Congrats to San Diego!

The San Diego Giants are the new world champs!!!

With an impressive 42-12 run in the regular season, the division-winning Giants were headed to the playoffs. In the first round of the league bracket, the Giants, who were fourth-seeded in their league, faced off against the number 5 seed, the Brothers of Warner. They took the win in a 5-1 triumph, with Rohan Ebert tossing a complete game and Travis Sisson knocking in three runs.

In the second round, they played the number one-seeded Ohawks and won with an impressive 11-7 upset, scoring 7 in the fourth along with Salvador Vergara having 2 hits and 5 RBIs, the Giants moved on to the league final.

After being down 3-0 early against the Detroit Detroit they mustered 4 runs in the 5th to go up 4-3. It then was knotted up 4-4, until the Giants scored two to take the lead, 6-4. They then finished it up with a final score of 9-5. Latrell Slagle was the player of the game, hitting two home runs, and the Giants were off to the world bracket.

Playing the St. Johns Deadly Sins in the first round, and ranked 28th, they were the underdog. They were down 1-0 early and it stayed that way until Damario Baca hit a two-run single, putting the Giants up 2-1, and ripped a home run in the ninth to extend the lead to 3-1. Without the insurance, the contest would have gone to extra innings because the Deadly Sins got a run in the bottom half. So the Giants moved on once again.

In the next matchup, they had to play the number one ranked team in the world, the Cincinnati Reds. They were seen as the even bigger underdogs. But after they jumped out to an early 2-1 lead, they never looked back. By the end of the sixth, it was 5-1. The Reds tried their hardest to put up some runs, but only managed to get two. With that, the Giants got two more and with the help of Sisson’s three-homer game, they advanced to the semi-finals.

Next, they opposed their San Diego rivals, the Bombers. They got off to an early 3-0 lead with the help of Latrell Slagle’s three-run shot. After the seventh, the score was 6-0. The game wrapped up at 7-2, and the Giants, again improbably, were headed to the finals.

In game one, the Giants were (again) the underdogs facing the fourth-ranked Buffalo Bisons. But that didn’t stop them. They started out with an early 3-0 lead, but then the Bisons chipped away to make the score 3-1 and then scored a run in four innings straight to make the score 5-4 in the Bisons’ favor. With the help of two home runs, the Giants jumped back on top, 6-5, but the Bisons hit a homer to tie the game at 6 in the ninth. And finally, a walk-off homer by Kurtis Roach in the ninth sent all the Giants fans home happy. Final: 7-6.

In game two, the Giants led early once again, but by the 5th inning the score was 9-3 Bisons and things looked bleak for them. But even the large deficit didn’t stop their hot bats. They scored 5 runs in the next three innings to cut the Bisons’ lead to 10-8. Headed into the ninth the Giants were down two but their offense exploded with four runs and suddenly they led 12-10. In the bottom half, the Bisons scored two runs and the game was back to even, 12-12. In the tenth, Damario Baca and Armando Betts went yard to make the score 14-12 and the Giants held the lead in the bottom of the frame to capture their first title.

Congratulations San Diego Giants, and we can’t wait to see what will happen next year!

By Edmonton Robins and Windsor Wind Surge