Tournament Update # 7

(August 8, 2020)

 

The tournament finals are set with DigIn Baseball facing the Putty Hill Panthers at Blandair Park on Sunday at 4:30 pm.  It could be an interesting finals.

 

The Putty Hill Panthers have been one of the most storied franchises in MCBL.  They followed up last year’s tournament championship (their third) with a regular season championship this year.  They’ve won more games than any other team in MCBL history and have won two of the last three MCBL tournament championships.  They've been on quite a run that has some people calling them a dynasty. 

 

Facing them will be the # 7 seed DigIn Baseball.  DigIn will be in their second MCBL tournament finals.   Their presence in the finals is no fluke as they’ve certainly earned their finals spot by knocking off the # 2 seed Rockville Express and then the # 6 seed Maryland Monarchs.

 

Can DigIn Baseball continue their strong run in this year’s tournament and pull off what many might consider to be an upset?

 

Well……a little history might serve as a good launching point.

 

Back in 2013, the Baltimore Chop put together what is generally considered to be the best single season that any team in MCBL has ever had.  They went 31-1 during the regular season and were ranked # 23 in the country.   They had everything…..starting pitching, relief pitching, defense, hitting, slugging.  

 

Not surprisingly they quickly advanced to the finals of the winner’s bracket without a blemish, where they met the # 3 seed DigIn Baseball.

 

DigIn was in their second year in the league and had put together a respectable, but not overly impressive regular season.  They had already lost once in the double elimination tournament and somewhat limped into the finals, tired and thin at pitching.  Just about everyone expected a blowout victory by the Chop.

 

So what happened?   

 

DigIn dug deep and came up with the upset…..not only beating the Chop but shutting them out 3-0.    The loss stunned the Chop and knocked them out of the national rankings.   In the second game of the championship double header, the Chop took their anger out on DigIn in the rubber match to claim the championship.

 

But old-timers remember that game well and some are wondering if could happen again.   Could it be that the words of that great sage Yogi Berra……”It’s like deja vu all over again” will apply?

 

We’ll certainly see the issue settled between the white lines on Sunday afternoon.