Dawgs Softball in Israel | ñåôèáåì éùøàì - äãåâæ

(Click on title for Game recap) The first annual ISF North/South All-Star game came off without a hitch. It was a great night of fun for all who turned out--players, coaches, and fans. It was nice to see a good crowd out there to enjoy the game. The DAWGS had four players in the game: Yechezkel Gantz, Danny Epstein, Robert Even, and pitcher Shmuel Goldstein. Yechezkel Gantz was the only DAWG opener, doing a wonderful job catching the wild David Rubinstein of Shomrat. Yechezkel walked, singled, and scored a run. He left the game in the 3rd, but retured in the 7th during the North's unsuccessful attempt to shut down the South. Danny Epstein entered in the 5th inning, and caught a Ben Khai fly ball in left field. Danny struck out to Goose, and fielded out in the 6th. Robert Even entered in the 5th in Right Field, was walked by Goose, eventually scoring, and in the sixth was fielded out. Shmuel came in to pitch (did not bat) in the 5th and 6th innings. He struck out opposing pitcher Itamar Megiddo, walked Blair Portnoy, and hit Mike Doktofsky, who was glad he had a helmet. Shmuel saw 13 batters, threw 46 pitches, 25 strikes, and allowed 6 runs, 3 earned. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The game itself was not all that close, with the South prevailing 15/6, primarily on a very rough start by Shomrot's number one gun, David Rubinstein. After he walked the first 5 batters (6 in all in the inning) and 3 successive singles, the South jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead. After the first two innings, Coach Bob Kessler brought in Ilan Spira who kept the South's bats in check until the 5th when the South put 4 more runs on the board to make it 11-0. Yarone ben Israel of Dimona completely shut down the North, striking out 5 of the 10 batters that he faced over the first 3 innings. The North tried to battle back with a 5-run surge in the top of the 5th to make the game a little more interesting. There was a big double by Tim Cummings and singles by Dan Haskell and Guy Bender which was also aided by some suspect defense. But the South struck back immediately to put the game out of reach with 4 more runs in the final 2 innings. Itamar Megiddo (South) closed things out, allowing only 1 run. The outstanding defensive play by short stop Eli Natan (South) of Dimona who made 2 athletic plays (one of which lead to the inning-ending unassisted double play) took the life out of the North's rally. Eli Natan also contributed a triple and a double and scored 3 runs. He was named the MVP of the game. North Line Up ------------------ Guy Bender Micah Winston Danny Epstein (DAWG) Roy Sivan Asaf Halevi David Aron Dan Haskell Josh Goldner Tim Cummings Yehezkel Gantz (DAWG) Vadim Gasand-zde Aviv Yaakov Robert Even (DAWG) David Rubinstein Ilan Spira Shmuel Goldstein (DAWG) South Line Up -------------------- Ben Khai Blair Portnoy Eli Natan Mike Doktofsky Richard Duffy Yarone Akaziah Gil Siegel Amit Megiddo Jeff Mor Itamar Megiddo Goose Gillett