Hawks Sneak into Playoffs
Best Brooklyn in One Game Divisional Playoff
by Caitlen Sullivan
Halifax Chronicle Herald Sports Editor
October 1 , 2025
Last season the Hawks finished one game between Brooklyn in the Johnson League Atlantic Division with a decent enough 89-73 record. That was good enough for a wild card entry into the Geoghegan round of the MBWBA playoffs. General Manager Joe Geoghegan commented, “It was a bit surreal playing in a round named after you. It is certainly an honor, but frankly it really made me feel the pressure even though I have no impact on the games themselves. We managed to beat a tough Huntsville team in game one, but then our vaunted hitters played like docile pussycats and we were eliminated by an obviously better team.”
This year it looked like the Hawks would cruise to the Atlantic Division title. Back on June 1st the team led the division by 12 games, the largest divisional lead in the MBWBA. After that a combination of injuries and ineffectiveness by both the pitching and the offense saw that lead slowly but surely disappear. With two weeks to go in the season, the division was a three-way battle between the Hawks, Louisville, and Brooklyn – a battle, by the way, of teams also fighting to finish at or above .500 for the season.
Brooklyn then swept the Sluggers late in September to just about finish them off. On September 26th, a Friday, the division race was between the best of two losing teams: Brooklyn stood at 77-81 while our local Hawks were a ½ game ahead with a 78-81 record. It looked like a less than .500 team would somehow sneak into the playoffs as the Atlantic champion. Here’s how the final four days of the season played out with Brooklyn at home for four games against hapless Greenville and Halifax, also at home, facing Louisville:
Thursday:
Hawks: day off to watch the Brooklyn game.
Robins: Victor Talboom, inexplicably to me still batting leadoff despite a .196 batting average, managed two hits and scored two runs as the Robins coasted to a 15-4 win. Ramon Amaya had four hits and Mario Mendez was well good enough to post the pitching victory.
Now the Robins and Hawks were dead even at 78-81.
Friday:
Hawks: Young Daniel Jordan rose to the occasion and pitched six solid innings, and EBA transplant Bonaventure Habermas, of all people, finished up with the save as the Hawks prevailed 7-2. Bo Jordan, Ben McLaughlin, and Gilberto Pacheco all contributed with home runs.
Robins: Brooklyn continued to plaster Greenville pitching and easily prevailed 7-0 behind Jose Garcia, a recent call up with a 5.00+ ERA, who recorded the complete game shutout.
Robins and Hawks remain dead even at 79-81
Saturday:
Hawks: Things looked bad for the Hawks when Louisville led 6-2 after scoring three in the top of the fourth. Halifax rallied back to 6-5 in the bottom of the inning with the help of another Ben McLaughlin two-run homer. It remained that way until the bottom of the eighth when a walk and four singles produced two runs and a 7-6 lead. McLaughlin had one of the singles and drove in one of the runs. Jesus Hopkins and Domingo Castillo, recently installed in the closer role, shut down the Sluggers over the final three.
Robins: Greenville put up a good fight and led 1-0 into the eighth inning. Brooklyn rallied in the bottom of the eighth with Talboom scoring the tying run and Bob Brandon scoring on a bases-loaded walk with the winner.
Robins and Hawks still dead even at 80-81
Sunday:
Hawks: Sancho Delgado was superb and Roberto Ramos, another starter now pitching set-up, got a two-inning save in a 4-0 shutout. All four Hawk runs came on bases-empty home runs: two by Gilberto Pacheco and one each by Cisco Guerrero and Edgar Jones.
Robins: Brooklyn coasted 6-0. Joey Budding allowed only two singles over eight and Pappy Medina rapped four hits in the easy victory.
Robins and Hawks finish the regular season deadlocked at 81-81.
Monday:
A one game playoff at Halifax would determine who would go to the playoffs and who would go home first for the year – no wild card possibilities this time. It was the Robin’s Salvatore Barron against the Hawk’s Pedro Torrez. The Hawks got one in the first and another in the third before Barron was forced to retire after one out in the fourth with a sprained ankle. Shortstop Mario García led off the bottom of the first with a triple and scored on a Gilberto Pacheco sacrifice fly in what would turn out to be the winning run in a 3-0 complete-game shutout for Torres. Torres missed three full months of the season with shoulder inflammation, but amazingly still led the whole MBWBA in shutouts this year with four.
Now the Hawks get to sit back and watch the Geoghegan series, knowing that they will get a chance to perform in the Doubleday series. “Hey,” said GM Joe Geoghegan, “it’s been a topsy-turvy year and we’ll be significant underdogs in the Doubleday. We are not as good as we were last year, but we’ll end up going farther. We’ll give it our best and see what happens. One thing for sure – Pedro Torrez will start game one.”
