Recent Weeknight League News
Arvada, CO - in a perfect night on the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, the #1 seed Cubs faced off against the #2 seed Bandits for the weeknight Denver NABA championship. This was a rematch of last years championship and a rematch that goes back years between the Cubs and Bandits.
What has been the frequent pitching matchup between the Cubs and Bandits throughout the regular season, Bandits ace Dylan Farinacci and Cubs ace and manager Will Bartos went up and down the lineup in a matter of minutes in the first 3 innings with only 3 hits between the two teams. In the top of the 4th, the Bandits struck first with 2 runs in the 4th after a leadoff walk, along with a single and another walk. "Simply cannot have leadoff walks. I preach that to our staff all the time, and I didn't execute that, and even added a second walk in the inning. Leadoff walks always tend to come around and score and that proved true tonight", said Bartos after the game.
After managing only 3 hits, the Cubs struck in the bottom of the 4th with a single to center from C Adam Bradell, who scored on a single from SS Isaac Munoz. After Bartos shutout the Bandits in the top of the 5th, the Cubs exploded in the fifth, sending 15 batters to the plate, scoring 10 runs (including 6 straight batters) on 7 hits. "We haven't batted around all season, in almost 30 games and doing tonight in a championship game is the best time to do so", said hitting coach Todd Nester. "Tonight felt great. We started off a bit slow as a team but busted it open, which is what our team has done all year", said 1B Paul Rumage, who is known as The Ripper. After taking a 11-2 lead moving to the bottom of the 6th, LF Justin "euro-shake" Williams stepped up to lead off and launched a ball to left-center that landed in La Junta 432 feet from home-plate. "That felt really good. After AC got one last week, I felt like he was creeping on me a little bit, so had to distance myself from him and keep my HR total a bit higher", said Williams, who swings a giant banana unseen before. "Hey, if he drops bombs like that, with a bat flip that was higher than Jose Bautista's, I'm all about it", said Clark.
Final pitching stats for the Cubs gave Bartos the victory, going 5 innings, allowing 1 hit, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts and 2 earned runs. Finishing the 6th and 7th, Isaac Munoz gave up 3 hits, 1 earned run and 2 strikeouts.
Offensively, the Cubs bashed 13 hits, with 5 walks, with C Adam Bradell collecting 4 hits, 1B Paul Rumage with 3 hits and 3 rbi.
With the Championship win, the Cubs have won the Denver NABA Weeknight league for the third straight year. "Winning 3 titles in consecutive years is tough, no matter what level you play at, and I'm so glad for our guys", said Bartos. The Cubs finished the season at 12-1-1, with the Bandits finishing 6-5-2. Cubs outscored their opponents 114-52 for the season.
The Cubs faced off against the Ribeye's in the semifinals for the Denver NABA Weeknight League Wednesday night at Long Lake Regional #5. It was a beautiful evening that began to chill as the sun set behind the mountains and the air heavy with smoke, but the Cubs were ready to do some grilling.
On the mound for the Cubs was ace and manager Will Bartos, who has sliced and diced the league this year. Bartos began with 2 k's in the top of the first and went 1-2-3, bringing the Cubs up in the bottom half of the inning scoring 3 runs courtesy of an RBI double from DH Bryer Mueller and a two run single from C Adam Bradell to take an early 3-0 lead. The Cubs tacked on 2 more runs in the bottom of the second to take a 5-0 lead with an RBI single from SS Jorge Lovatos and a sac-fly from Mueller.
Bartos continued to throw darts like an Atlanta braves '90's ace and tallied 6 k's after 4 innings, which also put the Cubs up 8-0 after a run in the third and two more in the bottom of the 4th after an error and a two-run single from Lovatos for his third RBI of the game.
After the Cubs scored one more in the bottom of the fifth after a leadoff walk by 2B Jarin Dorchinez, Bartos finished the 6th and 7th with no runs and 4 more strikeouts. Finishing with a complete game shutout, Bartos finished with 3 hits, 1 walk and 11 strikeouts with 19 of 25 first pitch strikes. "We always stress to our pitching staff of working ahead. It gives us the advantage to stick with our game plan when you can get to 0-1 vs. 1-0, and I was fortunate enough to have that going tonight. I've felt pretty dang good over the last few weeks and was ready for tonight", said Bartos as he was chowing down on some Kung Lao during his postgame dinner at Panda Express. "I knew Willy was going to be on his game tonight. He's shown nothing but all season, and when you can throw 4 pitches, all for strikes, working both sides of the plate, you're going to be successful. Tonight, his curve ball, but more importantly, his changeup was working to keep them off balance and it shows in his stats for tonight", said C Bradell as he ate his Taco Bell chalupas.
Offensively, while the Cubs only managed 7 hits, 8 walks helped get the offense on-base which helped with some timely hitting. "I think overall we did a good job of being patient and waiting for our pitch", said Chris Murray, who drew two walks. "Our coach Will did a good job of preparing us for tonight and telling us how to execute our game plan at the plate, and I think we did that pretty well tonight", said Hunter Bell (who also subs as a body double for Yellowstone actor Rip), who finished 1-2 with a single.
With the win, the Cubs move to the championship game against the longtime rival Bandits, October 7 at Long Lake at 7pm.
"We're excited for next week as we work towards a three-peat championship" said Bartos.
The Cubs had their second game in a row where the opposing team failed to show up. This time, the Ribeye's failed to show for the 6:15pm semi-final game as they thought the game started at 8:30pm, however, the Cutthroats and Bandits were facing off and thus, the Cubs vs. Ribeye's has been postponed until September 30. Start time has yet to be determined.
Cubs Win Regular Season Weeknight Finale
- By AB 09/17/2020, 2:15pm MDT
Cubs Flavor Up Ribeye's
- By AB 09/03/2020, 12:00pm MDT
Cubs Bounce Back For Win, Lock Up #1 Seed
- By AB 08/27/2020, 10:30am MDT
Cubs Battle Cutthroats, Get Win
- By AB 08/20/2020, 9:15am MDT
Cubs Grill Ribeye's
- By AB 08/13/2020, 9:00am MDT