After eliminating Lowell Wednesday night in a hard-fought 3-2 victory, the Batavia Muckdogs will face the Jamestown Jammers Friday night in an effort to secure the team's fourth league championship in its seven-decade history.
Surprisingly, the NY-Penn League site's story on the championship series gets it wrong, saying that Batavia is going for its first-ever title. (Surely, the Jammers, as one of the leagues original teams, has won championships before -- and we know they've made the finals before, because Batavia beat Jamestown in 1945 -- but I couldn't find any history of the team from before the 1990s.)
Last night, Adam Veres, who was 1-1 with a 4.35 ERA in the regular season, may have pitched the career game of his young professional career. He went seven innings and gave up only 1 run and two hits while striking out seven.
From the NY-P story referenced above:
"We feel great right now, this was obviously the biggest game of the season," Veres said. "We've got a lot of high-spirited guys that want to go all the way with this."
...
"I was really amped up to get this start," he said. "I was locating the fastball to both sides of the plate and the ball was moving real well. I just wanted to prepare for this one just like any other game, but this one obviously meant a little more."
Ramon Delgado struck out the side in the eigth to preserve Batavia's selendor 3-1 lead.
Closer Adam Reifer was shacky in the ninth, giving up a walk, a hit and a run, but held on to pick up the save, retiring Lowell's Ricardo Burgos on a called third strike while all 800 or so Batavia fans were on their feet clapping and cheering.
Friday's opening game will be at 7 p.m., and then the teams return to Batavia Saturday for a 7 p.m. game. If game three is necessary, it will be played at Dwyer on Sunday and the game time will be 7 p.m. (oops, make the 6 p.m.).
UPDATE: Here's how the Batavia franchise finished in each year it fielded a team 1939 through 1997 (actually, the Batavia Indians seasons are here (including a 1957 finals appearance), and the Batavia Pirates made the finals twice, winning in 1963; and the Batavia Trojans made the finals in 1977). The Jamestown Falcons won five titles in nine championship appearances. The Jamestown Expos won twice in four appearances. The Jamestown Tigers made the finals once.
I think they are using the
I think they are using the name Muckdogs for first appearance ever in the NYP finals. Yes it is the first time the "Muckdogs" have been to the finals. However Batavia was in the finals in 1997 against Pittsfield as the Clippers. Batavia was also in the finals against Oneonta in 1977 as the Trojans and Batavia won the NYP Champisonship over Jamestown in 1963 as the Pirates. The 1963 series was a best of three. Batavia lost game 1 in Batavia, but won game two in Jamestown and the final game, game 3 in Batavia 8 to 4 on a Sunday night in September.
To the best of my knowledge its the same franchise now as then, but there have been several names changes, Pirates to Trojans to Clippers to Muckdogs.
Thanks for the comment,
Thanks for the comment, Wayne. While you were posting this, I was adding an update to some additional links I found for each team, listing season-by-season results.
From everything I understand about the teams, both Jamestown and Batavia have had one franchise since 1939 (not counting the years Batavia did not field a team). I don't think name changes count, especially in minor league baseball where parent clubs change team names all the time. So on that basis, I still think the NY-P article is wrong. But more importantly, these are two teams that should be proud -- their communities should be proud -- of their histories ... original NY-P franchises, both from WNY, meeting again for the championship ... that's pretty cool.
Congrats to the Muckdogs, it
Congrats to the Muckdogs, it was a great game and fun to be part of thier win.
So, where do we catch the fan bus going to Jamestown on Friday night?
The game time for Sunday (if
The game time for Sunday (if necessary) would be 6:05 p.m.
Howard, You are absolutly
Howard, You are absolutly right, the NY-P League website got it wrong. And another mistake was the franchise was not founded in 1931, but 1939.