Sports Shorts

In the Israel Softball Association's Babe Gillett Memorial Fall Tournament final on Sunday at Kibbutz Gezer, Ziontours broke Penticon's seven-championship reign with a solid 7-2 win. Yarone Ben Israel pitched a great game, outdueling Ami Baran. Ziontours never trailed, taking a 2-0 lead in the second inning on doubles by Yarone and Yaniv Rosenfeld, who was 4-4 on the night, and added two more in the third. Up 4-1 in the fourth, Alon Leichman followed singles by Gil Siegel and Tom Haskell with a towering three-run home run coup de grace. Penticon rallied in the fifth, but the infield tandem of shortstop Elinatan Ben Israel and second baseman Rosenfeld, who had a hand in 11 outs, shut the door with several nice plays. The game ended dramatically on a diving catch by centerfielder Leichman. (Micah Winston)

After taking last weekend off, Israeli rugby returns to action today with ASA Tel Aviv solidly leading the women's division. Among the men, Hapoel Yizre'el/Gilboa will host Hapoel Ra'anana tomorrow in a must-win match. Yizre'el opened the season with three straight losses, and this contest will indicate whether the club can beat the stronger teams in the division. Elsewhere, Hapoel Ashkelon will visit Haifa while Tel Aviv will take on Jerusalem at the Sportek field. (Amir Shoam)