To Life! II • II • SPORTS • II May the coming year be filled with health, happiness and prosperity for all our family and friends. Diamond Dreaming Baseball standout isn't ready to end his career at age 18. Claire & Mary Tamaroff Steve Stein Special to The Jewish News F The Board of Directors and Staff of Yad Ezra wish to thank our Jewish community for its generous support in assisting us alleviate hunger. Your help makes a tremendous difference in 1110 it '7311.0 the lives of those most vulnerable. toitit. 1'7^ 40"krifOarla Happy New Year! 1300970 ok( as&na May the blessings of family and friends strenghten our resolve to strive for peace and security in the New Year. Judge Susan Moiseev NrawW. „ 15 00614411M 96 September 13 • 2007 4to or the first time in more than a decade, baseball isn't in Zack Ehrmann's future. Ehrmann is a freshman at the University of Michigan and he plans to try out for the U-M baseball team as a walk-on, but he knows the odds are stacked against him. The Wolverines are a powerhouse. They've played in three consecutive NCAA tournaments and won two straight Big Ten titles. "I'm realistic about my chances:' Ehrmann said. "But you have to at least give it a shot." Ehrmann was in the West Bloomfield High School baseball pro- gram for four years, the last two as a standout on the varsity team. He's been in the North Farmington West Bloomfield summer baseball program most of his life, playing travel ball since 2000. "I might play baseball next summer because I'd still be young enough to be on an 18-and-under travel team," Ehrmann said. "Then again, I might work or try something different. I love playing baseball. You have to love it at this stage of your life. You can't play because somebody wants you to play. I'm not a morning person at all, but I'll get up early to play baseball." Ehrmann was on the NFWB Cobras 18-and-under team that went 23-18 this summer in league and tourna- ment play, winning the Triple Crown Capital City Classic in Lansing and the AABC districts in Adrian. While playing his familiar first base position, Ehrmann hit .410 and had a .500 on- base percentage. There were four Jewish play- ers on the Cobras' roster. Besides Ehrmann, the others were pitcher Ben Schroeder, leftfielder Eugene Vinogradov and catcher Max Weberman. Schroeder, a 2006 Livonia Stevenson High School grad, had a 6-2 record. The Kalamazoo College sophomore is a two-sport athlete in school, play- ing baseball (pitcher) and soccer (goalie). He was named to the 2006- 07 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Honor Roll for maintain- ing a minimum 3.5 grade point aver- age for the academic year. Vinogradov, a Michigan State University freshman, was Ehrmann's teammate at West Bloomfield and with the Cobras. He hit .342 this summer and drew 20 walks from his leadoff spot in the lineup. Weberman, a senior at Walled Lake Western High School, batted .385 for the Cobras. Last spring, Ehrmann and Vinogradov were key members of the West Bloomfield team that scuffled during the regular season but advanced to the Division 1 state quarterfinals before losing a 3-2 heart- breaker to eventual state champion Lake Orion. West Bloomfield scored twice in top of the fifth inning in that game on RBI singles by Vinogradov and Ehrmann, but Lake Orion came back with three runs with two out in the bottom of the fifth and held on for the victory. West Bloomfield finished 25-15. "It was tough to lose that way, espe- cially because Lake Orion had beaten us badly twice in league games," Ehrmann said. "But I'm sure when we reflect on the season years from now, we'll realize we did something special. A lot of teams would have done any- thing to be in our situation." Ehrmann also was a hit in the class- room at West Bloomfield, graduating with a 4.0 grade point average and in the top 8 percent of his class. Table Tennis Titan Table tennis whiz Lloyd Strausz of West Bloomfield won his fourth Michigan Senior Olympics Summer Games gold medal in the sport, dominating the 85-89 age bracket last month in Rochester. Strauss, 89, plays table tennis 2-3 times a week on the three new tables at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield. "There are seven or eight other fellows who play regularly. Most are younger than me by a decade or more," Strauss said. "My reflexes are still pret- ty good. I don't have an explanation for that, but I'm happy about it." Fl Please send sports news to sports@thejewishnews.com .