Sticking Points 17.2035: Rockville Wins First Pennant Ever, First for Franchise Since 2020

[aaronweiner]

The Rockville Pikemen won their first ever Johnson League Pennant yesterday, defeating the Brooklyn Robins 4-2 in six games to move on to the Landis Memorial Series. The title is their first pennant since 2020, the last year the Pikemen (then Carolina Kraken) won the title, and their first ever Johnson League pennant.

"This has been a long time coming," said Rockville first baseman Mario Guerrer, who scored the winning run in Game 6 in the bottom of the tenth inning on a Francisco Flores double. "We're excited that we can give the fans something to cheer about."

It wasn't pretty. Rockville was outscored 54-30 in the six game set, an average of 9-5 against them. Three of their wins were decided by one run and the other by two runs, and in the other two games they were pasted by 12-5 and 10-5 against. In other words, 103-win Rockville, declared by one and all to be the overwhelming favorite in the series, won, but they won ugly.

"We didn't play our best baseball and still we're in the Landis," said Pikemen manager Chet Rouse. "You have to consider us blessed and lucky to be here and it's all due to some gritty, hard-nosed play and never for a moment giving up."

The Robins, whose team slogan, "Suck It," was on full display in Brooklyn, nonetheless had to watch as their team lost two of three at home while in some ways outplaying the Pikemen. There's little doubt the Robins have a lot of positives to take away from this series.

"Those guys played amazing," said Cartwright MVP Manuel Marino, who was also the MVP of the Doubleday round. "They should be very proud, and I bet we're both looking forward to the point where we get them again to settle some scores in this series."

The Pikemen will now go on and face what might have been the top team in the JL this year, the California Crusaders. California won 98 games and present some serious matchup problems for most teams.

"We're obviously not taking California lightly, how can we?" said Guerrer. "Their pitching is amazing and they can hit and so we've got a lot of work to do yet before we rest our feet."

[RonCo]

The key word in "won ugly" is not "ugly."

Congrats to the Pikemen, but I'm growing to admire Alan's ability to make the BBA world dance to his tune.

[Joshua Biddle]

Congrats!

[ae37jr]

Congrats again. It's a well deserved pennant. Your rebuild should serve as an educational tool for anyone who wants to rebuild a team. It was done to perfection and Rockville is going to be good for a long time. Now go win the Landis and bring it home to the best division in the BBA!

[aaronweiner]

Congrats again. It's a well deserved pennant. Your rebuild should serve as an educational tool for anyone who wants to rebuild a team. It was done to perfection and Rockville is going to be good for a long time. Now go win the Landis and bring it home to the best division in the BBA!

That's the goal.