Sox making fast-pitch run, OI leads slow-pitch

In a crucial game for Philip Stein’s Sox to keep their playoff hopes alive in the Jerusalem fast-pitch softball league, the Sox used an eight-run second inning to cruise to a 14-4 win over the Galil Twisters.

The Sox led 3-0 after the opening frame, but the Twisters scored a pair in the second to draw within a run.

The Sox then blew the game open in the bottom of the inning when they loaded the bases on three consecutive walks before Yoni Schwartz’s triple cleared house. Naftali Schwartz tripled him home and then scored on a two-bagger by Noam Markose, who came home on a single by Alan Tover.

After a shaky start, Sox pitcher Noam Zwilling shut down the Twisters bats allowing only two runs the rest of the game.

The Twisters remain in first place, a half-game ahead of the Sox and Cerveceros.

Meanwhile, in slow-pitch softball action, Optica International took care of business last Friday with an 11-5 conquest of the second-place Bet Shemesh Suns to secure first place in the league with two games to play in the regular season.

Pitcher Danny Gewirtz stifled the Suns’ bats for most of the seven-inning game and he even made a spectacular defensive play on a bunt in the sixth inning with BS threatening to rally.

Gewirtz also went 3-3 and knocked in three runs, while Aaron Katzman and Mordy Charnowitz both contributed three-run home runs en route to the victory.