Toronto Thunders On!

 The Toronto Thunder defeated the Wichita Bandits in five games to advance to the World Series.

Game 1:  Tanner Houck and Logan Gilbert began this one by throwing goose egg after goose egg.  Toronto drew first blood in the bottom of the 5th when Bobby Witt Jr. smacked a two-run homer. Witt drove in two more runs in the bottom of the 7th and Toronto wraps up the win by a 5-1 score.  

Bandits......... 0 0 0  0 0 1  0 0 0  -  1  5  0

Thunder......... 0 0 0  0 2 0  3 0    -  5  9  2

Game 2:  Revenge Of The Bandits!  Wichita came out guns a-blazing, scoring two runs in each of the first two innings to take a quick 4-0 lead.  Aaron Judge and Shea Langeliers each homered off of Seth Lugo but Wichita holds on for a 4-3 win and a 1 game to 1 game series. 

Bandits......... 2 2 0  0 0 0  0 0 0  -  4  8  1

Thunder......... 0 0 0  2 0 0  1 0 0  -  3  7  1

Game 3:  This one was epic, going 11 innings before Shea Langeliers hit another home run to give Toronto a 5-3 win  and a 2-1 series advantage.   

Thunder......... 0 0 0  0 2 0  0 1 0  2 -  5  9  1

Bandits......... 0 0 0  0 3 0  0 0 0  0 -  3 11  0

Game 4:  Another game, another extra-inning epic!  Grayson Rodriguez and Ryan Pepiot squared off and left the game tied at 3 when the bullpens took over.  Thunder scratched out two runs in the top of the 11th and watched in terror as Matt Wallner crushed a home run to narrow the lead to 5-4.  Wichita got a couple more base-runners but David Robertson shut the door.  Thunder up 3 games to 1.   

Thunder......... 2 0 0  0 0 1  0 0 0  0 2 -  5 10  1

Bandits......... 0 0 1  2 0 0  0 0 0  0 1 -  4 11  1

Game 5:  Toronto could taste the World Series at this point, and Wichita had their backs against the wall.  Toronto racked Logan Gilbert, putting up 11 hits and 5 runs before the 6th inning was over.   Tanner Houck was magnificent, throwing 8 shutout innings and David Robertson again closed it out,  this time it was 5-0 and Toronto punched their ticket to the World Series.  

Thunder......... 0 1 0  0 2 2  0 0 0  -  5 13  0

Bandits......... 0 0 0  0 0 0  0 0 0  -  0  5  2

Toronto showed great power this series, with Shea Langeliers, JJ Bleday, and Aaron Judge each slugging two homers.   However, Toronto's pitching really carried the day.  Toronto only allowed 12 runs in 48 innings (2.25 team ERA).   Tanner Houck was named Series MVP with two great starts, getting two wins, striking out 9 in 13 innings, and earning a 0.68 ERA.  

Congrats to Randy for a great season and a Mr. Potato Head Division Title!!!!  Was a fun series with mostly very close games.   

Toronto ace Tanner Houck wins again!

Aaron Judge and Bobby Witt Jr. pace the Thunder offense