Recent Cubs News
Arvada, CO - after a two week hiatus from the quarterfinal/semifinal games due to heavy snow, the #3 seeded Cubs faced off against rival and #5 seed Redhawks, who pulled off the upset last week against the #1 seed Nightrain. While it was expected to be a pretty tight pitchers duel didn't turn out as anticipated, with Northern Colorado alum Dylan Smith on the mound for the Redhawks and Adams State alum JD Heredia, hitting was not scarce, with Heredia allowing 7 in 6 innings and Smith allowing 10 hits in 4 innings before being chased for reliever Josh Weyker.
The Cubs were led by their pitching, which has been the staple of the Cubs team the entire year, led by JD Heredia. Heredia pitched 6 innings allowing 3 runs on 7 hits, 3 walks and 4 k's to secure the win and lock up the Cy Young award for 2020. Israel Munoz finished the last 3 innings allowing no runs on 3 hits and 6 k's. "Our pitching has been top notch all year, probably even beating our own expectation on how we performed. With Heredia, Bartos and Newhuis coming up big this year, it put us in a great position combined with our offense to win ball games," said pitching coach Sean Fredrickson. With the shortened 19 game season this year, the Cubs allowed only 77 runs while tallying 136 on offense. "I felt great today, and was pumped up for the championship. We've been working towards this ever since the Redhawks eliminated us in last years playoffs, said Heredia, we came in with a game plan to execute and Will (Bartos) and I did that and my guys behind me played good defense and got me the run support I needed".
Offensively, the Cubs totaled 18 hits, led by leadoff hitter Andrew (I've got a photo shoot) Clark who scored 3 runs going 4-5, and SS Jorge Lovatos (who recently was activated off the 20 day DL) going 3-5 with 2 doubles and 3 rbi, second baseman Jaron Dorchinez going 3-5 and 1B Paul Rumage (in his rumored last game before retirement) going 2-4 with a sac-fly. "Any time you can piece up 18 hits in a championship game, you have a pretty good shot of being on top when that 27th out hits," said Bartos, who was still in his uniform at 9pm after eating dinner. "We've had a great offensive year, hitting 16 homeruns and having four of our guys hit over .400. Having Rumage and Bradell help lead that way was a big difference from last year with those two combining for 64 hits this year and each hitting a pair of homers and over .400," said Bartos.
With the Cubs victory in the hardest amateur division in Colorado, the Cubs swept championships this year after also winning the NABA weeknight league. Overall, the Cubs finished 2020 with a 26-5-2 record to capture both championships.
2020 Stats Leaders:
Average: Paul Rummage (.433)
Hits: Adam Bradell (35)
Homeruns: Bryer Mueller (6)
Runs: Andrew Clark (35)
RBI: Bryer Mueller (34)
Innings: JD Heredia (71.2)
Wins: JD Heredia (11)
Strikeouts: JD Heredia (73)
E.R.A: Will Bartos (2.74 min 20 innings)
Englewood, CO - The Cubs, positioned as the #3 seed, faced off against the #6 seed Mile High Green Elephants at Brent Mayne park for a quarterfinal matchup in a chilly drizzle early Sunday morning. While it was expected to be a bit on the cold side, the drizzle made things a bit tough on everyone, but the excitement the Cubs had was on another level. Armed with two heaters in the dugout, there was a third heater on the mound, with Pitcher Will Bartos throwing darts. What has become typical of his pitching performances this year, Bartos stepped up in the second biggest game of the year so far (weeknight championship being the first) and delivered an absolute dominating performance. At the end of it, Bartos tallied 15 k's on 6 hits and 3 runs. "I felt great today given the cold weather and all, it just reminded me of college back in Illinois, so I was ready", said Bartos after the game.
Offensively, the Cubs put up their highest run total of the year, plating 18 runs in 6 innings, which was enough for a mercy to secure the win 18-3. Leading the offense was 3B Bryer Mueller with 6 rbi, including a grand slam in the bottom of the third that saw 11 Cubs come to the plate. "It felt good to get that piece of wood on the ball and gave us some comfort room for sure", said Mueller when reached for comment while he was gaming at home.
Shoutout to the Green who again streamed and broadcasted the game online for the 750 fans who didn't make it to the game given the weather conditions.
With the 18-3 win, the Cubs advanced to the semifinals against the Kokopelli's, who the Cubs split with in the regular season, winning 3-1 in the first matchup and losing 9-8 in the bottom of the 9th last month. It was going to be a battle with these rivals, and it was just that for the first 8 innings. After no runs across, the Koko's finally punched one across in the bottom of the 3rd after a triple from SS Schmitt who plated Jon Reid who reached on a walk. The Cubs, which didn't manage much more than a baserunner broke through in the top of the fifth after a leadoff double from RF Nick Besman who, on a very heads up play, scored on a pop-up to short right that the second baseman fell asleep and through back to second allowing Besman to score from third (shades of Billy Hamilton come to mind). "I saw him nonchalantly toss the ball to second as I tagged up and then just went for it", said Besman, which credited Bryer Mueller with the rbi. The Cubs scored again to take the lead 2-1 in the top of the 7th after LF Cole Golightly reached on an error, then moved from first to third on a pickoff error, then scoring on a double from 2B Andrew Clark. The Cubs tacked on another 2 runs in the top of the 8th and then 4 more runs in the top of the 9th. "Our guys battled at the plate, looked for pitches to drive and finally executed. We started slow and were hitting the ball, but everything was right at someone, sooner or later we knew things would drop our way and they did", said hitting coach Todd Nester.
Offensively, the Cubs tallied 12 hits with Clark leading with 3.
"Playoff baseball and winning teams win with clutch pitching, and nothing was more evident than that from JD today. He was on", said Bartos. Heredia, much like this season and the last few years was dominating, allowing 5 hits, 3 walks, 1 run and 11 strikeouts in 8 innings. "I love playoff baseball and playing with these guys. All week, we were pumped up ready to go and when the weather started to clear and the sun came out, it just made me more pumped. Getting those last two k's in the bottom of the 8th with runners on second and third was intense, and thats why we play this game", said Heredia afterwards while cleaning his vans.
For the day, the Cubs outscored their opponents 26-4, collected 26 hits. Pitching totals was 4 earned runs, allowed 10 hits and struck out 27 batters.
The Cubs advance to the 18AAA Championship game next weekend against the Redhawks who surprised the #1 seed Nightrain with a victory. Time/Location TBD.
Fort Lupton, CO - The Cubs came out swinging and stormed the Thunder in an early morning game at Fort Lupton HS.
With two regular season games remaining and a 1/2 game back of the #2 seed, each game is crucial for the Cubs to win in order to have a chance to steal the #2 seed and a first round bye in the playoffs.
Zach Newhuis started on the mound and pitched 4 solid innings, allowing 2 hits and 2 earned runs while striking out 3. The final 5 innings left JD Heredia came in and completely dominated allowing 3 hits, no runs, no walks and 9 strikeouts. "I felt absolutely perfect today. I usually grind out, but today everything felt smooth. I've had some high pitch counts this year and with the Labor Day weekend, followed by a forfeit from the Bandits, this extra time off has put me back on my A game as we move towards the playoffs. I'm excited where we're going", said Heredia while searching for his glove (again). "JD had it going today. Since I was called up last year, this was the best performance I've seen him do. High heat on his fastballs and locating, followed by some nasty uncle charly's, the hitters didn't have a chance. If he keeps that up, I like our chances", said C Adam Bradell.
Offensively, the Cubs knocked out 17 hits, with three cubs collecting 3 hits a piece from Cole Golightly, Paul "the Ripper" Rummage and Andrew (I drop bombs) Clark who had a solo homer to left-center. RF Chris Murray also collected a 2 run triple and a double. "I thought we hit pretty well as a team, we hadn't had such an offensive output this year, so it was good timing", said The Ripper while studying his quantum physics homework. "I was ready to ball today", said Clark. "I had a PR yesterday in bench press, so I felt some built-up energy and wanted to translate that into dingers and I did".
With the win, the Cubs move to 11-3-1 for 18AAA (half game back of the Kokopelli's who have not reported their Sunday game as of publish) and 22-4-2 overall. The Thunder fall to 5-9-1.
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