(Brooklyn, NY) – Junior Drew Feld (Valley Village, CA/YULA) drove in the game-winning run to cap a three-run rally in the top of the seventh inning, senior Max Gornish (St. Louis, MO/Block Yeshiva) had three hits, an RBI, and scored twice, and junior Howard Avner (Northbrook, IL/Fasman Yeshiva) pitched a complete game as the Yeshiva University Baseball team capped a record-breaking season with a 5-4 win over John Jay College on Thursday afternoon at John Jay. With the win YU finishes the 2009 season with a 4-19 record, doubling the previous school record for wins in a season.
Shortly after an 18-1 loss to open the doubleheader, Yeshiva battled back during the second game behind Avner's outstanding effort on the mound. Down 1-0, YU took a 2-1 after three innings when Gornish drove in Seth Fein (Woodmere, NY/Hebrew Academy of Long Beach) with a single, and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Avraham Pinsky (Valley Village, CA/YULA).
However, John Jay tied the score in the bottom of the fourth inning, and scored twice an inning later to take a 4-2 lead, and the Bloodhounds were one out from victory when the Maccabees staged the most dramatic of comebacks. Gornish doubled, and then scored on a Jeremy Schwartz (Brooklyn, NY/MTA) double to make it 4-3. Pinsky then singled to score David Kesselman (West Hempstead, NY/DRS Yeshiva) to tie the game 4-4. With two runners on base, two consecutive Maccabees were hit by pitches, culminating with Feld's hit by pitch with the bases loaded to give the Maccabees a 5-4 lead.
The game was by no means over from there as John Jay had two runners on base and two outs when Avner induced a fly-out to end the game. The junior was terrific, allowing four earned runs while striking out two for the complete-game victory.
Gornish went 3 for 4, while Fein and Schwartz had two hits apiece.
After finishing the 2008 season with an 0-25 record, Yeshiva closes the 2009 season having doubled the win total in the program's history.