Thursday night featured the good, the bad and the ugly of the young season, luckily this game didn't count anywhere except the players' minds. Standings aren't kept for preseason games.

Let's start with the "ugly" - 10 walks in 4 innings. 10 K's and only 3 hits by the opposition, but 10 walks in 4 innings is way too much, and needs to be worked on in the coming weeks.

Each pitcher was expected to pitch 1 inning only. Avi Paley pitched the 1st inning and struck out the side. Amichai Boltax pitched some of the 2nd, Ealley Chorev relieved him and didn't fare much better; the combination gave up 5 runs, mostly on the 6 walks. Evan Milgram pitched a scoreless 3rd inning, with a walk and a bunt single between the 3 strikeouts. The 4th and final inning was thrown by Shalev Gazit. Yes he walked 3 and hit 2 batters, yes he gave up 3 runs, but he bore down in the end, and preserved the win.

The next is the "bad": the defense. There was one very good 1st-and-3rd play that surprised the runner coming down from 3rd, executed perfectly by Chorev and Milgram. The rest - fielders didn't always back up, catchers forgot what play they called, infielders forgot their cutoff responsibility...if there were more hits, maybe the defense would have improved, and maybe it would have continued to be worse. One thing is for certain: basic defense needs to be addressed at the practices, especially basic fly ball fielding.

Last was the hitting, the "good" of this game. The VERY GOOD of this game. 9 hits (including 2 doubles); 7 RBI out of the 9 runs (the other 2 scoring on an error); an RBI groundout, a bunt single, no called strike 3...I could go on and on, but the hitting was the best part of the game. Give credit to new leadoff man Ofek Yaakobi, who went 3-3 with a run scored and an RBI, including that bunt single. Avichai Schiffmiller continues to hit the ball hard, with a 1st-inning double. Milgram went 2-2 with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored, Chorev was 1-2 with an RBI double, Ariel Schnaps walked twice and scored the 9th Gezer run, and Amichai Boltax reached base twice, including a mishandled grounder in the 1st that led to 2 runs.

There is still a long way to go, and many things to improve before the season start in 7 weeks or less...but as long as the team members continue to work hard and improve - the upcoming season will be successful.