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Junkballers advance to ALCS for First Time in Team History
NEW CARLISLE- The American League Divisional series at Old Rock Field pitted the AL West Champion Jet City Junkballers hosting the Cabo Yabos. The Yabos defeated the newly dubbed Bourissa Hills Wildcards earlier in the wild card sudden death matchup 9-4. Early on in game one it was clear the veteran Yabos were warmed up from their prior matchup as they pounced on reigning AL Cy Young winner Nate Arndt with a barrage of home runs.
Jet City started cold collectively at the plate as Whitt Huffer did a fine job of navigating his way through a tough Junkballers lineup. Jet City missed a golden chance to get things going in the first inning as Drew Luther and Tony Koch led off with singles. However some nice defense on an Arndt groundout induced a double play. The rookie sensation Garrett Ruiz would salvage the inning hitting a two run homer but Jet City had missed a big inning. Jet City trailed by 6 going into the bottom of the sixth and nearly came back scoring five times but lost the game 12-11. Game 2 was a different story. Jet City built off their big sixth inning from game 1 and came out swinging hot bats led by Koch and Shane Anderson who turned on the jets midway through game 1.
On the mound, Arndt had a much easier time working his way through the Yabos powerful lineup. Though he wasn’t his typical self at the plate, Arndt did what Cy Youngs are supposed to do on the mound and led the Junkballers to a smooth sailing game 2 win 11-4.
In the deciding game 3, the Junkballers put up a five burger in the first inning. In a rare twist, Arndt took himself out of the lineup and inserted Connor VanOverberghe. Anderson took over on the mound and worked his old magic. The Junkballers continued to pile on runs as every guy really contributed and 2017 home run leader Koch finished with eight more dingers on the day. The Yabos led by Nick Thoman would not go down without a fight though as Thoman had a fantastic day at the plate. Jet City had an 11 run lead going into the sixth.
The Yabos hit a few homers before Arndt inserted himself back into the game and onto the mound for the series save. Finally, after a seemingly never ending barrage of solo shots, Jet City won the game 19-15. Jet City now moves to the American League Championship series to face the Maple City Magic.
Many storylines encompass this one: A series rematch from earlier this season in which Maple City swept a depleted Junkballers team, Anderson and Luther facing their old team, AL MVP favorites Koch and Caleb Jonkman colliding, and a trip to the World Series hanging in the balance! This should undoubtedly be a big league matchup!
