DESPITE HEARTBREAK, YDE SOFTBALL BRING JOY TO SCHOOL WITH WS RUNS

Softball:

Led by hurler Michael Levy, the YDE Thunder made back-back World Series appearances in 2019 and 2021, with the 2020 season scrapped due to the pandemic. One of Mike’s best games came in the 2019 campaign when the YDE JV softball team defeated the defending champion, Maor Mavericks, 8-4 on May 5th, 2019, at Thunder field.

YDE came hot out of the gates using Small Ball” to expose the Mavericks' dominant pitching and all-star defense.

When the dust settled after the second inning, the Thunder had taken a commanding 5-0 lead.

But Mayor wasn’t done, as they rallied and took advantage of YDE errors to cut into the Thunder lead, as YDE led 5-3 after a three-run inning by the Mavericks in response to the Thunder outburst.

The Thunder defense would settle down after that, and needing some insurance runs late in the game, David Sayegh stepped up and put the nail in the Mavs coffin, as he delivered a 2run bomb which capped off a 3run late-inning outburst that gave the Thunder a five-run cushion at 8-3, which turned into an 8-4 win.

The Thunder pitching was backed by the young teenage arm of Micheal Levy, whose potent mix of pitches kept the powerful Mavericks offense at bay.

When Levy was done, he had pitched seven innings of 4 run ball ( 1 earned), with three strikeouts, recording another win on the young season for him and the Thunder. Mike would twirl two gems in the playoffs, with a semifinal against TABC being his most remarkable achievement, in a tidy 2-1 win.

In his first game of the 2021 season, In his first start since the World Series, Micheal Levy went the distance, while the YDE bats brought the “Thunder” early, and often eventually coasting to a Friday afternoon (4/23)season-opening 12-0 blowout victory over the rival Flatbush Falcons.

The Thunder also showed the ability to overcome deficits. A week later, a sloppy start for YDE turned into a vast come-from-behind 7-2 victory against their rival MDY Warriors. After allowing his first run of the season, Micheal Levy settled down and dazzled with seven innings of 2 run ball, with nine k’s, keeping the Magen David offense at bay. Later in the season, Levy would outdo himself and twirled a complete game with Jacob Franco as his battery mate in the catcher's position in an 11-0 YDE win over those same Warriors.

It would set the stage for a 6-2 regular season, good for the Central division title and a playoff berth. In their semifinal rematch against the TABC storm following a 10-4 quarterfinal win over Hillel, the Thunder looked dead, trailing 5-1 in their last ups before an improbable five-run frame keyed by big at-bats from Abi Khezrie, Bobby Tawil, and David Sayegh helped YDE to a 6-5 win and another title game berth.