[ArquimedezPozo]

Game 1: Mounties Defeat Terrapins, 6-4 in Vancouver
Danny Tanon was solid against a tough Baltimore offense, holding them scoreless through seven before they started to do damage late. By then, though, Vancouver hard already scored six times, including a two run homer in the first from Leo Rodriguez that put the Terrapins on an early defensive. Tony Hines hit a solo shot in the 4th, and Steve Kelley added a third shot in the 6th for two more. Baltimore LF Pat Miller finally broke the seal against Tanon in the eighth with a three run bomb that drove him from the game, and that brought in Matt Greene, who allowed a run but otherwise kept Baltimore down for two full to get the save.

Game 2: Terrapins (1) Defeat Mounties (1), 5-1 in Vancouver
After a quiet game 1, Omar Juarez made his presence felt early in this one. After a Daniel Reid single and a walk to Wayne Richard, Juarez hammered a 1-2 hanging knuckle curve from Buxkemper way out to left to give the Terrapins a lead they’d never lose. Nick Green plated two more with a bases-loaded double in the sixth that scored Richard and Juarez. John Witherspoon homered for the Mounties in the inning’s bottom half, but that was the only blemish on Victor Plascenscia’s outstanding outing, going 7 with six strikeouts, allowing two walks and five hits. Baltimore comes home with a split series.

Game 3: Mounties (2) Defeat Terrapins (1) 13-4 in Baltimore
Balls were flying out at Terrapin Park tonight, with a total of seven homers accounting for fifteen of the game’s 17 runs. Once again, Leo Rodriguez homered in the first - a three run shot that opened a big night for Vancouver. He added a solo shot in the third. As Mat Riddle set the Terrapins down in inning after inning, Vancouver heaped it on with a five run fifth featuring RBI singles from Tony Hines and Steve Kelly (the only non-HR RBI of the night) and a three run bomb from Greg Cousino. Four more runs came in during the sixth, when John Witherspoon and Kelly both hit two run shots. At that point it was 13-0, and though Baltimore got into the game a bit with a two run homer from Juarez in the eighth and another from Wayne Richard in the ninth, they weren’t digging out of that hole.

Game 4: Terrapins (2) Defeat Mounties (2), 4-3 in Baltimore
Baltimore got a dramatic walk-off win in front of a raucous crowd tonight in a game that featured one wild seventh inning in between a lot of good pitching. At first it looked like we might be watching a different kind of history, as Lowe carried a no-hitter through the fifth despite a walk, an error, and a wild pitch, and though he gave up a single and a walk in the sixth he kept the Terrapins off the scoreboard. Baltimore’s Billy Smith allowed yet another homer to Leo Rodriguez in the second - his fourth of the series, and first of two in the game - but was otherwise just as good through six. Rodriguez decided a one run lead wasn’t enough, though, so Vancouver’s new October superman homered again, a two run blast that put his club up 3-0 and gave him five homers in four games. But Danny Lowe’s magic slipped in the bottom of the seventh: Nick Green homered to lead off the inning, and after a single by Elio Mespel Josh Harms added another big fly to even the game at three apiece. That’s where it stayed, now a battle of the closers as Baltimore’s Eric Cool and Vancouver’s Matt Greene shut things down. In the tenth, Eric Cool worked around a single from Mike Vizzini while Greene did the same to a single and a walk. Baltimore pulled Cool before the 11th began, putting in SP Nick Casselman, the club’s fifth starter, relegated to the pen for the series. The Baltimore fans were real quiet as Casselman faced Rodriguez, but there was no third homer of the game: instead the slugger went down on strikes, as did Tony Hines after him to end the inning. Vancouver sent Matt Greene back out, though, and that proved a mistake: Baltimore 1B Mauricio Fiscal hit a 1-0 fastball just over the left field fence to win Game 4 in a walk-off.

Game 5: Terrapins (3) Defeat Mounties (2), 5-2 in Baltimore
The series heads back to Vancouver without a safety net for the Mounties, who must win two of two at Scotiabank Field to survive. Baltimore knocked Danny Tanon around in this one, as Howard Rodriquez cruised to victory. After both teams scored a run early (Vancouver’s in the first on a Witherspoon sac fly and Baltimore’s in the second on a Steve Kelly homer), the pitchers kept things settled for a couple innings. But Baltimore did damage in the 5th. After a one out HBP to Elio Mespel, Keith Howard put him on second with a single, and Josh Harms brought him home with another. With two men on, Daniel Reid hit a two out triple to make it 4-1, and Wayne Richard singled Reid home bringing the score to 5-1. Rodriquez lasted until the seventh, when he was pulled after two singles opened the inning. Justin Wiggins was able to put out the fire, though Leo Rodriguez hit his sixth homer to open the 8th against Nick Casselman. The Baltimore starter recovered to get the last six outs without incident, though, and the Terrapins won their third game of the series, on the verge of their first title since 2030, and what would be their ninth overall, the most in the NABF.

Game 6: Mounties (3) Defeat Terrapins (3), 7-6 in Vancouver
Under pressure, Vancouver delivered in a see-saw game that saw the lead change four times, with Vancouver barely avoiding a fifth. In the process, Leo Rodriguez may have entered immortal status. After a top of the fourth Baltimore run courtesy of a Wayne Richard solo shot off Rich Buxkemper, John Witherspoon singled to bring Rodriguez to the plate. The 3B had already hit six homers in the series, but this time missed - he hit a triple instead, to bring home the tying run. He was stranded at third, however, so that tie lasted two more innings. In the bottom of the sixth, Victor Plascecia gave the Mounties their opening, walking Sonny Scoggins and Colin Hannigan. Witherspoon grounded to second, and Juarez got the ball over to nab Hannigan, but the SS Harms couldn’t get the return through off, putting runners at the corners for - who else - Leo Rodriguez. Making up for his earlier triple, this time Rodriguez did blast a homer, the seventh of his series. That shot gave Vancouver a 4-1 lead. Buxkempoer gave up two straight singles to open the 7th, and then was replaced by Steve Weiss. But the lefty was wild, walking Harms to laid the bases. He got Devon Johnson on a soft shallow fly that didn’t advance anyone, but facing Danny Reid he uncorked a wild pitch to score Baltimore’s second run. For the 8th, Vancouver brought in Greene, but the record-setting closer had been shaky in the series and continued that trend. Pat Miller hit a one-out double, and Nick Green walked behind him, as did Elio Mespel to load the bases. Keith Howard finished the job, singling to score two and tie it up; Greene wriggled out despite another walk to reload the bases, though, and the game went into the bottom of the 8th knotted at 4. Eric Cool came in for Baltimore, and got Hannigan to fly out before giving up a double to Witherspoon. Finally giving in, the Terrapins walked Rodriguez intentionally, but Tony Hines followed with a single to load the bases, and Kelly added another to make it 5-4. Two batters later, Greg Cousino knocked in two with another base hit to make it 7-4. But the Mounties kept Greene in the ballgame, and Baltimore made them pay: First Omar Juarez and then Nick Green hit solo homers to tighten the score to 7-6. Finally, Greene was lifted in favor of lefty Franklin Romero, who got LH Elio Mespel to strike out and close the Mounties’ third win, knotting the series and bringing it to Game 7.

Game 7: Mounties (4) Defeat Terrapins (3), 4-3 in Vancouver
Thirteen seasons ago, the Vancouver Mounties were an out away from a championship against the juggernaut Baltimore Terrapins when Mel Irving blasted a devastating go-ahead, walk-off homer to snatch victory away. It took more than a decade, but the Mounties have gotten their revenge, walking off against those same Terrapins, aided by the heroics of the greatest Championship Series performance in NABF history: Leo Rodriguez’s unbelievable .393/.433/1.321, 8 HR, 15 RBI demolition, which earned him the easiest series MVP you’ll ever see.

Baltimore jumped out to a lead against Mat Riddle, as Wayne Richard and Omar Juarez went back-to-back with two outs in the first, and Danny Reid hit into an RBI fielder’s choice with the bases loaded in the second. But he got Richard on a fly out and Juarez on a ground ball to end the 2nd, and didn’t allow another baserunner for the rest of the game - before being lifted after the 8th, Riddle set down 20 Terrapins in a row. His offense was slow to take advantage, but put a run on the board in the 5th when Steve Kelly tripled to bring home Tony Hines, and then a second when Sonny Scoggins homered in the 6th. Randy Putnam was on, however, and didn’t allow them much after that. Franklin Romero came in for Vancouver in the ninth and pitched around an Elio Mespel double, bringing the game into the bottom of the ninth, the last chance for the home team.

Eric Cool came in for the save, in a series that was not kind to closers: Cool’s ERA finished at 5.82 for series, while Greene’s was an ugly 8.10. But at least at first, Cool looked like he had it under control, getting the dangerous Witherspoon to ground it weakly back to the mound for a quick 1-3 out. That, of course, brought Leo Rodriguez to the plate. Rodriguez took a low splitter, then fouled a challenge fastball from Cool straight back. He watched another fastball tail outside, and popped the fifth offering into the third base stands, out of play to even the count at 2. But then, of course, Cool threw a pitch Rodriguez was waiting for: a splitter that was just up enough for Rodriguez to golf. He got every single piece of it, sending it screaming almost 400 feet into the night over the left field stands. He watched it go as the crowd rose, and he circled the bases as they chanted his name - Leo! Leo! Leo! Echoed through the night. The Mounties had life: it was 3-3.

A shaken Cool gave up a single to Tony Hines, and grooved one that Steve Kelly just missed, sending it to the wall but into the glove of Mespel in right. Matt Frerichs dumped the second pitch he saw into shallow right, though, bringing Hines all the way to third. Not one of the 40,025 fans in attendance had sat down since Rodriguez’s homer, and they never would again: Chris Porter, who had replaced Greg Cousino in the 7th, roped an 0-1 pitch on a line between third and short as Hines raced home into a throng. Fireworks sounded as the Terrapins walked off the field, giving way to a massive celebration: for the first time in 30 years, the Mounties were champions again.

Congratulations to the Vancouver Mounties, 2038 Champions of Division 2!