Greg Berguig gripped the metal bat tightly, his eyes focused on the yellow softball coming his way. His bat connected with a loud “PING!” and drove the ball over the fence for a two-run home run.
Berguig’s homer came during a game of Bay Area Torah Softball (BATS), a five-team league that plays on Sundays throughout the summer. His team, the Kol Shofar Maccabees beat the Brandeis/Sherith Israel Lionhearts 19-12 in the June 14 game.
Steve Sockolov, a Congregation Kol Shofar member, Maccabees coach and BATS commissioner, said that he loves to bring community members together for friendly competition.
“Oh, it’s just camaraderie,” Sockolov said. “It’s just nice to get, you know, all these Jewish people together for a fun thing.”
The softball league started in 2014 and currently has five co-ed teams in San Francisco and Marin County, with a minimum of eight players per team. In addition to the Maccabees and Lionhearts, the Beth Sholom Avenues, the Rodef Sholom Rebels and the Emanu-El Dome Giants play in the league. Sockolov said each team plays each of the other teams three times for a total of 12 games before the playoffs.
The defending-champion Maccabees are already in first place this summer, with a 4-0 record.
Sockolov said the annual playoffs, where the top four teams compete, have been memorable for his team, describing them as “David and Goliath” affairs. Although the Rebels and Dome Giants were the favorites to win the playoffs last year, Sockolov said, his Maccabees beat them in back-to-back games to clinch the championship.
Evan Kletter, Lionhearts coach and former president of Congregation Sherith Israel, said that Sockolov originally contacted him to form a congregation team. But Kletter discovered that parents at the Brandeis School of San Francisco also wanted to play, so he added them to the roster.
Lauren Orlick, a former Brandeis parent who plays catcher for the Lionhearts, said a number of her teammates are parents of former students at the day school.
“We all grew up together. Our kids went to K-8 together,” Orlick said. “Our coach created this team, and we’ve been together ever since. It grows throughout the years, but it’s been consistently strong, especially women, which is great.”
Orlick, who grew up playing baseball, said that after her children graduated from Brandeis, the softball league became a way to stay in touch with parents she’d connected with over the years.
“It’s a way to keep us together and see each other on Sundays and celebrate,” Orlick said, “but also stay healthy and warm up together and play.”
Sockolov would love for more congregations to join the league. When asked to describe BATS in a few words, Sockolov took a swing: “camaraderie, fun, Jewish, competitive.”