The birth of Israel's first professional baseball league has obscured a strong performance — led by a trio of New Jersey players — by the country's women's fastpitch softball team in last month's European championships.

Eatontown native and star softball player Shyella Mayk, 28, and her sister Liati, 25, are part of the Israeli squad, which finished in a surprising fourth place at last month's European B Pool Championships held in Zagreb, Croatia.

Rounding out the team's NJ contingent is Jennifer Jacoby, who from 2000 to 2003 played second base for Rutgers University's Scarlet Knights, where she was a Big East Academic All-Star in 2003. She ranks second all-time for walks in a single season. Jacoby was also a member of the Montclair, Calif., Sliders, who won the Amateur Softball Association Women's Class A Fast Pitch National Championship title in 2005.

In the opening round in Zagreb, Shyella Mayk pitched a one-hit shutout in Israel's 7-0 win over Slovenia. She had three hits and scored two runs in the next game, a 10-2 victory over Ukraine, and pitched an abbreviated 20-0 perfect game against Serbia.

The team's sole first-round loss came at the hands of France, 2-1 in 10 innings.

"We started out a very inexperienced team, learning the basics of fastpitch in 2002, and this trip most definitely proved how much we all worked together and supported each other," Mayk told NJ Jewish News in a telephone interview from Israel. "Our team was the talk of this last tournament because of how much we have improved in such short time."

The Israelis finished eighth and seventh, respectively, in the two previous European tournaments.

Mayk hopes the team's performance will improve the sport's visibility in a country whose English-speaking community went ga-ga over the launch this summer of the Israel Baseball League.

"That has been, over the past three years, a focus for people working in the [softball] league, to bring an after-school program and teach girls the sport," Mayk said. "There are softball camps now at the sports center in Petach Tikva, so we're really focusing now on teaching so there will be another generation of softball players."

In fact, if Mayk hadn't made aliya in 2000, women in Israel might still be playing the slow-pitch version of the game. For someone who had been a star at every level of play, that wasn't challenging enough for Mayk. She persuaded officials at the Israeli Softball Association, the sport's governing body, to create a fast-pitch league. So passionate was she in her arguments that ISA president Bob Kessler called her "one of the cornerstones of our building program for women's and girls' softball."

Mayk returned to New Jersey in 2004 for a three-year master's program at Montclair State University in preparation for a career as a physical education instructor. She will relocate to Bloomfield when she begins work at the Heritage and Mount Pleasant middle schools in Livingston this fall.

For the past three years, Mayk has been spending her winter and summer vacations in Israel, renting an apartment in Tel Aviv. "I feel like I lead a double life," she said. "Everything picks up right where I left off."

Liati Mayk, who plays second base and outfield for the Israeli national team, lives in Manhattan. She is pursuing a doctorate in comparative Jewish literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She is also the coordinator of the Jewish Feminist Research Group based in the JTS women's studies department.

Her big sister spoke proudly of how Liati, surrounded by the members of the national team, sang "Hatikva" prior to a televised IBL game.

Shyella Mayk said the IBL has "most definitely" helped in bringing attention to the women's game. She recalled walking around the 2005 Maccabiah Games with her sister, gloves and bats in hand, and getting quizzical stares from passersby.

In addition to her pitching prowess, Mayk is a first-rate first baseman.

Before the IBL came on the scene, Shyella Mayk said, "If you mentioned softball, [Israelis] had no idea what it was; they'd think you were talking about volleyball."

At the same time, she complained about the inequity between the IBL and the women's program.

"They have a lot of financial support, which helps incredibly. And this is what we lack. We have no money. All of our players pay for themselves," she said.

The trip to the European championships cost each player $1,500, she said.

"We do not have a sponsor, and this is my mission now," she said. "Everyone is shocked that we represent the country of Israel, but Israel doesn't support us. Sports is not a priority here, especially not for women and especially not for a sport other than basketball and soccer.

"We're really hoping that some of the [IBL] sponsors will see something about our team and be willing to contribute," Mayk added.