In a finish for the storybooks, Albert Lee took home the hardware and capped a great season by knocking off undefeated regular-season winner Fischer Plumbing in a 4-2 upset. The Fischer Plungers, featuring the dynamic duo of Ryan Books and Will Schmidt, emptied the tank in an effort to overcome Albert Lee and the hard-throwing Matt Deehring.
"Matt is the Randy Johnson of Magnolia, and when he is on, he is formidable," said manager Steve Welch; "he and Ben [Welch] are learning that the mental aspects of sport are more important than the physical ones."
This win paved the way for Good-man Racing, who later flushed the mighty Plungers in a hard fought 4-1 victory and aligned them for the showdown with Albert Lee. With their backs against the wall, Goodman rode five sensational innings from pitcher Gordon Krippaehne into a winner-take-all playoff with Albert Lee.
"We knew we were going to have a tough time with Goodman after Gordon pitched so well in the first bout," Steve Welch noted. "We now faced the toughest pitcher we'd have seen in Dylan Wade. My hope was to make them go to Dylan early in the first game, but Gordon was too good and he really set the table for a rumble at Raye Field."
Enter the soft-spoken and "unbelievable" George Pierce - like Mariners superstar Raul Ebanez, Pierce was the man of the hour. In a hard-fought pitching duel, and down by one run in the top of the fourth, leadoff Ben Welch singled off Dylan Wade and stole second to get into scoring position. This was where Pierce took over, hitting a double down the left-field line to score Ben Welch - the tying run - from second. Deehring moved Pierce over to third and, with two outs and Robbie Dunbar at the dish, Pierce stole home on a passed ball and scored the eventual winning run. A determined Deehring finished the fourth inning striking out two of four batters and handed the ball off to closer Ben Welch, who mowed down the top of Goodman's order retiring six in a row with 4 Ks to seal the deal and take home the trophy.
"All four Magnolias Majors teams have played great baseball this season and head into the postseason with high expectations. I could not be happier for these guys," said Gatorade-soaked manager Steve Welch - "The longer we play, the better we get!"
Submitted by Albert Lee coaches
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