The Jewish Community Softball League (JCSL) by “Shimz Cars” returns for 5th season

JCSL by Shimz Cars kicked off their fifth annual season at the Reisterstown Regional – by
Web Interactive Technologies fields.

Prior to opening week, the league’s 108 players were divided between nine different teams via a draft system, ensuring parity in competition. The nine teams are each named for their individual team sponsors: AMF Creative; Clothier; Donny Ankri Architects; Hijazi, Zaslow & Carroll PA; KD Gold and Coin Exchange; LBSI, Levin & Gann PA, PsychCare, and Worthy Insurance.

Following the draft, teams were provided with their team jerseys, sponsored by Fired Up Promotions. Teams also came prepared for opening day by fully reviewing the highly detailed, First National Bank LeagueRules and Regulations.

Teams shows up to the fields by 9:30 AM and were provided with league equipment to include bases, balls, catcher’s masks, etc. sponsored by Premier Financial. Games were expertly officiated by a team of highly experienced umpires, sponsored by Miracle Massage.

All nine teams will compete for eight regular season games, with the top four teams facing off in the postseason, sponsored by Mama Leahs/Taam Thai/Goldbergs Bagels/Chef Dan. The playoffs winners will then battle each other in the championship for the right to earn the coveted Camp Shoresh trophy.

Continue below for some of the excitement from the first few weeks of the season.

————————————————————————————————————————–
4/16

In a superb season opener, Levin Gann held off KD Gold & Coin to earn a 7-6 victory.

KD got things rolling first, scoring 5 runs in the bottom of the 1st. But it didn’t take long for the Law Firm to respond, as they began stringing together hits, finally getting on the board in the top of the 4th.

KD responded with a run in the bottom of the 4th, which proved to be their final run of the game. Down 6-1 after 4 innings, Levin Gann took charge on defense (mowing down hitter after hitter), and chipped away on offense with single runs in the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th. In the top of the 9th, Levin Gann scored twice to take the lead for the first time in the game.

Captain/Pitcher Yaakov Rappaport closed out the 9th, allowing one hit but no damage, to walk away from the nail biter with a hard fought, gritty 7-6 win against a very talented KD team.

Showing no rust from the offseason, AMF got things started in a hurry in the top of the 1st. Rookie Mordy Reches led off with a single, and then moved to second on a Yoseph Orshan single. Reches then scored on a single by teammate Shulie Hochman, allowing AMF to grab the early 1-0 lead. Thanks to some walks and 3 more runs, AMF ended the first with a 4-1 lead.

After both teams failed to score in the second inning, AMF erupted for 5 runs in the third to take a 9-1 lead. PsychCare would score a run of their own but AMF responded with a run to make it a 10-2 game. In the fourth inning, PsychCare went on a two out rally, scoring 5 runs to cut the lead to 10-7.

But AMF responded again in the 6^th as Reches led off with a single and then scored on Orshan’s triple. Orshan scored on double from Hochman, who scored himself on an Avrami Freund bomb over the left-center field wall. The HR enabled AMF to take a commanding lead and they wouldn’t look back. The game ended on a great sliding catch by left fielder Aaron Friedman to seal the deal.

Wearing pink jerseys for the first time in league history, Team Donny Ankri Architects (DAA), also jokingly called The Flamingos by their opponent, started the season with a big game against Hijazi, Zaslow & Carroll (HJZ.) HZC took an early lead scoring 2 runs in the first, 1 run in the 4th, and then took a big lead with 4 more runs in the 5th. All was looking gloomy for DAA as they were down 7-0 going into the 6th.

But DAA didn’t let their feathers get ruffled as they closed the gap scoring 6 clutch runs in the 6th to make the game competitive. DAA Cy Young pitcher Yaakov Benzaquen got into the zone, not allowing HZC to score the remainder of the game, thanks to great defensive plays by reigning All-Stars Josh Zaslow, Simcha Malin and Hillel Stutman. Still down by 1 run, DAA stacked on 5 runs in the 7th and then 4 insurance runs in the 8th thanks to a bases-clearing triple by Captain Donny Ankri. DAA held onto the lead in the 9th to complete a big 15-7 comeback win.  

5/7

Levin Gann jumped out to a 7-0 lead against Clothier and never looked back. Excellent defense, timely hitting, and nasty pitching helped Levin Gann to a 8-2 win, improving to 2-0 on the season.

After sitting out a couple of weeks due to bad weather, KD Gold couldn’t wait to get back out there, and they let the Lawyers know that quickly. After starting off the game with a couple of singles, Matt Luterman tripled off the right field wall knocking in 2. A few more hits and a few more runs later, the inning finally ended with KD Gold getting out to an early 5-0 lead. Ahron Meister pitched a great game, including getting out of a bases loaded jam, with nobody out in the 5th inning, thanks to a spectacular catch by Gershon Vegh in Left Field. Try as they might, a 2-triple day from Luterman, and a 3 hit day from Mike Holtzman proved to be too much for HZC and KD Gold was able to close it out and take the opening game of the double header by a score of 11-4.

In their biggest test of the season to date, Levin Gann passed with (almost) flying colors, as they beat a very good DAA team 7-4, improving to 3-0 on the year. The scary news is that Levin Gann still has many areas to improve, and they will only get better!