QC Wins the Big C

If you didn't tune into the podcast on Sunday, you may have missed that the Quad Cities River Bandits won the Midwest League Championship! It was over the weekend and we missed getting a post up. But, it's never too late to celebrate a championship.

The MWL Championship Series is a best-of-five series, but the River Bandits took care of business in three with a sweep. Saturday was that final game and was only fitting that it was at home so that the Quad Cities fan base could experience the championship win at home against South Bend (who doesn't like beating the home town of Notre Dame).

Josh Hader turned in a spectacular gem for Quad Cities and set them up to win. Most of you know how much I enjoy the stat GameScore, so I'll start off by giving you that...78! He pitched seven shutout inning and allowed just four baserunners, three off hits and one off of a walk. To top it all off, he struck out eight. That is a dominant post-season performance that makes you really excited about him going into the off-season.

The offense jumped on South Bend's starter, Aaron Blair early...real early. They scored two runs in both the first and second inning. Anthony Kemp would single to start off the game offensively and would then immediately score on a Teoscar Hernandez bunt single that would leave him on third. Sound weird? Yeah, a throwing error would give Kemp time to go from first to home and Teoscar all the way to third. He would score on a Danry Vasquez one-out single.

In the second inning, Rio Ruiz would lead off with a solo shot, because that's what Rio does. Two batters later, Jordan Scott would deliver a one-out single and then score on a Tony Kemp two-out double. Kemp finished the playoffs with a .375 batting average. He's kind of a baller.

Big congratulations go out to a great Quad Cities team and a phenomenal organization. First year in the Player Development Contract, and there's already a championship. I'd say relations are likely pretty good at this point!