Spring 2016 Semifinals Action!

19+ Division
The #1 seeded Flying Squirrels advanced to the finals with a 14-3 win over the Dodgers where they will face #3 seeded Outlaws, who defeated the Hurricanes 14-7 in their semifinal contest on Father's Day, June 19th.

30+ Division
The Nationals continued their winning ways with an 8-6 win over top-seeded Thunder South to earn a championship birth against the #2 seeded Padres, who won their semifinal game with the Lollygaggers, 17-16.

40+/30+B Division
The Generals defeated the Brewers 19-10 and will earn the honor of playing for the 40+ Division Championship against the Pirates, who defeated Gashouse Gang 14-12 in their semifinal matchup.

Flying Squirrels slug their way to the final round

By Curtis Nadeau

The Flying Squirrels won their semifinal match over the Dodgers for the right to face the Outlaws in the Division 19+ Spring Championship game.

The top seeded Flying Squirrels went up against the fourth seeded Dodgers in Sunday's Semi-Final, with a spot in the Championship game on the line. It was a slow start to the contest, as the Squirrels had to knock off a little rust from a week off.

After surrendering the opening run in the top of the 2nd inning, Flying Squirrels veteran outfielder Kevin B. blasted a solo shot over the left field fence to tie the game. The hit seemed to wake the the Squirrels offense, as they then scored four runs in a rule shortened bottom of the 3rd. Squirrels starting pitcher Dustin B. worked in and out of jams for the better part of his four frames, but managed to limit the damage, giving up three runs on 4 hits.

The Flying Squirrels held a 5-3 advantage in the bottom of the 4th when the aforementioned Kevin B. came up and smacked his second home run of the game, this time a three run shot, earning himself Legend of the Week honors. The Squirrels then added one more run in the 4th, and four more in the 6th to take a 13-3 advantage.

J. Britt, the Flying Squirrels' back-end pitcher, had a nice day on the mound, going four innings and only surrendering 3 hits while striking out 6 Dodgers hitters.

With the win, the Flying Squirrels achieve their second of three goals for the season by getting back into the championship game. Their re-match vs. the Outlaws for the 2016 19+ crown is sure be be can't-miss baseball.

Pirates advance to 40+ Championship game

by John Campbell

The Pirates beat the tough Gashouse Gang 14-12 Sunday morning at Veterans Park in Woodbridge. The Pirates were without their cleanup hitter and top lefty out of the bullpen but were able to stay close to the Gashouse Gang all game.

Despite those key missing players, the Pirates got a quick three runs in the top of the inning. In the bottom half of the inning the 3-0 lead turned into a 4-3 deficit. But the Pirates came right back in the 2nd and scored 4, while limiting the Gashouse Gang to 3, leaving things knotted up at 7 after 2 innings. "El Capitan" (Luis Feliciano) exited after 2 innings as the emergency starter.

Lewis Hardy stepped to the hill for the next 2 innings and kept the Gashouse Gang off balance. However, some Pirate miscues in the field led to a few unearned Gashouse runs.

Pat "Skip" McCane took the ball in the 5th and after getting into a little bit of a jam, shutdown the Gashouse Gang in his 4 innings, allowing only 1 run.

In the 5th inning, the Pirates drew 3 straight walks and were able to take advantage of some Gashouse Gang errors and score 3 runs before even getting a hit, and ultimately getting the 4th run across the plate. Some timely hitting by Fred Lewis and Lewis Hardy in later innings put some more runs on the board for the Pirates.

The umpires determined that the game would only go 8 innings. After the 7th inning, the Pirates were leading by 1 run. "Skip" McCane was not happy with just a 1 run lead and was able to sacrifice to extend the Pirates lead to 2 runs and give himself more of a cushion with the Gashouse Gangs 3-4-5 hitters coming up.

In the bottom of the 8th, McCane induced a ground ball to 3rd base that was scooped up, and a great catch was made by first baseman Demian Dominquez to get the out on the throw from deep at 3B. The next pitch was a ground ball to short stop and the Pirates had 2 quick outs. McCane decided to make it interesting by walking the next batter before finally retiring the next batter and advancing the Pirates to the finals of the 40+ Division.