[Tazilon]

After dropping the season matchups 2-5, the Mesquite Bullriders exerted their offensive and defensive prowess in the playoffs, besting the El Monte Lions 4-1 to advance to the Iron League 203 Championship round. They will face the New York Bulldozers for the title.

Game 1 (9-3 Mesquite): A critical second inning, 2 out throwing error by the Lions shortstop, Al Simmons, allowed the Bullriders to score 3 subsequent runs before El Monte could secure the third out.

The Lions got 2 runs back in the top of third on a home run by J Bradley Jr but the Bullriders responded with 2 solo shots in the bottom of the 3rd and the Lions never seriously threatened again.

Game 2 (1-0 El Monte): Game was a classic pitcher's duel with Ismael Valdez besting Jacob DeGrom 1-0. The lone run came in the top of the 4th when David Dahl, coming into the playoffs with the league Home Run crown, teed up DeGrom for a solo shot. The Bullriders could never get their prolific offense in sync and ended up stranding 13 baserunners with no one able to cross the plate.

Game 3 (8-1 Bullriders): Mesquite got their offense back in gear early on, scoring 2 runs in the top of the first and never looked back. In the 6th, they hit 3 separate home runs to add on 6 more runs and seal the win. Max Scherzer scattered 6 hits over the first 8.1 innings to pick up the win.

Game 4 (4-0 Bullrider): Noah Syndergaard did what he does so often, shut down the opposing team, giving up just 2 hits in 8 innings while whiffing 8 batters along the way.

Game 5 (12-3 Bullriders): The top of the 4th was all the Bullriders needed as Mesquite followed up with 3 additional runs after Manny Machado cleared the bases with a 3 run blast to start the scoring. Mesquite batted around while posting 6 runs in an inning for the second time this series. The Bullriders added 3 more runs each in the 5th and 7th innings, more than offsetting the 3 solo runs El Monte got as they futilely tried to climb back into the ball game.

Asked after the game why Mesquite didn't seem to be running as much as normal, manager Tazilon responded, "When we met in the regular season, we ran ourselves out of several games. The Lions have a couple of pitchers who hold runners really well and Posey has a decent arm behind the plate, so we decided we would not be quite as aggressive trying to get steals and let our bats do most of the work for us. It worked out pretty good! I'ld like to congratulate killaB33 on putting together a great team this season and wish him the best of luck as the Lions advance up the PT ladder."

Mesquites opponent in the finals will be the New York Bulldozers.