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Rehovot Sweeps its Own Hanukkah Tourney
By Micah Winston
The host team ran the table in the ninth annual Rehovot Hanukkah Invitational Youth Softball Tournament earlier this month, winning all six of its games handily, including a 15-4 victory over Mercaz in the championship game. Bika'at Beit Shean (BBS) finished third with an 18-10 victory over Eilat.
In the tournament final, Rehovot faced a Merkaz team that earned its place with a thrilling seven-inning, come-from-behind victory against BBS. Advertisement
Rehovot took a 7-2 lead after three and blew the game open with an eight-run fourth, led by triples from Kobi Daya and Yair Amir and a two-run double from tournament MVP Eyal Moses (5-for-5, four RBIs in the championship game). Sahar Yonah and Maor Mama both scored three times for Rehovot.
Mercaz threatened with back-to-back RBI singles by Gidon Sharman and Tamir Beck in the sixth.
In the third-place game, winless Eilat jumped out to leads of 8-0 and 10-4 over BBS behind the solid defense of Robert Peretz at third base and two RBIs each from Robbie Koenigsburg and Ben Westland.
BBS relief pitcher and team MVP Jed Ben-Nahum came on in the fourth to silence the Southerners' bats, while his team exploded for a tide-turning 10-run fifth.
Avishai Gross, Moshe Matuku and Yotam David each reached base five times on hits or walks and Brahano Mengista drove in three, while center fielder Doron Reich made a pair of terrific catches for the Northerners. Eilat team MVP Diego Janowsky and Robert Peretz each had three hits.
In the semifinal between the first and fourth seeds, Rehovot's Dudu Zozin pitched a rare, four-inning perfect game, retiring all 12 Eilat batters he faced in a 20-0 rout. The Rehovot defense was impenetrable, with Royi Freedlander making a sliding, shoestring catch in the first and second baseman Shlomi Alon robbing Doron Moshe of a sure line-drive single in the second.
The most exciting game of the tournament was the semifinal between the second and third seeds, in which BBS raced out to a 13-2 lead after four-and-a-half innings over a powerful Mercaz team. Shortstop Brahano Mengista got to everything that came near him and lefty pitcher Jed Ben-Nahum was effective.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Mercaz bats came alive, tying it at 13 with an 11-run inning. Team MVP Phillip Tannor singled and doubled and Eden Bir drove in three runs with a pair of doubles in the big inning. BBS answered with two runs in the sixth, but Tannor and Bir combined to knock in three of the Mercaz's four runs in their at-bat in the bottom half of the inning.
In the seventh, BBS loaded the bases with nobody out and cut the score to 17-16 on Yotam David's RBI single, but with two outs, Moshe Matuku was cut down trying to score on a wild pitch to end the game.
Source: Micah Winston. Rehovot Sweeps its Own Hanukkah Tourney. Haaretz.com (21 Dec 2007) [FullText]
The host team ran the table in the ninth annual Rehovot Hanukkah Invitational Youth Softball Tournament earlier this month, winning all six of its games handily, including a 15-4 victory over Mercaz in the championship game. Bika'at Beit Shean (BBS) finished third with an 18-10 victory over Eilat.
In the tournament final, Rehovot faced a Merkaz team that earned its place with a thrilling seven-inning, come-from-behind victory against BBS. Advertisement
Rehovot took a 7-2 lead after three and blew the game open with an eight-run fourth, led by triples from Kobi Daya and Yair Amir and a two-run double from tournament MVP Eyal Moses (5-for-5, four RBIs in the championship game). Sahar Yonah and Maor Mama both scored three times for Rehovot.
Mercaz threatened with back-to-back RBI singles by Gidon Sharman and Tamir Beck in the sixth.
In the third-place game, winless Eilat jumped out to leads of 8-0 and 10-4 over BBS behind the solid defense of Robert Peretz at third base and two RBIs each from Robbie Koenigsburg and Ben Westland.
BBS relief pitcher and team MVP Jed Ben-Nahum came on in the fourth to silence the Southerners' bats, while his team exploded for a tide-turning 10-run fifth.
Avishai Gross, Moshe Matuku and Yotam David each reached base five times on hits or walks and Brahano Mengista drove in three, while center fielder Doron Reich made a pair of terrific catches for the Northerners. Eilat team MVP Diego Janowsky and Robert Peretz each had three hits.
In the semifinal between the first and fourth seeds, Rehovot's Dudu Zozin pitched a rare, four-inning perfect game, retiring all 12 Eilat batters he faced in a 20-0 rout. The Rehovot defense was impenetrable, with Royi Freedlander making a sliding, shoestring catch in the first and second baseman Shlomi Alon robbing Doron Moshe of a sure line-drive single in the second.
The most exciting game of the tournament was the semifinal between the second and third seeds, in which BBS raced out to a 13-2 lead after four-and-a-half innings over a powerful Mercaz team. Shortstop Brahano Mengista got to everything that came near him and lefty pitcher Jed Ben-Nahum was effective.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Mercaz bats came alive, tying it at 13 with an 11-run inning. Team MVP Phillip Tannor singled and doubled and Eden Bir drove in three runs with a pair of doubles in the big inning. BBS answered with two runs in the sixth, but Tannor and Bir combined to knock in three of the Mercaz's four runs in their at-bat in the bottom half of the inning.
In the seventh, BBS loaded the bases with nobody out and cut the score to 17-16 on Yotam David's RBI single, but with two outs, Moshe Matuku was cut down trying to score on a wild pitch to end the game.
Source: Micah Winston. Rehovot Sweeps its Own Hanukkah Tourney. Haaretz.com (21 Dec 2007) [FullText]
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