2024 45+ National

Orlando Brewers 4, Tainos 1

‘Brewers Cop Back-to-Back Titles’

Submitted by Jose Rosado, Brewers’ manager

Winning an MSBL National Division Championship is not an easy task to achieve but defending it makes it even more difficult. The 45+ Orlando Brewers (Brew Crew) entered the 2024 Holiday Classic with that goal in mind, but things don’t always go as planned.

The tournament began with a 9-8 loss to the Tampa Mets. The Brewers left 16 runners on base and it cost them in game one. Things got back on track on Saturday with wins over the Philadelphia Dodgers (15-1) and Team Michigan (9-3).  In the first game, Reggie Torrealba went seven innings for the win and Tremain Rogers went eight innings for the game two win.

The Brewers finished pool play with a record of 2-1 and entered the playoffs as the #2 seed. In the semifinals, the Brewers once again faced the tough Team Michigan, who came out swinging, scoring three runs in the top of the first. The Brewers responded with six runs in the bottom of the first and cruised to a 15-7 win. Carlos Mory went all nine to secure a trip back to the championship game.

The championship game pitted two solid pitchers, Ariel Tapanez and Noel Areizaga who both threw great games. Areizaga out-battled Tapanez, going eight innings and giving up just one run while scattering five hits.

Craig Marsden came in the ninth with the tying run at the plate and no outs but quickly got the next three hitters for the save and secured the championship and the ‘back-to-back’ Holiday Classic tournament titles.

The Brewers ended the tournament with a 4-1 record, scoring 52 runs and batting .450 as a team. This Championship was a total team effort, led by Steve DiMartino (.688), Manny Retana (.667), Matt Altieri (.632), Juan (J-Rod) Rodriquez (.563), Lowell Mooneyham (.526), Reggie Torrealba (.533), Craig Howell (.474) and Edwin Monsalve (.462).

The Championships Game MVP was Noel Areizaga and the Tournament MVP was Manny Retana.