Good morning everyone and welcome to the Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sport Update!

Boys Varsity Soccer’s defending champions knocked from the ranks of the undefeated, an extra inning affair in the season opener of Boys Varsity Softball, and some new blood at the top of the league in Girls Varsity Hockey. All that and more straight ahead, I’m Elliot Weiselberg.

Sunday evening was the official first-pitch of the Major League Baseball season, but the first pitch of the Spring season belonged to the Boys Varsity Softball league. Three games were played last Friday and the season did not have to look beyond its first day for fireworks. In Brooklyn, Shaare Torah posted a come-from behind 5-4 win over Flatbush. Down one in the bottom of the 7th, with two outs down, 4-3, Shaare’s Henry Levy singled in the game-tying run and in extras, Rafi Safdie’s sac-fly scored Harry Cohen for the game-winner. Shaare Torah joins YDE at 1-0 in the Central and TABC as winners of the season’s first games. The Stars will face Ohr Hatorah tonight while most if not all of the league will be in action this coming weekend.

Heading back indoors, to Boys Varsity Soccer where two teams clearly stand above their divisions and one just got knocked down a peg. Defending champs, TABC rolled into the season taking a dominant victory over Hillel before proving their mettle against a strong Kushner side. After a 7-0 win over JEC in TABC a few weeks ago, a repeat game against the Thunder looked to be a mere formality on TABC’s road to staying undefeated at the half-way mark. Not so fast said the Thunder. In a showing of just how different one game is from the next, JEC pulled out a 6-4 victory, jumping into a tie for 2nd in the West at 2-1-1. TABC still maintains a 1 point lead in the division at 3-1, but Frisch and Kushner are also within striking distance and as the old saying goes, “there’s blood in the water.” Around the league, SAR and HANC lead the Central and East, respectively, HANC by a wide margin at 6-0 with no other East team having their 2nd win yet.

Switching gears to Girls Hockey, the last week showed just how much has changed since last year. After 4 years of Frisch and Maayanot finals, both teams stumbled out of the gate, Maayanot falling to 1-1 with a loss to Heschel on Sunday and Frisch dropping their opener to SAR, 4-1. Heschel, the early-season surprise, sits atop the West, with a record of 4-0. SAR’s win over Frisch also keeps them undefeated at 4-0, but will hit the meat of their schedule at the back-end of the season. The other remaining undefeated team, the Kushner Cobras, currently 3-0 behind Heschel in the West, who have defeated teams in convincing fashion, most recently knocking off previously undefeated HAFTR this past Sunday. Kushner and Maayanot, a game that should tell us a lot about how the West will shape up over the next month, will take place tomorrow night in Teaneck.

Finally, Boys Hockey will be back for a day this coming Sunday at the 2016 Esther Semmelman Memorial All- Star Day in TABC. All Stars from the Varsity, Junior Varsity and for the first time, Junior High will gather for a day of hockey to benefit iShine. Festivities start at 11am and general admission is $5. For more information on iShine, how to sponsor, or the games, please visit www.tabc.org/allstarhockey.

And that was your Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update, I’m Elliot Weiselberg.