The Northside Brewers have earned their way to the finals of the Kings County Baseball League. Northside completed a semi-final comeback when they defeated the regular season champ, Stratford Pharmacy Athletics, 9-2 in the fifth and deciding game. They will now meet the Peakes Bombers in the final.
The Athletics grabbed a 2-1 series lead over the Brewers a week ago Sunday. A local web page had the so-called experts predicting what was going to happen with a Stratford/Peakes final. Basically about 90 per cent of the readers had this series already over. However somebody forgot to tell that to the Northside Brewers.
The Brewers came out swinging last Thursday evening in game four to build up an early 8-3 lead after three innings only to see it all disappear in the top of the fourth as Stratford pushed across five runs to tie the game. Stratford scored twice in the sixth to go up 10-8 and were only six outs away from a berth in the finals. However the Brewers bounced back highlighted by a Tim O’Brien triple to force the fifth game.
In game five the Brewers broke the game wide open scoring three runs in the third and fourth innings to open up a 7-1 Brewer lead. The uprising was capped by a three run double by Jamie Arsenault. Garrett VanDiepen has been the top batter thus far in the play-offs. VanDiepen went 5/6 in the final two games and had thee RBIs in the clincher.
This will be the first time that Peakes and Northside have met in the final. This will be the Bombers seventh trip to the finals since 2003 and the Brewers will be in their second final. Their only other appearance was in 2007 against the Morell Chevies. The other six Bomber finals were also all against the Chevies.
The Brewers took two of three in the season series between the two teams.
Although most of the guys on these two teams are good friends I can easily see this series getting chippy real quick.
Early in the season Brewers catcher Brandon MacInnis crossed the ball diamond and took his position behind the plate for Jeremy Macdonald and the Peakes Bombers. Now a Bomber, Macinnis or the entire Brewer team will be out for a little payback. MacInnis is one of the best young catchers at his position and has excellent speed. The Brewers answered the MacInnis departure when they put Lorne Valley’s Peter MacLeod as their catcher.
In the pitching department the Bombers have the edge. Rob Phelan and Steven Birt are two hard throwing right handers and Josh Coffin is a lefty that will keep you off balance all game with change-ups and curve balls. The Brewers have Jason Maclean and he will likely start at least three games and four if this is a long series. He does have adequate help from Taylor Larkin, Colin MacEwan and Jamie Arsenault.
Offensively once again the Bombers are favourites. The first four hitters in the line-up are Colin Myers, Matt Bradley, Joe Gardiner and Stephen Birt. Things don’t get much easier after that because Rob Phelan, Trevor MacAree and Brandon Macinnis will be the next three hitters. Also Adam MacSwain, Neal Morrison and Matt MacDonald were all key contributors in the series win over the Morell Chevies.
The Brewers are also led with the bat by Jason MacLean. They have some tough outs too. Brodie Connolly, Garrett VanDiepen and Colin MacEwan all have had their best years in their young careers. The last of the Trixie Dunn tribe is also having a good play-off. D.J. Dunn leadership and his charismatic style are both an inspiration to this young team. Dustin Larkin, Jamie Arsenault, Tim O’Brien and Darcy Clinton can and also already have made huge contributions. The Brewers will be hurting with the departure of Peter Macleod to Newfoundland. Dustin Larkin will take over the catching duties.
The Bombers have four regular season MVPs on this years team... Stephen Birt, Colin Myers, Grant MacEwan and Rob Phelan. The Brewers have one, this years MVP Jason MacLean
The first game of the series is Thursday evening in Morell at 6:30 pm. Game two is Sunday afternoon at Peakes beginning at 2 pm.
I know DJ is waiting for a prediction so here goes... the Bomber bats will be hard to shut down so I will predict a Peakes championship in seven games.
Fasten your seat belts and enjoy this series. It has the markings to be a get down and get dirty series and that is what it will probably take to decide the winner.
Correction from last week. I said last week that the Morell Chevies won the last four championship. My apologies to Morell. They had won five straight.
Last week’s play-off trivia... Who are the Morell Chevies players who have played in every year of their ten year run in the finals from 2001 to 2010? There are four... Desi Doyle, Grant Doyle, Troy Coffin and Jarrod Laybolt.
This Week’s play-off Trivia. There are two Northside Brewers players on this years team that have been on championship teams before. Who are they?