[Elendil]

Game Five

September 9, 2017 - A Saturday evening Game Five with the breeze blowing out to center, and the Goldpanners backed against a wall. Fairbanks looked to take advantage of Davis Murdock, the Grizzlies #4 starter, who had to step in due to the injury to Lockwood. Eugene Pond, meanwhile, sought to atone for his shaky Game 2 start.

Fairbanks got one in the first when Murdock walked in a run, but he then seemed to settle down. Pond also pitched reasonably, scattering a bunch of baserunners but allowing none of them to score through the first four innings.

In the top of the 4th, Fairbanks got a little insurance on a Toby Burns solo home run.

In the bottom of the 5th, Kodiak got the fans going when Samson stroked a two-run double to tie the game. Pond got out of the inning without further damage, however.

By the 7th inning, both teams were into their bullpens. Fairbanks finally broke the tie when Alcock homered off Schneider, and then loaded the bases again, bringing in Myers, who gave up a run-scoring fielder's choice. 4-2 Panners.

Brad Morris stayed in to get the save in the bottom of the 9th, giving Funk a rest. After getting two outs, though, he ran into trouble, yielding a single to Navarro and a walk to Morrisey. Fairbanks then made a double switch, bringing in mopup reliever Duncan Lacey. Kodiak failed to take advantage, though, as Samson flied out on a line drive to left. Final score: Fairbanks 4, Kodiak 2. This series would be going back to the interior.

Game Six

September 11, 2017 - After a day of rest, the series resumed on Monday. Over three thousand fans came out to watch Deacon go up against Poor. The Goldpanners needed to figure out Poor if they wanted to stay alive.

Brett Small gave the home team the lead in the second inning with an RBI single, and Poor was looking shaky. He ran into trouble again in the 3rd, yielding a two-run homer to Alcock, his second consecutive game with a home run.

Deacon was cruising. The Grizzlies couldn't put together a sequence of hits, and that three-run lead started to look insurmountable.

In the 5th inning, they finally managed to load the bases with one out, but the pitcher's spot came up. Poor went up to hit and struck out. Okawa then flied out to end the threat.

Fairbanks added a couple more insurance runs in the 6th, and the Grizzlies couldn't buy a run. They finally got one in the 8th but let a double-triple sequence go for just one run. Deacon pitched a complete game, and all of a sudden Fairbanks had all the momentum going to a seventh game! Final score: Fairbanks 5, Kodiak 1.

Game Seven

September 12, 2017 - It was the first game seven in six years, and Fairbanks won, it would be the second time in league history that a team came back from down 3-1 to win an ACS, the last time occurring ten years ago when Mat-Su downed Sitka in the inaugural series, and it would be the first time in league history that a team successfully defended a championship.

Fittingly, the two aces took the mound for this deciding game: the crafty lefty Steven Henry for Kodiak, John Cormack for Fairbanks.

The first threat of the game came in the bottom of the 2nd as the Goldpanners batted against Henry. Burns led off the inning with a double. Small then hit a sharp single to the center fielder, who was able to hold Burns at third. With runners on the corners and nobody out, Henry needed a strikeout of Bartholomew to get to the pitcher. He got it. Then Cormack came to the plate and bunted Small over. Two outs. Neal then struck out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the 3rd, the Panners finally touched up Henry, though. Burns got a two-out, two-run single to get Fairbanks on the board first. He was immediately picked off then, but given the way this series had gone, a two-run lead was huge.

The Grizzlies came fighting back, though. The next half-inning, they worked a run from a leadoff double by Morrisey to make it 2-1. The Goldpanners immediately responded in the bottom half when Bartholomew hit an RBI double. 3-1.

Undaunted, at the next chance for Kodiak, Okawa slammed a triple off the wall in deep center field to score Bolduc, who had reached on error. 3-2.

Both Cormack and Henry then settled down, and the score remained stuck at 3-2. In the 8th inning, the Grizzlies were starting to become desperate, and they finally got their chance. With two outs, Morrisey reached on a bloop popup single that dropped behind the second baseman. Samson then hit a liner off the end of his bat that got past the first baseman. The second baseman picked it up, but Morrisey was on his way to third. He beat the throw, putting runners on the corners. Meehan came to the plate, and hit a deep fly, playable, to left field, and it was caught.

Jon Funk came in in the top of the 9th to nail down the championship. He dominated Smart and pinch-hitter Brisson, striking them both out. The crowd rose to its feet, booing as Mike Collette took two two-strike balls. But when he hit a dribbler to third, and the throw came in to the first baseman, the bleachers erupted in rejoicing, as the Fairbanks Goldpanners had won their second consecutive Alaskan championship.

For the Grizzlies, it was utter defeat. They had found new ways to lose to the Goldpanners in the postseason, after having dominated them in the regular season. Were they "cursed," as a few of their fans half-seriously alleged, or would they just have to wait their turn, perhaps against a different opponent?

Final score: Fairbanks 3, Kodiak 2. Fairbanks wins the series, 4-3.

The 2017 ACS MVP was John Cormack of Fairbanks. He had only one win to show for his three starts, but he had been consistently stellar, pitching twenty-four and a third innings (over eight per start), yielding just one home run and two walks compared to nineteen strikeouts. His series ERA was a minuscule 1.48.