The Stratford Pharmacy Athletics are the new Kings County Baseball League regular season champions.
Stratford defeated the defending regular season champs, Morell Chevies 3-2 on Sunday. Morell entered the game needing a win to have any chance at their fifth straight regular season crown.
Stratford got off to a fast start on Sunday. Jacob and Allister Smith, along with Shawn MacDougall, got on base and were all score on RBI’s by Randy Taylor, Marshall Ellis, and Brad Larter. In the bottom of the second, Quen Johnston singled in Desi and Grant Doyle to close the gap to 3-2. The Pharmacy hung on till the bottom of the seventh when Morell loaded the bases with one out. However, Josh Kirtpatrick struck out Jarrod Laybolt and got Desi Doyle to lined out to right field to end an excellent and entertaining game. Pharmacy catcher Marshall Ellis hit his fourth triple of the year to tie him with Brewer’s shortstop Garrett VanDiepen.
The Pharmacy played the Paderno Pirates later that evening. The Pirates needed a win to take the final play-off spot but Stratford outscored the Pirates in a high scoring affair.
The Pirate loss meant the Cornwall Mud Hens in their rookie season took the eighth and final play-off spot and will open their first KCBL play-off game on the road against Stratford. The Mud Hens earned a play-off berth when they defeated Paderno with Tyler Johnston having a big game last Wednesday evening. Stratford won all three of the regular season games over Cornwall.
Peakes Bombers still have one more make up game to go, but they will finish in second place no matter what happens in that game. Peakes will play the Sherwood Dodgers who finished in seventh place. Joseph Gardiner of the Bombers is having a terrific finish to the season and is battling it out for the batting title with Chevies Desi Doyle and Scott Ellsworth. On the Dodger side, Will Jadis is having a season of his own. The fleet footed centerfielder has a league leading twenty-one stolen bases. The Bombers swept the three game season series.
The Morell Chevies will begin to defend the KCBL crown starting Wednesday evening in Morell. Morell will host the Charlottetown Cannons. Game starts at 6:30. Scott Ellsworth has been the Chevies lead off batter all season and leads the league in base hits. Desi Doyle should win the RBI title and Colin Hansen leads the team in at bats, which is a pretty good feat considering Hansen hit down around the seventh position most of the season. The Cannons got an excellent year out of Rob Chandler and Harrison Carmichael. They have some experience from veteran Kris O’Brien. The Chevies won the season series over the Cannons two games to one.
The last series features two of the younger teams; the Northside Brewers and Peakes Tee Sluggers. There will be a bit of sibling rivalry with brothers Mitchell and Nick Ryan on opposite teams. Northside got a awesome year from first baseman Brodie Connolly. Jason MacLean was hitting lots of home runs at season end and Garrett VanDiepen had a strong year. The Sluggers got fine season efforts from Carter McGrath, Mitchell Power and another great pitching season from Darin Mitchell. The Sluggers took two of three from the Brewers in the season series.
Get out the chopping block... My neck is back out on the line. I should be safe predicting a series sweep by Stratford over Cornwall. Sherwood has played the Bombers tough this year but Peakes will win in four games. The Morell Chevies are playing their best ball this year and should defeat the Cannons in three straight. Peter MacLeod of the Brewers will face his former team, the Sluggers from last year. Jason MacLean has the bat and the arm to make the difference. The Brewers in four games.
The league plans to have their annual awards banquet that will go this year in Stratford. Teams are still in the process of picking team reps as MVPs, rookies, the Lionel King Memorial for hard work and dedication and the Harry Hughes Memorial for top pitcher. This years guest speaker is Louis Murphy. Murphy was a legendary pitcher in the old KCBL days back in the 1960’s when he played for the Morell Beavers.
Dominoes “Pizza player of the Week”... Last one for the year. Rob Chandler of the Charlottetown Cannons in his last three games Chandler went 6/9 with ten RBI’s.
The league once again would like to thank Mike Waugh and Dominoes Pizza for giving out the weekly pizzas. It has indeed been a huge boost to the league.