2014 BoS Playoffs: The Wright Stuff

David Wright sets the tone for South Shore.

When we last posted, the Traverse City Panthers and San Diego Heroes were in a tight race for the N.L. Wild Card spot. Traverse City ended up pulling off the WC spot, while the Hannibal Cavemen won T.C.'s division, the N.L. East.

This year's 6 playoff teams are the Fairgrove Tigers, South Shore Fighting Imps, and the Swatara Eliminators in the American League (Fairgrove gets the first-round A.L. Bye - best record), while in the National League, we have the Portland Microbrewers, Hannibal Cavemen, and Traverse City Panthers (Portland gets the first-round N.L. Bye - best record). 

The Eliminators, the wildcard from the N.L. East are coming off a recent 6-game sweep of the Fighting Imps (The defending BoS World Champions) -- Not only did they sweep the Imps, but they did it on the road, doing it in South Shore. We'll see if that plays any factors in this series.

The Traverse City Panthers will have to go to the home of the N.L. East Division Champ Cavemen.

RESULTS

The South Shore Fighting Imps took both Games 1 & 2 from the visiting Swatara Eliminators. Game 1 appears to have been won by a walk-off HR by David Wright off of Caleb Thielbar in the bottom of the 11th! Wright would homer again in Game 2, a three-run HR, giving him 4 RBI's this series. The Eliminators tried to do their best staying in contention in Game 2, with 9 K's by their starting pitcher A.J. Burnett(allowing 3 ER & 5 hits in 6.2 innings). So a great start for the Imps in their quest for repeat.

The National League Division Series between the Traverse City Panthers @ Hannibal Cavemen, also features a 2-0 series advantage, but this time by the visiting Panthers. The Panthers' Matt Harvey struck out 8 Cavemen, allowing only 4 hits & an earned run in 6.2 innings, the bullpen would not allow a hit the remaining 2.1 innings. The top 3 of the order went 6-for-15, including a HR with 2 RBI's from Brandon Belt; Hunter Pence (batting 6th) added a HR & 2 RBI as well. Belt would not stop there, as he belted another HR to make it 2 HR's & 4 RBI, while batting 5-for-10 (.500) during the first two games. Josh Donaldson & Jordy Mercer added HR's; Justin Upton hit HR's in both of his games for Hannibal. The series is not over, as the Panthers forgot to bench starting pitcher Yu Darvish who pitched 3 innings of 2-hit, scoreless relief -- changing up the rotation, Julio Teheran (who had a hot start to the season, but cooled down) is slated now to start Game 3.

Brandon Belt has took center stage for the Panthers.

GAMES 3 & 4 of DIVISION SERIES BoS action, coming soon!