2014 Johnsburg Tigers Take Fox Valley (IL) MABL Title

Fox Valley (IL) MABL 18+

Johnsburg Tigers 4, Spring Grove Orioles 2

Submitted by Mike McBride, Fox Valley president

The 2014 northern Illinois Fox Valley MABL Championship series featured rivals Spring Grove Orioles (#1 seed) vs. Johnsburg Tigers (#2 seed) in a best of 3 series.

Game one matched up starting pitchers Tommy Hartwick of the Orioles against Ryan Hoff of the Tigers. The Orioles started the scoring in the second inning when Kevin Kurowski reached first base on a fielder’s choice then promptly stole second, then third, then home and the Orioles never looked back. The Orioles continued to add to their lead in the fourth, sixth and ninth innings. Catcher Joey Kass led the Orioles charge at the plate going 3 for 4 and scoring twice while from the mound Hartwick held the Tiger bats in check allowing just one hit over seven innings with the lone Johnsburg run coming on Alex Senyshyn’s steal of home. The Orioles were victorious 7 to 1 in a game that the lead start to finish.

Game two featured starters Paul Koeppl of the Tigers and Tyler Weiss of the hometown Orioles. Weiss kept the Tigers off the board for the first six innings while striking out 10. Spring Grove put up a pair of runs in the second inning stringing together three singles by Kass, G.Ponterelli and Stupienski. The Orioles would add single runs in the fourth and sixth to give them a 4 to 0 lead after six innings. The Tigers closed the gap in the top of the seventh by scoring three runs and the Orioles answered with one in the bottom of the inning. Johnsburg went on to score one in the eighth and two in the ninth on Bryan McCauley’s 2 for 3 effort, which included a triple to steal the win after Matt Wolf closed it out from the mound. Gerard Ponterelli of the Orioles posted a 2 for 4 performance with a run scored and timely hitting by Wehrheim, Kaywood and Sarno of the Tigers led them to a 6 to 5 win. With the series even at a game apiece the winner the third and final game will decide the Championship.

Game three is a rematch of the game one starting pitchers: Hoff for Johnsburg and Hartwick for Spring Grove. The Tigers scored first in the third inning on Sam Lesniak’s RBI double. They then added two more in the fifth on another RBI double by Lesniak and an RBI double by Bryan McCauley. Johnsburg added one more in the eighth inning and Ryan Hoff was cruising until the bottom of the ninth when Spring Grove mounted a rally starting with Hayden Cavanaugh reaching on an error, an Anthony Ponterelli single followed and both runners were driven home by a Joey Kass triple which threatened the Tigers lead and the Series Championship. But Hoff was able to retire the next batter for the final out, a 4 to 2 win and the Championship for the Johnsburg Tigers.