Friendship League World Series: Mount Pleasant vs Lake Erie

 

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.