Dawgs Softball in Israel | ñåôèáåì éùøàì - äãåâæ

Dawg pitcher and outfielder Shmuel Goldstein called several of the softball games at the 17th Maccabiah this July, including the Gold Medal game played on July 20th between the Women's USA and Argentina team (USA over Argentina, 6-0). In the photo, we have (ltr), Brian Aron, Jeff Perry, Shmuel, and Richard Duffy. That's former Dawg (actually Docustar at the time) pitcher Marc Bodner smiling in the background.

A bright spot in an otherwise weird game. This is an animated GIF, so there is no sound. Thanks to Yigal for the video clip.

Check this video. Penticon batter hits to Albert at short, who tags out the runner going to third for the third out of the inning (look closely at the left edge of the screen). Click on the icon, and wait for the 500K file to download. Thanks to Yigal for the video clip.

There are some good spots, some tough spots and some ugly spots. The good spots are obviously, our three wins (which was more than 2004, LOL). Oh, the fourth was the make-up game from the first ZT game. They forfeited, FWIS. And then .... With Zeke pitching half the post-Pesach games, and Shmuel pitching the other half, the Dawgs fought hard, but couldn't quite put together a convincing win after the MH win on May 5th.

• Against Dimona on the 8th of May, we made them work for it, but some key mis-plays, a few of Zeke's illegal pitches, and the fact that we have a hard time against Yarone's pitching resulted in a 3-7 loss.
• The Tigers are the hottest hitting team in the ISA this year, and Shmuel's junk wasn't junky enough for them. They pummeled us, 19 to 4 on May 15th.
• We then played Eilat, and everyone expected to win. But Zeke was having some illegal pitching problems, and this affected our play, and encouraged the Eilat pitcher, former Dawg Jeremy Shai. We jumped out to a 9-0 lead, but then slipped back until at the end of 4 innings, Eilat was leading 16-11. The only bright spot for us, if you can call it that, was the fact that the game was called at this point, due to time (the lights were going to go out in three minutes), leaving it unofficial. So we didn't "lose". Gee, what phun.
• The next game against Penticon, on the 22nd, was probably the best game we played against this perennial top team. After three innings, we led them 5-3, and were feeling good. After all, we were hitting against Ami's pitching, which isn't the easiest thing thing in the world. The Penties were having some problems hitting Shmuel's junk well, and we had tight D, but the Penties are experienced, and they were able to get a few more on board, and eventually went ahead, 13 to 7. But the final result was respectable, and we all went home feeling good.
• The Tri-United game on the 29th was the one truly ugly game of the year. A strong outing for Zeke, with rookie Alberto Tascher behind the plate, it was an exciting, see-saw game. We were up 11-10 in the bottom of the sixth (in spite of our SEVEN errors!), and at this point the umpire made an erroneous call (mis-interpretation of the rules, not a bad judgement call), awarding TU three bases (see the summary in the Games link), thus scoring the tieing run. So, the game is under protest.
• Finally, the second Dimona game starting out OK, with Shmuel coming back with some decent stuff, but Dimona exploded in the third, and didn't come back. Yarone's heat closed down our bats, punishing us with our first shut-out in more than three years.

However, we can see that we just have to close things up a bit more tightly, and we will be a top-contending team. We especially have to work at the mental aspects, as there were several games this season, that we could have, and should have, won: Shomrat, March 16 and March 20th: The first game went down in the bottom of the 6th, when we were trailing 9-8 with two outs, and Yoav was on 3rd. Natan hit a single, and SH blew the play at first. But Yoav thought it was the 3rd out, and stopped running. They ended up tagging him out easily, thus winning the game. Had he run hard and slid, the game would have been tied, with a runner on first for us. The second game was competitive after 5 innings (9-6 them), but then our pitcher (Shmuel) got tired, and we did not have Zeke to relieve. We should have put in Albert, but this didn't occur to us. ZionTours, April 10: The ZT coach started kvetching about Zeke's illegal pitches, and he was, unfortunately for us, correct. This affected his play, but not too much. So what happened? This writer thinks that it was a lack of mental discipline on our part - not related to the illegal pitches - that let the ZiTs go ahead at the end. Dimona, May 8: Yes, this game, too. We were in it, and could have, and should have won it. This time it was a few key errors, and our difficulty batting against Yarone. Eilat, May 19: The illegal pitches got us on this one, and affected us mentally. Penticon, May 22: We need for Shmuel to be a little more accurate, a little more aggressive, and a bit more consistent, then we'll get these guys. Penticon's Roy Sivan should be walked almost every single time, as he is the ISA's answer to Barry Bonds. Tri-United, May 29: This was an umpire SNAFU, no question about it. But it affected our play, and we should not allow that. We also did not play well, with seven errors. So, we tighten things up a bit, and instead of being 4 and 10, we could be, and should be, 11 and 5. Like this:

Final standings for Spring 2005 (ISA website):

1  Tigers	14/2
2  Penticon	13/3
3  Dimona	12/4
4  Zion Tours	9/7
5 Tri-United	7/7
6  TTT	5/9
7  Dawgs	4/10
8  Eilat	2/13
9  Magic Homes	2/12

That’s what happened. Now, what SHOULD have happened:

1  Tigers	14/2
2  Penticon	12/4
3  Dimona	11/5
4  Dawgs	11/5
5  Zion Tours	8/8
6 Tri-United	7/8
7  TTT	3/11
8  Magic Homes	2/12
9  Eilat	2/14

In a recent game, Zeke hits a strong one to the outfield, netting him a triple.