The success, thrills and first-rate competition of the Fall 2005 mayor's softball tournament were recalled at a recent board of trustee's meeting where the champions received official proclamations and an abundance of praise. The particulars of the exciting game are as follows: the morning started out with incredible fog covering the entire East Hills area, including the ball fields at Harbor Hill. About 8:50 a.m. the fog started to lift and Emily Hauser sang a rendition of the National Anthem in front of Mayor Mike Koblenz, Trustee Gary Leventhal and Village Attorney Bill Burton, as well as all participants of the fourth annual mayor's trophy softball tournament.

The mayor and both organizers - Peter Wagner and Steward Faden - threw out the first pitch and the game began. The two captains were Scott Daniels and Marc Ruben.

Eric Kobrick began the game with a line drive single, just barely touching shortstop Jason Rubin's glove. Sandy Berger made a nice running catch at second toward the line, retiring Jim Ewing, and Scott Daniels lined out sharply to Bobby Wolf in center. David Drucker walked, putting runners at first and second, but David Goldsmith ended the top of the first by grounding out to short.

In the bottom of the first, Jason Rubin led off with a pop single and used his youthful speed to advance to second when no one covered the bag. Captain Marc Rubin, Jason's dad, popped out to short center, but big Jason Littman hit a scorcher down the left field line to score Rubin from second and take a 1-0 lead. Mike Maxon walked, but Vache Bahadurian flied out and Sandy Berger grounded out to Scott Daniels at short to end the inning with only a run.

Andy Goldbaum led off the top of the second with a slow roller to short, which he almost legged out, but Jason Rubin made a great pickup and throw for the first out. Joe Sofer hit a rope up the middle for a single. Steve Feinstein hit a slow roller to short where Jason Rubin thought for a moment about turning a double play but quickly realized he only had a shot at the runner going to first, fired it and just beat him by a step with Joe advancing to second. Jason Bash then flew out to right center field to end the inning, stranding a runner at second.

Jeff Kozuch started off the bottom of the second with a single to right and when the ball skipped past the right fielder he advanced to third for a two-base error. The official scorer on the play thought a three-base error was the call, but it was ruled a single. Bobby Wolf then came up and hit a sharp single to center, which also skipped by the fielder and he came around to score, giving Marc Rubin's team a three-run lead. Heitner flew out to left, Jim Kenalley grounded out weakly to short and Mark Bahadurian popped out to Dave Drucker in short center to end the inning, but not after they had scored three times.

In the top of the third, Jason Rubin again made a diving stop, this time of Jimmy Stern's grounder in the hole between third and short, righted himself and threw the ball over Vache's head at first for a single and an error, with Jim winding up at second. Paul Weinberg then popped a bloop single over Scott's head at shortstop with Jim advancing to third and Paul reaching second on Jason Littman's throwing error from left field. Eric Kobrick then lined out to Mike Maxon at third, who (purposely) dropped the ball and then threw out Eric at first; the runners held their positions until Jim Ewing hit a sac fly for their first run of the game. Paul advancing to third and Jim Stern scoring. On the play, Jason almost threw out Stern tagging up from third, but he just barely scored safely. Next up, Captain Scott Daniels hit a single up the middle to drive in Paul from third and narrow the deficit to a one-run game. David Drucker advanced Scott to third with a bloop hit over the third base bag and Dave Goldsmith drove in the tying run with a line drive single to center. Andy Goldbaum flied out to Bobby Wolf in center to end the rally and the inning, but not until after they had tied up the game 3-3.

The bottom of the third went uneventfully, except for a nice single by Mark Rubin to left, but he was left stranded when Jason Littman and Mike Maxon made the final two outs of the inning.

In the top of the fourth, Joe Sofer flied out weakly to Littman in left and pitcher Steve Feinstein fouled out to the catcher, who made a nice play and held onto the third strike for out number two. Jim Stern popped out to the pitcher to end the inning.

The bottom of the fourth started off with David Drucker making a tremendous, diving, knee first catch of Vache's line drive, and then Sandy Berger singled sharply between short and third. Andy Goldbaum made a great running catch toward the first base line for the second out of the inning. Bobby Wolf singled to Jim Ewing in right center, who got the ball in quickly before Sandy could even think about running home. With first and third occupied, Kenny Heitner hit a ball down the left field line where David Druck made a fine running catch, just barely, in foul territory. End of inning. Still tied 3-3.

The top of the fifth started with Paul Weinberg hitting a weak grounder to Mike Maxon at third for the first out. Eric Kobrick hit a hard shot to left, but right at Jason Littman for the second out. Then Jim Ewing beat out an infield single that Mike Maxon dove for, but couldn't throw him out at first. Scott then dropped a single in between the shortstop going out, and the left fielder coming in, but Jim couldn't advance past second. David Drucker then hit a bloop over Jason Rubin at short, who turned and with his back to the plate, made a great running catch in shallow left field to end the inning.

The bottom of the fifth proved to be the key inning for Mark Rubin's team, when they scored the three runs that they ultimately won the game by. Jim Kenalley singled off pitcher Steve Feinstein's glove and the ball skipped through the infield up the middle for a single. Mark Bahadurian then hit a scorcher between second and first that Andy Goldbuam made a beautiful diving attempt for, but couldn't come up with the ball.

Jason Rubin then hit a ball to short right center, that Jim Ewing just barely missed making a nice catch on, for a single, driving in Kenalley. Jim Stern, wisely backing up the diving Ewing, saw the ball skip by him, allowing Mark Bahadurian to score the second run of the inning. Mike Maxon lined out to Eric Kobrick in left and earned a sac RBI in the process when Jason tagged up and scored from third. Vache then grounded out, Goldbaum to Daniels and Sandy flew out to right to end the inning.

Dave Goldsmith singled to lead off the top of the sixth and the ball skipped past Bobby Wolf for an error, with Dave advancing to second. He was stranded there when Andy Goldbuam lined out to center, Joe popped out to second and Steve Feinstein hit a screaming grounder to Maxon at third, who made a nice pickup and threw him out with a step to spare at first.

The bottom of the sixth Jeff Kozuch grounded out to Steve and Bobby Wolf popped out to short, with Scott making a nice running grab toward the third base line. Kenny Heitner also popped out to Scott at short and he and his team ran off the field seeming confident that they would score at least three runs to tie the game.

In the top of the seventh, Jason Bash led off with a single, but Jim Stern popped out to Jason Rubin at short and Paul Weinberg popped out to second. Eric grounded into a fielder's choice, Jason Rubin to second base to end the game. The winning team, including members who did not play in the final, was: Jason Rubin, Mark Rubin, Jason Littman, Mike Maxon, Vache Bahadurian, Sandy Berger, Jeff Kozuch, Bobby Wolf, Kenny Heitner, Jim Kenalley, Mark Bahadurian, Mike Watts and Ira Hochman.

The runner-up team comprised: Scott Daniels, Dave Drucker, Steve Feinstein, Jim Ewing, David Azuf, Andy Goldbaum, Joe Sofer, Steve Horowitz, Jim Stern, Jason Bash, Paul Weinberg, Erick Kobrick and Dave Goldsmith.