Baltimore Chop win Tournament Championship!!

For the 3rd time in 5 years, the Baltimore Chop has won the MCBL postseaston Tournament Championship.  The #2 seed Chop had to defeat the #1 seed and defending tournament champion KOA Sports Green Wave in the final game of a best of three championship series.  

The Chop went up early 3-0 in the first game then padded their lead to 5 -0 on a perfectly executed early break steal by the Chop's Marty Windisch.  KOA responded with 4 runs in the 6th inning highlighted by a 3 run homer by Carl Colbert.  In the 7th inning, the Chop loaded the based and Marty Windisch hit a perfectly placed triple to clear the bases.   The Chop's Devin Conroy closed out the game to give the Chop an 8 -5 victory in the first game of the series.

In the second game the Chop went up again early 3 - 0 .  But it was only a matter of time until the powerful KOA lineup announced their presence with authority.  The comeback started with KOA's Carl Colbert hitting a solo homer in the 4th.  After loading the bases in the 7th, the other half of KOA's dynamic duo, Tre Smith drove a pitch off the fence in left center for a double to clear the bases.  KOA's Caleb Johnson shook off a rough start and pitched a gutty complete game to give KOA a 4-3 victory to even the series and force another game.

In game 3, once again, the Chop went up 3 -0.  The Chop's Marty Windisch put down his bat and headed to the mound and only faced 16 hitters while holding KOA in check for the first 5 innings.  KOA's dangerous Tre Smith came up in the 6th with 2 on and 2 out.  However, a hard grounder didn't make it thru the infield and the KOA threat was snuffed out.  The strain of playing 6 tournament games in six consecutive days seemed to take a toll on KOA's pitching staff as the Chop had 6 consecutive batters reach base in the bottom of the 7th, all with 2 outs, and scored 6 runs.   Marty Windisch pitched a complete game giving up a run in the 9th as the Chop won 10 - 1 to claim the championship. 

In other tournament action, the Diamond Pros enjoyed their best season ever and came in third place while the Putty Hill Panthers claimed fourth place.

Congratulations to the Chop and all the MCBL teams who made the post season tournament.  As competitive as the 2016 season was, the 2017 season should be even better.

See ya' next year as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Maryland Collegiate Baseball League!