After yet another long, treacherous season, it’s been
whittled down to the final two teams – Mount Pleasant Train Wreck and Lake Erie
Commadores.
Mount Pleasant leveled the monolithic Las Vegas Fremonts 4-1
in the previous round behind great pitching and just enough offense. Lake Erie,
meanwhile, slugged their way past the free wheelin’, base-stealing Wichita
Bandits in a sweep.
Game 1 – MTP (McClanahan) at LE (Cole)
Gerrit Cole toed the rubber as Lake Erie’s ace, sharing the
mound with lefty Shane McClanahan. Cole took his second lowest ERA and threw
the first pitch of the Friendship League World Series that Whit Merrifield smacked
over his head for the first hit of the game. Unsatisfied, Merrifield stole
second and Royce Lewis drove him home on another single taking a very early 1-0
lead. Cole settled in and started to cruise after that, sitting down 11 of the
next 12 batters. McClanahan made quick work of the first six outs before Martin
Maldonado popped a solo shot to tie it back up. Very little happened until Mike
Trout stepped to the plate to start the 7th, with manager Doug Ebbole pointing
out how timely a Trout home run would be, Trout reared back and did, in fact,
launch a ball over the wall to take a 2-1 lead. Another pair of singles finally
drove Cole from the game as LE called on Michael King to hold runners. Josh
Naylor and Royce Lewis kept the hit parade going, pushing the lead to 4-1.
Mount Pleasant handed off McClanahan’s quality start to Kendall Graveman, who
gave way to Jordan Romano. Felix Bautista made quick work to close the game and
steal game 1 from Lake Erie.
Final Score, Mount Pleasant 5-2
Game 2 – MTP (Gausman) at LE (Bassitt), MTP 1-0
Looking for revenge, Chris Bassitt hopes to even the series
against Mount Pleasant’s ace Kevin Gausman. Both pitchers went right to work,
combining for 10 strikeouts in the first four innings. Cade Marlowe’s triple
finally put points on the board, scoring two runs for a Lake Erie 2-0 lead. Errors
at 3B and SS scored two more runs, upping the lead to 4-0 with Bassitt still
dealing. A Seth Brown RBI got MTP on the board at 4-1. Pete Fairbanks notched a
hold, giving way to the league’s saves leader Chris Martin. A walk and single
to lead off the inning made Martin sweat, bringing Brown back up representing
the tying run. On the crack of the bat, the ball topped of the dirt and
straight to second base for the double play! With the pressure off, Martin
collected the save and evened up the series heading to Mount Pleasant.
Final Score, Lake Erie 4-1
Game 3 – LE (Verlander) at MTP (Allen), tied 1-1
After navigating around the lake, the series moved to Mount
Pleasant with lefty Logan Allen squaring off against Justin Verlander. This
game got cranking out of the gate. Lake Erie strung together some hits to
collect two runs in the first inning but the Train Wreck answered back to end
the first inning at 2-1 and another two runs to send Allen to the bench with
the score.4-1. Mount Pleasant wouldn’t go easy, as manager Doug Ebbole, again
commenting how timely a Trout homer here would be, watched in terror as Trout
AGAIN cranked a two run homer. Seth Brown made it back-2-back and tied the game
4-4 just like that. Mauricio “The Wheel of” Dubon had good fortune on an RBI
double to take back the lead. The bullpens finally settled the game down in the
5th and 6th before Jose Altuve and Espinal added insurance runs. Chris Martin took
the pill in a 7-4 ballgame and shut down the heart of order for the victory.
Final Score, Lake Erie 7-4
Game 4 – LE (Cole) at MTP (Armstrong), LE 2-1
Gerrit Cole stepped back to the mound while Mount Pleasant leaned
on their bullpen for a pitching chaos game, in what both managers agreed would
be the turning point of the series. Shawn Armstrong started the party, nearly
making it three innings before handing it off to Jake Diekman. Seth Brown mashed
another homer giving Mount Pleasant an early 2-0 lead. A two-run homer from
Espinal evened the score. Cole ran into trouble again when Vlad Guerrero’s
moonshot home run made it 5-2. Kendall Graveman took the mound and immediately
got pummeled by a walk and two hits. With a score of 5-3, the bases loaded, and
no outs, Mount Pleasant tapped their closer Felix Bautista early in the sixth inning.
He immediately delivered a double-play and strikeout to limit the damage and
end the inning tied 5-5. Some small ball resulted in a Royce Lewis single to
give Mount Pleasant the 6-5 lead where they continued to pass the bullpen
baton. Giolito gave way to Jordan Romano who shut down the top of the LE order
to even the series. Gerrit Cole got tagged for the loss and Mount Pleasant used
seven pitchers and timely subs to secure the win.
Final Score, Mount Pleasant 6-5
Game 5 – LE (Bassitt) at MTP (McClanahan), tie 2-2
Game 1 winner McClanahan and Game 2 winner Bassitt matched up
for a pivotal game 5. Bassitt kept cooking with three shutout innings before
the wheels fell off during a five-run 4th inning. Varsho launched a three-run
homer that Mount Pleasant never looked back from. Santander blasted a three-run
homer of his own to make it 5-3 but after another strong start from McClanahan,
Mount Pleasant was never in real danger. Graveman and Thornton each recorded
holds and Bautista recorded his second save of the series.
Final Score, Mount Pleasant 6-3
GAME 6 – MTP (Gausman) at LE (Montgomery), MTP 3-2
The series headed back to the Commadore’s nest. Both men
started out strong, cruising through four innings, including Gausman striking
out the side in the third. Lake Erie struck first on back-to-back singles
before Luis Rengifo singled home a run to make it 1-0. The Train Wreck struck
right back after big Josh Naylor stole second base and Mike Trout slammed his third
home run of the series to take a 2-1 lead. Montgomery shook it off and retired
the next four batters he saw and avoided trouble until the 6th when a single
and error put two runners in scoring position. Lake Erie went to the bullpen and
Erik Swanson delivered, securing a pop out and strikeout to prevent further
damage. Gausman kept the Ks coming, ending his day after 8 complete innings and
14 strikeouts – just what Mount Pleasant needed after ravaging the bullpen.
Josh Naylor delivered another insurance run to bring a 3-1 lead into the 9th and
a taste of the championship on the tongue.
Felix Bautista took the mound with the weight of Mount
Pleasant/Monterrey’s history never closing the deal for a championship on his
shoulder.
Bautista induced a weak ground out from Moniak, struck out
Santander with ease, and another fastball resulted in a slow roller that was
scooped and thrown to first base to complete the game. Mount Pleasant is
your 2023 Friendship League champion!
Despite falling short in the championship last season and
inheriting Monterrey’s history of six recorded championship appearances without
a win, The Mount Pleasant Train Wreck win it all!
MVP was a tight race between Josh Naylor, Shane McClannahan
and Kevin Gausman but McClannahan earned it by going 2-0, giving up just 4
earned runs across 11 innings and striking out 13. The lefty had pivotal wins
against Gerrit Cole and Chris Bassitt.
