JCSL By MDSC – Week 4 Recap: Balance Defines The 2025 Season

As the 2025 JCSL season approaches its midpoint, one theme continues to stand out: competitive balance. With every team still in contention, the league remains wide open—any single win or loss has the potential to dramatically shift the standings. As of this writing, the standings are:

If the parity continues, the race for the RenoSafe Homes postseason and the coveted Premier Financial Trophy will be as unpredictable as it is exciting.

All photos courtesy of Josh Finkelstein.

Game Recaps

GB Homes 6, The Friendship Circle 0

In a crucial bounce-back performance, GB Homes delivered a dominant all-around game to blank The Friendship Circle, 6-0.

The game remained scoreless through the first three innings, with both teams showing strong defensive resolve. GB Homes finally broke through in the fourth, sparked by aggressive baserunning and timely hitting. Yoffi Storch stood out with his heads-up play throughout the game.

The highlight came in the seventh inning, when Shalom Stein delivered a bases-clearing single, made even more effective by his savvy movement on the base paths. On the mound, Barry Rosenbluth was stellar, allowing just five hits and issuing no unintentional walks en route to a shutout performance.

YL Waitering 11, Lazar Real Estate 6

YL Waitering secured an impressive 11-6 victory over Lazar Real Estate, showcasing a potent mix of clutch offense, tight defense, and unified team play.

Yaakov Furman set the tone early with a 3-for-5 performance, including a game-shifting triple. Moshe Burr and Simcha Malin were both unstoppable at the plate, each going 4-for-5 to drive the offense forward.

Mordechai Schiermeyer delivered in crucial moments on both sides of the ball, while Yaakov Lichter added two key RBIs to extend the lead. On the mound, Yanky Goldsmith made a statement with a pivotal strikeout of Chaim Finkelstein, flipping the momentum decisively.

In the outfield, Yehuda Rosen was a rock, handling every opportunity with poise. Captain Yoni Levin added multiple highlight-reel catches and drove in two runs, underscoring his leadership. At first base, Sol Kuhnreich made multiple inning-ending plays, including a standout throw to home plate to prevent a score. Behind the dish, All-Pro catcher Chaim Glazer delivered a show-stopping performance, throwing out runners and making acrobatic defensive plays that energized the crowd.

With a complete team effort, YL Waitering looks poised to make a serious postseason push, while Lazar Real Estate will aim to rebound in their next outing.

Orshan Legal Group 13 Web Interactive Technologies 4

On a gorgeous Memorial Day weekend, Orshan Legal Group was successful in evening its record at 2-2 after trouncing undermanned Web Interactive Technologies.

Back in the leadoff spot, 3B Hillel Stutman continued his hot hitting with a solid single. After the next 2 hitters failed to move the runner over, LCF Avrami Freund brought Stutman home on a prodigious power display by hitting an opposite field triple. This was no little league triple either… However, OLG would fail to bring Freund home, taking the lead 1-0.

WIT answered by scoring 3 in the bottom of the first on a string of solid hits.

The next 4 innings were a pitcher’s dream with only one total run scored by both teams combined. WIT P Akiva Katz shut down OLG’s vaunted lineup and All-Star P Mark Stutman did the same to WIT’s Meister-less (Mazel tov!) lineup.

OLG manufactured a run in the 4^th when RF Tzvi Schechtman reached on an error, 2B Shlomo Rosenfeld singled, and Mark Stutman adjusted the score to 3-2 on a hard-hit single.

OLG’s top of the lineup finally woke up in the top of the 6^th with Hillel Stutman, LF Yoseph Orshan, SS Zelig Glazer, RF Schechtman, Rosenfeld, and Mark Stutman (who aligned into 2^nd with a double) stringing together hits, plating 4. In the bottom of the inning, Glazer would start a 6-4-3 double play to snuff out a WIT rally.

WIT scored their 4^th and final run in the 7^th, but as he did all game, Orshan ended the rally by tracking down every ball hit to left field, while respecting utility fielder Shulie Hochman’s warning track power. To think, 2 years ago Hochman had Orshan languishing in RF picking dandelions, and their team only became a championship team once Orshan switched to LF.

OLG scored 5 runs in the 8^th inning, the first scoring on an inside the park but legitimate HR by Glazer, and after the next 4 batters reached on 3 singles and an error, 1B Ben Blackman emptied the bases with a mid-90s classic TA triple over the right fielder, who underestimated the big lefty’s old-school power.

Up 11-4 in the 9^th, OLG had runners at 2^nd and 3^rd with 2 outs and WIT made the ill-fated decision to intentionally walk Freund to pitch to Shechtman. Schechtman shechted the next pitch for a 2 run double.

Due to the combination of Mark Stutman’s dominant pitching, 2 big offensive innings with timely hitting up and down the lineup, and impeccable left and left center-field fielding, OLG went home victorious.

Ambush Law 9 Clothier 3

Ambush Law put on a defensive clinic in their matchup against the (formerly) undefeated Clothier this past Sunday. Yaakov Benzaquen shut down the Clothier’s bats and gave up 0 runs in an impressive pitching performance. Captain Eliezer Ambush led the infield and set the tone with an impressive over-the-shoulder grab on the first play of the game.

The game was locked at 1-1 all the way through the 7th, but Eli Kelemer helped turns the tides with a hard-line drive to RF to score Aharon Loiterman and take the lead. Yehudah Roll followed with a double and Yeshayahu Schwartz kept the carousel turning with a key base hit to put Ambush Law up 4-1.

Clothier pulled within 1 in the top of the 8th, but Ambush Law closed the door with hitting from Adam Ben-Zev and baserunning of Nosson Waldman to put up 5 more runs in the bottom of the 8th. Gedaliah Gelb recorded the final out to seal the win and launch Ambush Law to the top of the standings.