At the bottom of the sixth inning during the varsity baseball home game against the Field School there’s two outs. With runners on first and third, freshman Grant Levy steps up to the plate. The score is 11-2 Lions, who need one run in order to end the game. Before Levy has a chance to hit, sophomore Ari Einhorn slides into home, stealing the base and securing the win. The game ended 12-2, with the Lion’s mercying the Field Falcons on April 9.
The Lions scored no runs in the first two innings and the Falcons scored one, but in the third inning CESJDS came back to score six runs. Senior Aaron Waldman believes the comeback was only possible because the team made a mental and physical shift.
“From a mental standpoint, we just started getting louder,” Waldman said. “We started having more fun [and] started clicking as a team. And from a [physical] standpoint we saw the pitcher a second time through the lineup, so we started to adjust and realize what he’s throwing [and] how we can make adjustments to do some damage.”
Since he is a senior, Waldman missed some of the games when he joined the rest of his grade on the Eastern Europe trip, but he believes today his game really “clicked.” Waldman batted in the first two runs of the game and over the course of the game had two doubles and a single, largely contributing to the offensive success. Waldman said yesterday’s practice went really well and that the whole team was able to build off that energy for today’s game.
In last year’s semifinals JDS lost to Field, and head coach and Assistant Athletic Director Matthew Landy believes “that definitely had a large part in today’s outcome.” Landy was also impressed with his team’s offense and believed it was the main contributor to the team’s win.
“I think that was our best offensive game all year to this point,” Landy said. “I was really pleased to see a lot of guys who haven’t been as productive offensively to get some good reps in [and] to get some hits. So just to get the line moving and get some offense on the board was definitely a positive sign.”
Team captain and starting pitcher junior Will Zimmet pitched all six innings and had 10 strikeouts. JDS had seven hits, one more than the Falcons.
“We [the team] were together the whole game,” Zimmet said. “We really connected [and everyone was] playing really well. When we had runners on base we were hitting them around, kids were being patient and trying not to force a hit when they could walk, and [everyone was trying to] help the team out.”
Over the past few weeks, many of the Lions’ games have been postponed due to rain. For the next two weeks the Lions have a stretch with a lot of games. Waldman believes everyone has to be ready to work together if they want to do well.
Landy is impressed with his team’s ability to bounce back from a tough loss of (5-1) against Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy this past weekend, and hopes that the team will be able to win the championship further on in the season.
“I think it was a great game,” Landy said. “We hit really well, we played really well in the field [and] the pitching from Will today was great. [It was] just all around a really great team effort.”
