Softball: Café Rimon goes to town in opener

With the score tied in the last inning, Micha Muskal doubled and scored on Aharon Garfunkle’s game-winning single.

By MONTY WAYLAND
Café Rimon triumphed on Opening Day in the Bonkers AFI Softball League, topping Five Towns Jewish Times by a convincing 13-1 margin, while the defending Holyland Series champs, Jerry’s Kids, emerged from a pitchers’ duel with a razor-thin 2-1 victory.
Café Rimon 13, Five Towns Jewish Times 1
Captain Gershon Jacobovitz led early favorites Café Rimon out of the gates with a barrage of hits and Café Rimon played flawless defense to notch the opening-day victory.
Jerry’s Kids 2, Kids of Courage 1
With the score tied in the last inning, Micha Muskal doubled and scored on Aharon Garfunkle’s game-winning single to give Jerry’s Kids an opening day win in their signature razor-thin style.
In a gem of a pitchers’ duel, veterans Uri Zimmerman and Jonathan Cohen brilliantly matched each other frame for frame, stymieing a parade of batters with a combination of speed and changeups. In the mid-innings, Zimmerman even mixed in a some “eephus pitches” before going with the fastball again down the stretch.
Kids of Courage scored first on an M.J. Hoch single that sent Benji Schlesinger across the plate, while Zimmerman helped his own cause with a game-tying RBI in the third.
Chassidim 10, Lobos 9
In a thrilling finish to a nip-and-tuck game, Sendy Berger hit a sizzling liner to give the Chassidim the lead and Yanky Guttman made it hold with a perfect laser of a throw to nail a runner at the plate to give the Chassidim the comeback victory.
Lobos stayed a step ahead of the Chassidim until the antepenultimate frame, when Effy Webber’s three-run shot over the fence in deep center field tied the score at 8-8.
In a clutch performance, pitcher Yoeli Lipshitz allowed only one run inthe final three innings against the hard-hitting Lobos, andsignificantly, he walked zero throughout the game. Guttman had threehits and Webber added two.
Lake Como Pizza 17, AJ 1
Lake Como broke open a tight game with a nine-run inning, as EliHorowitz, Marc Richter and Andrew Turk all homered to power the LakeComo attack. Yehuda Wolfset had four hits and Horowitz added a triple,while catcher Nathan Chatman kept AJ’s runners honest, picking off arunner at first.
For AJ, Jake Frankel’s dazzling work at shortstop helped the otherwisetentative defense emerge from several innings with minimal damage.
For standings, scores, news and schedules, please visit www.israelsoftball.com