie Ben-Israel had a three-run homer and scored three times, Ahkazyah Ben-Israel had three hits, three runs and two RBIs and Ovade Ben-Israel drove in four.
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