Five home runs gave team a 15-6 victory over the Galil Twisters in the Israel Softball Association semi-finals on Sunday.
By MICAH WINSTONsoftball 298.88(photo credit: Jay L. Abramoff)
Penticon smashed five home runs, two by Howie Hirsch, en route to a 15-6 victory over the Galil Twisters in the Israel Softball Association semi-finals on Sunday.
Penticon played small ball while scoring four in the first and tacked on three more in the second on Hirsch's monstrous three-run homer off Twister pitcher Bill Arscott.
The Twisters scored one in the second on Roni Gross's triple and added two more on Tomer Molovinsky's two-run single in the third.
Hirsch then smashed a carbon-copy of his previous homer, a solo shot in the fourth.
In the fifth, Benzi Fleitman put on an offensive spectacle, lofting a ball to deep right field.
The relay home arrived before him but as catcher Jeffrey Zitomer tried to tag low, Fleitman performed a perfect swan dive over Zitomer and landed head first on home plate, tagged it with his hand and somersaulted before returning to step on the plate for good measure but not before being tagged by Zitomer.
The home plate umpire called him out, but on appeal, the field umpire ruled that he had initially touched the plate for a two-run homer.
The oppressive humidity started to take its toll on the pitchers as Arscott and Penticon hurler Ami Baran (six strikeouts, one walk) become more hittable. Penticon added a pair of two-run homers, a line drive by the diving Eitan Milgram in right field by Ron Solomon, and a shot over everything in left field by Netanel Levenson, in a five-run sixth. Down 15-3, the Northerners rallied against a tiring Baran, scoring three on Yaniv Rosenfeld's triple and Molovinsky's home run.
Penticon rapped out 17 hits, four by Levenson and three each by Solomon and Daniel Maddy Weitzman. For the Twisters, Rosenfeld and Molovinsky each had three hits. Game two will be on Thursday.
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