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Old 12-03-2019, 06:16 PM   #3037
Westheim
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2033 PLAYOFFS

The 2033 playoffs turned out to contain a colorful field, including the record-winning team in the league, one team that had never won, and two teams that had yet to take home a trophy in this millennium.

The record-holders for title winners were of course the Boston Titans, who won 90 games to take the CL North by four games. They scored the second-most runs in the Continental League, but didn’t have fool-proof pitching. Their rotation was decent, but their bullpen had been a bottomless pit from day one and had never been fixed. Their bullpen ERA was the worst in the league. Their offense was built around getting on base, their .350 team OBP second in the CL, but they were in the bottom half in both home runs and stolen bases. They did have five hitters with double-digit home runs, but none with more than Willie Vega’s 15, and one of those five, Mark Walker, was on the DL for the CLCS. Nobody batted .290 or drove in 90 runs on a dense team that lacked standout superstar hitting. They were counting on their rotation, led with 18-game winner Adam Potter, and that they could get the game to the tough end of the pen, where Jermaine Campbell had 37 saves and a 2.71 ERA.

The 91-71 Bayhawks had won the South on the last day of the season and were in a somewhat similar situation; they had scored the most runs, but had allowed the sixth-most as well. Their rotation had a better ERA than their bullpen, and they had led the league in OBP with a .355 mark. They were however also in the top three in homers and stolen bases, so their attack was by no means one-dimensional. The lineup was anchored by sophomore Doug Levis, who had hit .266 with 27 HR and 91 RBI, but who was also a problem because since acquiring Justin Uliasz (.246, 11 HR, 61 RBI) from the *Titans* they were forced to play the defensively inept Levis in a corner outfield spot. Their defense was better than the Titans’, and their pen was not quite as horrendous. They were however without quirky, pesky second baseman Jose Cruz, who would miss the postseason with an oblique strain.

Over in the Federal League, the Miners were the bottom seed for the playoffs, beating the Capitals by two games and clinching the FL East with only 83 wins. They were a rarity in that they made the postseason with a negative run differential (-3). They were sixth in runs scored, ninth in runs allowed. Their offense was one-dimensional to the max, hitting the absolute most homers in the ABL, but unable to steal bases at all. They were hitting for the third-highest average, too. Their pitching was crummy throughout, and the defense was mediocre, too. What was remarkable about the offense was that serial triple crown threat Danny Santillano didn’t even lead his own team in home runs and hit only 20 throughout the season (albeit missing 39 games to injury). They had five bats with 16+ HR, not counting Jake Trawick (17), who was injured and unavailable at least at the start of the CLCS. They were hoping on the rotation to get it together, led by Jonas Mejia, who won 17 games despite a 4.28 ERA. They had not found a closer all year and were unlikely to find one in the playoffs. They were considered to be in trouble…

Opposite them were the top-seated 93-69 Warriors, who had led all of the ABL in offense, hitting the second-most homers and stealing the third-fewest bases in the FL, so in that the two FLCS teams were similar. However, the Warriors also sported the best rotation (but a bad pen) in the FL, and had a top-rated defense. They were looking for steady production by Mario Colon (.274, 21 HR, 97 RBI) and Ethan McCullar (.288, 20 HR, 86 RBI), and for their #1 rotation to keep their bullpen out of games. However, they were not without issues. Injuries had ravaged their roster, especially the offense. With Kevin Harenberg (.311, 13 HR, 91 RBI), Jon Gonzalez (.235, 9 HR, 28 RBI), and Luis Ortegon (.277, 9 HR, 51 RBI) they were down three potential impact bats, so the bottom of the order was going to be thinned out.

This was the 10th playoff appearance for the Miners, who were one of three ABL teams to never win a championship. The Warriors made their 11th appearance. They had won the championship all the way back in 1978 – the older folks among us will remember. These teams had met in the FLCS twice, in 2014 and 2015, with each team winning once. Both had then fallen to the Crusaders in the World Series.

Serial winners Titans made their 17th playoff appearance, the third in a row, and were bidding for their 10th championship. They had most recently won in 2030 after four-peating from 2022 through 2025. The Bayhawks had won the championship in 1999, which was the only time they met (and thus eliminated) the Titans in the CLCS, but had not made the postseason since 2017, and had won the CL South for only the seventh time.

The smart money was on a Bayhawks-Warriors World Series, although neither the Titans nor the Miners were entirely chanceless, even if only the pile of injuries to the Warriors opened the door for Pittsburgh. Bayhawks and Warriors in six games, each.

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2033 LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

Miners @ Warriors … 5-6 … (Warriors lead 1-0) … PIT Danny Santillano 3-4, 2B, 3 RBI;

Mike Chaplin hits a walkoff double off Robbie Peel, scoring Dan Dalton to put Sioux Falls up 1-0 after the Miners had rallied to erase an early deficit.

Miners @ Warriors … 1-6 … (Warriors lead 2-0) … SFW Jesus Matos 3-4, BB, 2B; SFW Mario Colon 3-4, BB, HR, 2 2B, RBI; SFW Melvin Hernandez 3-4, HR, 4 RBI; SFW Mark Roberts 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);
Titans @ Bayhawks … 3-0 … (Titans lead 1-0) … BOS Mario Gonzalez 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K, W (1-0);

Matt Huf pitches only one inning for San Fran before leaving with an injury. He has a mild calf strain and will not be available for a week.

Titans @ Bayhawks … 4-2 … (Titans lead 2-0) … BOS Rhett West 3-4, BB;

Warriors @ Miners … 4-8 … (Warriors lead 2-1) … SFW Jesus Matos 2-4, BB; PIT Jim McKenzie 2-5, HR, 3B, 2 RBI; PIT Danny Santillano 3-4, 2B; PIT Omar Lastrade 2-4, BB, 2B, 2 RBI;

Warriors @ Miners … 0-2 … (series tied 2-2) … PIT Jonas Mejia 8.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 5 K, W (1-0);
Bayhawks @ Titans … 3-2 … (Titans lead 2-1) … SFB George Hawthorne 2-4, HR, 3 RBI;

Hawthorne’s eighth-inning, 3-run homer off Adam Potter keeps the Titans from kicking the door to the World Series wide open.

Warriors @ Miners … 7-4 … (Warriors lead 3-2) … SFW Jesus Matos 3-5; SFW Travis Sheaffer 2-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; PIT Vicente Palacios 2-4, 2B, RBI;
Bayhawks @ Titans … 11-1 … (series tied 2-2) … SFB Ryan Cassell 3-4, BB, 3B, 3 RBI; SFB Ben Suhay 2-4, BB, 2B, 3 RBI; SFB Isaiah Russell 1-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI;

Bayhawks @ Titans … 7-1 … (Bayhawks lead 3-2) … SFB Eduardo Umanzor 3-4, HR, 3 RBI; SFB Eric Fox 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K;

Middle reliever Eric Fox pitches three shutout innings after a rain delay eliminates Bayhawks starter Ben Lipsky (W, 1-1, 4.35 ERA) after five innings and holds on while the team zooms out to beat Mario Gonzalez in a rematch of Game 1. The home team has yet to win a game in the CLCS.

Miners @ Warriors … 0-13 … (Warriors win 4-2) … SFW Jesus Matos 4-4, BB, 3B, 2B, 2 RBI; SFW Mario Colon 2-3, 2 BB, 2 RBI; SFW Ethan McCullar 3-5, 2 HR, 5 RBI; SFW Mark Roberts 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 K, W (2-0) and 2-3;

Titans @ Bayhawks … 6-5 (14) … (series tied 3-3) … BOS Keith Spataro 2-5, 2 BB, 2 RBI; BOS Jamie Richardson 2-2, 4 BB, 2 2B, RBI;

After about five hours, an unretired Jamie Richardson, batting eighth, reaches base with a 1-out double off Jay Schimek and is scored on Andy Walker’s 2-out single to break a 5-5 tie. The Bayhawks had originally trailed 5-2 after seven and had rallied over the Titans’ tough end of the pen to force extra innings.

Titans @ Bayhawks … 4-2 … (Titans win 4-3) …

The Titans overcome an elbow injury to Adam Potter in the first inning and use 22 players to cobble together the seventh road team win in the series to squeak through the Bayhawks, as both teams land only five base hits apiece in a slow-moving crawl of a game. Keith Spataro hits a game-winning RBI single in the top of the ninth off David Gerow to break a 2-2 tie. Rhett West drives in an insurance run.

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2033 WORLD SERIES

In a never-seen-before World Series matchup, the Warriors would have homefield advantage on the strength of their 93 wins to the Titans’ 90. The Warriors, who had lost their last four World Series appearances, looked to end a 55-year title drought, while the Titans won their third straight pennant. They had beaten the Pacifics in ’31, but has lost to them the year after.

Boston came in with the worse numbers both offensively and pitching-wise, and also took another blow to the knees in Game 7 in San Francisco, which Adam Potter had left with an elbow injury. Since their previous maladies had recovered, he was now their only injured player… but the blow was significant. Their rotation was now anchored by Mario Gonzalez (15-11, 3.39 ERA), and behind him things thinned out quickly. The pen remained terrible and had blown several leads.

The Warriors had gotten Harenberg and Gonzalez back, their pair of first basemen, who had previously partaken together in the Raccoons’ 2026 championship and were hoping to get another ring with this long-shot of a team. Mark Roberts, who was 2-0 with an 0.60 ERA in the FLCS, had also been part of that team.

Both teams had balanced pitching staffs. The Warriors’ lineup leaned a bit more to the left than the Titans’, but it was not exactly sure whether that was an advantage or not. But the pundits agreed that it would be *extremely* hard for the Titans to cover for the loss of Adam Potter, and many proclaimed a Warriors win in as few as five games!

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Titans @ Warriors … 1-4 … (Warriors lead 1-0)

In a pitching-heavy game, Jimmy Souders and three relievers outlast Mario Gonzalez and Tim Zimmerman. The Titans had only three base hits, but committed two errors (both by Antonio Gil) for two unearned runs.

Titans @ Warriors … 3-4 … (Warriors lead 2-0) … BOS Keith Spataro 2-4, 2 2B; BOS Edgar Gonzalez 2-3, HR, 3 RBI; SFW Mario Colon 2-4, BB, HR, 2B, RBI; SFW Ethan McCullar 3-4, RBI; SFW Pedro Cisneros 1-2, 2 BB;

The Warriors walk off with Mario Colon’s 2-out homer off Jermaine Campbell in the bottom of the ninth.

Warriors @ Titans … 7-5 … (Warriors lead 3-0) … SFW Travis Sheaffer 4-5, 3B; SFW Ethan McCullar 2-4, 2B, RBI; SFW Pedro Cisneros 2-4, BB, 3B, 2 RBI; SFW Jeff Wadley 2-3, 2 BB, HR, 2 RBI; BOS Ivan Vega 2-4, 2 RBI;

Ironically, both starters get battered while the bullpens allow nary a dent in the box score. The Warriors have three matchballs to end 55 years of agony.

Warriors @ Titans … 8-1 … (Warriors win 4-0) … SFW Nick Rozenboom 2-5, 2B, RBI; SFW Pedro Cisneros 3-3, BB; SFW Mike Ibarra 8.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, W (1-1);

Replacement starting pitcher Rich Willett is hammered for seven runs (six earned) in 3.1 innings as the Warriors establish their case early and in force. They score two in the second, four in the third, and one run each in the following two innings. The Titans amount to only four hits, and don’t score until the last inning, in which they draw two runs each off Ibarra and Warriors ace-in-name Pat Okrasinski, who missed most of the season to injury and could only pitch in relief – but hammers home the win and makes the Warriors champions for the first time since the President Carter administration. (The first one, not the former MMA fighter)

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2033 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS
Sioux Falls Warriors

(2nd title)
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Last edited by Westheim; 12-03-2019 at 06:21 PM.
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