2016 Dragons Win Best of Three to Capture 40+ American Division in Sacramento

Sacramento MSBL 40+ American Division

Dragons 15, Spartans 6

‘Van Ness Quiets Spartan Bats in Final’

Submitted by Larry Whitmer, Dragons manager

In our 40+ American Division playoffs the #1 seed Spartans first disposed of the #4 seeded Padres while the #3 seeded Dragons took care of business versus the #2 seed Free Agents. On 9/11 the Dragons squared off with the #1 seed Spartans in a best of three series to determine the champs of the Sacramento 40+ American Division.

Game #1 – 9/11/16 – The Dragons prevailed 4-3 in a tightly contested game. Dragon starting pitcher Jeff Hansen went the distance and had his ‘A’ game on this particular Sunday. The Dragon defense kept the errors to a minimum and we held on for the one run win.

Game #2 – 9/18/16 – The Dragons lost 7-4. We went back to Jeff Hansen to see if he could keep the Spartans offense in check as he did in game one. But we dug ourselves a 4-0 hole after the first inning as we committed a few errors. We kept the game close the rest of the way but just couldn’t overcome the first inning meltdown as the Spartans played outstanding defense and held us to four runs.

Game #3 started 30 minutes after game two was completed. I told the guys to not worry because we’re a team that has no problem playing more than nine innings on any given Sunday, since the majority of the guys also play night league so were used to playing a lot of old man baseball. The Spartans, for the most part, were only used to playing one game per week. Our theme was “no need to panic, we will wear those guys out in game three.”

Alan Van Ness took the hill and he pitched brilliantly as our defense played flawlessly from start to finish. The Dragons prevailed 15-6 and wore out the Spartans after about the sixth inning during a 100 degree afternoon. The Spartans are a great bunch of guys and fun to play against. Their manager, Scott Brandt has built up a very worthy Spartan team. Good job Scott!

Even though the Dragons were playing in the 40+ division, we only have one player under the age of 50 so accomplishing what we did in this division makes me very proud of our tight knit team. Our overall team chemistry is fantastic and has been for the past ten years.