Western Division Championship (Su09): Flaglove Flies High
Flaglove won games one and three of the Western Division Championship Series to upset the heavily favored Clubber Lang and advance to their first World Series.
The PWL hasn’t named MVP’s for postseason series traditionally, but Alex Strong of Flaglove certainly deserves consideration. He drove in five of the seven Flaglove runs for the series. In the bottom of the fifth inning in the deciding game three he also knocked down a Tony Ragano two-run homer that would have won the game, and the series, for Clubber Lang.
Clubber Lang could never get their offense going (.255 team AVG), something that has plagued them all season. Flaglove held them to one hit in the opening game. When they did get men on base, they often ran themselves out of an inning. Tony Ragano got doubled off on a lazy fly ball, and Tim Davin got hit by a fair ball. The league has had five runners called out in regular season for being hit by batted balls, but hasn’t had any since the Summer 2008 season when two men were putout that way.
Nicholas DiCrosta of the Canvassers and Andrew Martin of the Alcoholics provided play-by-play and color commentary during the games which will be posted as soon as it’s screened.
- Game 1 [ box score ] [ scoresheet ]
Except for a single in the first at-bat of the game (that was erased with a double play), Flaglove was perfect in this game. 12 men up for Clubber, 12 men out. They played small ball with opposite field singles in the fourth inning, and for good measure Rookie of the Year candidate Jesse Contario homered in the sixth for the 3-0 win.
| Flaglove at Clubber Lang | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score By Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | H | E |
| Flaglove | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 0 |
| Clubber Lang | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
- Game 2 [ box score ] [ scoresheet ]
Flaglove was just two outs away from a 2-1 win and 2-0 shutout in the series against Clubber Lang but couldn’t close the door. In the top of the sixth four Clubber Lang singles led to three runs and drove Flagloves starting pitcher out for the conclusion.
| Clubber Lang at Flaglove | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score By Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | H | E |
| Clubber Lang | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
| Flaglove | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
- Game 3 [ box score ] [ scoresheet ]
A leadoff single in the third inning for Alex Filides and two bad pegging decisions accounted for the only Clubber Lang offense in game three. In the bottom of the fifth, with John Bernard on first and trailing by one, Tony Ragano launched the game winning homer to left field only to see it get swatted back into play by Alex Strong. Ragano ended up with a single, and Clubber couldn’t score either of the base runners. In addition to saving the day in the field, Strong also performed at the plate. His solo homer to start the game, and his heads up baserunning from third base in the third inning on a Tony Ragno error were the only two runs his team needed.
| Flaglove at Clubber Lang | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score By Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | H | E |
| Flaglove | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
| Clubber Lang | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
Flaglove awaits an announcement from the Commissioner’s Office on the fate of the Eastern Division Championship. The Canvassers and Alcoholics Anonymous were scheduled to play their series before the Western Division Championship but the Alcoholics didn’t show up.
Well after game time, Andrew Martin, of AA, arrived to share news that a family medical emergency affected one of their players to explain their absence. It’s unclear what the situation was that kept the other six rostered players away from the game. Postseason games are scheduled around team availability, and all efforts are made to avoid forfeits.
The Commissioner’s office will consult with both the Alcoholics and the Canvassers on resolving this situation.
However, a firm announcement has been made that the World Series will begin Sunday, November 1, at 1:00 PM, regardless of the pending scheduling issue.
Alex Filides, Oct 25, 05:32 PM:
Congrats to Flaglove, they were clearly the better team today. That was the best defensive effort, by far in the 3 seasons in the PWL, that I’ve seen.
Jesse, Oct 29, 09:24 AM:
Give Strong a keychain – if theres any doubt he deserves it go to the video for game 3 and check out what happens just after min 40.