Israel Baseball Scores

The Wildfire had all cylinders firing in this one, with Daniel Maddy-Weitzman and Yonatan Vowell combining to limit Tel Aviv to two hits, while PTC's well-balanced attack was led by two hits each by Gennady Titievsky and Aaron Uslan, and a crucial two-run single by Boris Chernilovsky.

Omri Modiano's RBI single and fine play in right field stood out for the Tel Avivians, whose record has now dropped to 3-5.

In earlier games, the U-21 national team continued its preparations for the European Championships this July in Trieste with a convincing 11-2 win over Tel Aviv, but then suffered its first loss of the season to Jerusalem's Mike's Place, 2-0, being no-hit by lefty Rafi Stern. Moshe Radner had the game-winning RBI.

Jerusalem also soundly beat Tel Aviv 12-5 in a May 7 game. David Abel picked up the win with two innings of relief, and Allen Tover was 3 for 4 with 3 RBI's. A controversial forfeit dropped Jerusalem's record to 3-2, giving the U-21s a half-game lead in the standings.

In Junior League action, Gezer maintained its unbeaten record (5-0) with an improbable 10-8 comeback win over a disappointed second place Sharon Red Wings, as Alon Leichman came in to close the door on the Sharon batsman.

Meanwhile, plans were announced in New York this week to bring professional baseball to Israel. The program is supported by some of the biggest names in Major League Baseball, in partnership with the Israel Association of Baseball. Israel will also aim to take part in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

Ra'anana PTC Wildfire evened its record at 1-1 in Senior Baseball League play this week with a rousing come-from-behind win over Jerusalem, 13-6. The game began crisply, as Jerusalem's durable lefty ace Rafi Stern and PTC's crafty veteran Yonatan Vowell, quickly set opposing batters down in order in the first inning. However, Jerusalem notched four quick runs in the second inning off of Vowell, who was nursing a pulled hamstring muscle. A seemingly innocent leadoff walk to Alan Tover was followed in short order by Michael Hochman's single, consecutive triples to deep left-center by Stern and batterymate Johnny Robbins, and a sharp single by last year's Canadian Maccabiah shortstop standout, Oren Gal. But with runners on second and third, and only one out, Vowell staunched what threatened to become a rout, inducing consecutive ground outs to third baseman Amit Megiddo to end the inning. As is so often the case, the long at-bat may have damaged Stern's usually pin-point control, and PTC started clawing back. Trailing 6-3 in the fourth inning, the game abruptly turned on a dropped infield fly, allowing two runs to score, followed by a game-tying single by Mike Ralson, and newly demobilized soldier Sasha Namestnikov's go-ahead infield single to keep the inning alive. By the time the 47-minute at-bat had ended, the Wildfire had plated 10 runs, and all that remained was for reliever Daniel Maddy-Weitzman to shut down the Jerusalemites, hurling 3 hitless innings and striking out six.

Two nights later, the Ra'anana Junior Red Wings matched their older brothers, defeating Jerusalem 10-4 in the opening of the Junior League Season. The Red Wings jumped on Jerusalem with four runs in the first inning, led by a triple by Elad Cohen, and didn't let up, pushing the lead after 3 innings to 10-0. Amit Kurtz was solid on the mound, throwing 4 innings of 1 hit ball, striking out 11 batters, and giving up 1 run. The Jerusalem offense woke up near the end, led by Eran Markose, who went 2-3, including a 3 run inside the park home run, down the right field line. Both teams played solid defense, committing a minimum amount of errors.

Japan's triumph over Cuba this week in the the finals of the 16-team first annual World Baseball Classic put paid, once and for all, to the notion that baseball is merely an American oddity.

With baseball now truly a global game, Israel is redoubling its efforts to get in on the action, with a host of activities scheduled for the coming months, including a barnstorming tour involving Jewish ex-major league players, a first-rate baseball instructional summer camp, a fun-filled Baseball Expo in Jerusalem during the month of July, and participation by two Israeli national teams (ages 10-12, and 16-21) in European championship tournaments.
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But above all, the game's the thing, and the Israel Senior Baseball League opened its spring season in fine style this week.

Tel Aviv's hard-throwing right-hander George Chityat hurled one of the finest pitching performances ever seen in these parts, coming within one out of a regulation seven inning no-hitter, powering his team to a crisp 5-2 win over Ra'anana PTC "Wildfire."

After a shaky first inning, Chityat had Ra'anana batters eating out of his hand, striking out 12, and walking only one, while fielding his position like a Gold Glover as well.

To add icing on the cake, he stroked a long double to help provide an important insurance run. Only a base-hit by last year's Junior Maccabiah hitting stalwart Matan Kaufman prevented Chityat from completing a Roger Clemens-like outing.