Games We Play: Ziontours and Penticon to face off in final

Penticon knocks out Galil Twisters from the undefeated ranks and out of the Israel Softball Association "Babe Gillett" Memorial Fall Tournament.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
baseball 88 (photo credit: )
baseball 88
(photo credit: )
Penticon knocked the Galil Twisters from the undefeated ranks and out of the Israel Softball Association "Babe Gillett" Memorial Fall Tournament final with an 11-5 come-from-behind victory and a forfeit win over the Tigers. On a frigid Monday night at Baptist Village, both teams started out cold after a three-week layoff. Penticon had to win to make the final, while the Twisters could afford to lose if they allowed four runs or less. The Twisters drew first blood with an unearned run in the third and an RBI blooper from Jeffrey Zitomer in the fourth off of Penticon pitcher Ami Baran. Meanwhile, hurler Bill Arscott put up goose eggs while the defense behind him was excellent, in particular second baseman Yitzi Taragin who snared a low pop fly into shallow right field and doubled the runner off of first. However, in the top of the fifth, the Penticon bats exploded off of a tiring Arscott. Daniel Maddy-Weitzman's drive to deep right-center bounced off the glove of a diving Eitan Milgram for an RBI double to make it 2-1 and the hits just kept coming, including five consecutive two-out hits, culminating in another RBI hit from Maddy-Weitzman (4-for-5 on the day). When the dust had cleared, Penticon was ahead 7-2. The team from the North fought back as Milgram's drive to the fence in deep center brought home two, but a perfect relay from Maddy-Weitzman to shortstop Ron Solomon to catcher David Fleitman beat Milgram's bid for an inside-the-park homer. The Penticon offense put up another four in the sixth, all but ending the Twisters' hopes, and fine defensive play from third baseman David Aron and solid relief work from Marc Bodner, who allowed only an RBI single in the seventh to Milgram, closed the door. Mark Mayerfeld was 4-5 for Penticon and Fleitman and Sam Goldberg had three hits apiece. Jake Miller and Tomer Molovinsky each rapped a pair of hits in a losing cause. Penticon and Ziontours will face off in the final at 9 p.m. Monday at Baptist Village.