U21 National Team

Anxiety over the war with Hezbollah did not deter Israel's under-21 national team from putting up a spirited battle against Europe's finest squads in one of the continent's prettiest baseball corners, the Fruili-Venezia-Giulia region of in northeastern Italy, last week.

The team?s results were mixed ? a 2-4 record that placed the team ninth among the 11 participants. Despite the low showing, the squad earned a lot of hard-earned experience, accolades from rivals over its improvement in baseball fundamentals, and resounding back-to-back wins to end the tournament on a high note.

Israel?s batters were clearly over-matched in its opening game against the 90 mph-throwing Russian righthander Viaches Vasilyev, who led his team to the tournament title. The team?s initial jitters in the field resulted in an early five-run deficit and an eventual 10-0 loss.

Game two was a far different story, as Israel pushed favored Ukraine to the limit as the pitching combination of Nate Rosenberg and Moishe Lewis allowed only six hits and two earned runs each, while the infield turned two double plays.

But despite getting eight hits, the team?s offense stranded four in scoring position over the last three innings, leaving Israel on the short end in a a 6-3 loss.

The next two games, against Bulgaria and Austria, were hard fought. Israel led at the mid-way point in each game, 6-4 and 5-3, only to falter at the end. In both games, the bullpen, which had performed dwell in the first two games, failed to shut down the opposition, while key errors and a lack of productive hitting led to two more losses, 17-6 and 10-5.

Disappointed but determined not to go home empty-handed, Israel managed to overcome a fine pitching performance by Malta?s Michael Bartolo to win 7-3, paced by Amit Megiddo?s 3 RBIs and the combined pitching of Rosenberg and Josh Shulman, who picked up the win.

The next morning, Israel produced its best game of the tournament, overpowering Hungary at the plate and in the field with an 11-4 win.

Daniel Maddy-Weitzman struck out 8 batters and allowed only two hits in six-plus innings to pick up the win, and Alon Leichman shut down the Hungarians over the final three frames, striking out five and allowing no hits.

Offensively, Israel had eleven hits, paced by Rosenberg and Eytan Shain with three each, and the defense wrapped up the game with a nifty 1-6-3 double play.

The team?s improved spirits were further boosted with the awarding of the tournament?s outstanding third baseman to the versatile Rosenberg, the youngest player on the squad, based on his nifty fielding, .500 batting average, .900 slugging percentage, and team-leading five RBIs.

Other individual achievements included Megiddo?s six stolen bases and .313 average, Shain?s team-leading six hits, and Leichman?s outstanding play at second base and team-leading 14 strikeouts.

?There are no shortcuts to building a winning baseball tradition,? head coach Craig Dunning said.

?This particular squad and the generation it represents have made important strides that were evident to all. I?m proud of the intensity of our play throughout the tournament, something which was often lacking with previous national squads.

?We still have a long way to go to reach Europe?s upper echelons, and can only do so through persistent, focused hard work, improvement of our league infrastructure, and increased international competition on a regular basis.?