5th Inning does Monte in, Rally falls short in 8-6 loss.

The Highland Park Wiffle Ball League resumed on Monday night with a 5 by 5 showdown featuring Jeff Feldman and Tom Monte as the captains for their respective squadrons.

Feldman with the first selection chose Jake Rainwater. Monte followed with back to back picks of Dylan Kessler and Rob Rubenstein. In need of further pitching help, Feldman selected Abraham Kim who has been riding a hot streak on the mound. Monte wasted little time in selecting Andrew Smith. Feldman followed by selecting Raphi Reichman, who pitched 4 innings of shutout ball in a marathon 13 inning game on Monday June 15th. Feldman was able to grab Tom Marks with his last pick while Monte added Nate Tondow, making his 2009 debut.

Kessler, with his deceiving fastball slider combo started the first inning and made quick work of Feldman's team. In the bottom of the first, Monte's team took advantage of some poor fielding to grab an early lead. Marks and Rainwater each dropped balls that would quickly turn into runs after Rubenstein took a Reichman fastball into the street. Instead of collapsing right there, Reichman was able to right the ship and controlled the damage by escaping without any more runs scoring.

In the second, Monte took over on the mound and ran into trouble early. Knowing they needed to put up a crooked number, Feldmans team found some luck when a bases loaded grounder could not be handled by Smith that lead to their first run. Monte escaped further damage by retiring Reichman.

The score would remain 3-1 with solid pitching by Rainwater in the bottom of the second. Rubenstein in the top of the third was showing a true presence on the mound by making quick work of Marks and Kim.

Feldman ran into a little trouble in the bottom of the third but would get out of a huge jam by getting Tondow to ground out to Reichman with the bases loaded. Kessler took the mound and preceded to get Rainwater back after walking him in the first on 5 pitches, by striking him out on a fastball that tailed low and away on a full count.

Kim took the mound in the bottom of the 4th and had some control issues. Channeling Tim Lincecum, the normally reliable Kim walked 3 in the inning, one of those walks coming with the bases loaded to give Monte's squad a 4-1 lead.

The top of the 5th would become the turning point of the game. Monte was unable to get by unscathed and found himself in a bases loaded situation facing Marks, who had struck out in his first three at bats. In what would be the game changer, Marks unloaded some built up aggression with a grand slam that hit off the trees in right center. Feldman's team did not stop there. Already leading 5-4, the team batted Monte around and by the time the storm cleared up, Feldman's team had a commanding 8-4 lead.

Then it became a pitchers duel. Reichman rebounded from the first and escaped another jam. Rubenstein pitched the top of the 6th and blew fastballs by Rainwater and Feldman for another 1-2 inning. Rainwater followed in the bottom of the 6th making quick work of Monte's team.

It was not until the bottom of the 7th when Monte's team scratched a run off Feldman to make it an 8-5 game. Again, Monte's team missed a big chance to add more runs, leaving the sacks full.

Monte rebounded and pitched a quick top 8th and Kim followed with an even quicker bottom of the 8th. Tondow saw his first action on the mound in the 9th and did his job by not allowing any runs.

In the bottom of the 9th, Reichman was given the ball for the save situation. Tondow made things interesting with a lead off homer to make it an 8-6 game. But that would be all the runs that Monte's team could muster. Monte grounded out with two runners on to give Feldman's team the win.

Feldman: 8
Monte: 6

Box Score
W: Abe Kim (1-0)
L: Tom Monte (0-1)
S: Raphi Reichman (1)
HR: Marks (1), Rubenstein (1), Tondow (1)
RBI: Marks (5), Feldman (2), Reichman(1), Rubenstein (3), Monte (1), Kessler (1), Tondow (1)