Crawdads Punish Falcons; Advance To ALCS

Joplin – In a symphony of baseball perfection, the Joplin Crawdads eliminated the Fogelberg Falcons from the playoffs Wednesday night by sweeping them out of the ALDS. In an evening of great pitching, clutch hitting and stellar defense, the Dads’ punished the Falcons, handing their AL rivals an embarrassing 8th loss in their last 9 games.

Scrappy late season replacement first basemen Orlando Cepeda blasted three clutch home runs in the series. Earning game MVP honors in game one with a three run shot in the 8th and a game winning solo shot in the ninth, Cepeda nearly single-handedly gave the Crawdads the victory. Striking again in game three, Cepeda drove a 0-2 pitch from Andy Messersmith over the wall with two outs and the bases loaded and again earned the game MVP.

Cepeda’s blasts will undoubtedly be the focus of media attention before the ALCS, but the steady performance of second basemen Rogers Hornsby might be what the Boggstown Boilers will be focused on. In three games and 17 at-bats, Hornsby was not retired by the Falcons pitchers.

The Crawdads are now 5-1 since the arrival of new manager Darrell Porter, but have not faced the Boilers in that span.

Mattingly delivers for Falcons. Blasts Foxx.
The lone bright spot for the Falcons in the series was lifetime player Don Mattingly. Hitting from the 4th and 5th spots in the lineup, Mattingly stung Crawdads pitching for 9 hits, 2 walks, 3 doubles, 8 RBI and a home run. “The bottom line is that it means nothing,” a distraught Mattingly said after the game. “Listen, I like what I can do on a baseball field, but I was not supposed to be doing the heavy lifting in this lineup. The guy before me (Foxx) in the lineup did not get the job done and THAT is pure and simple the reason that we are done.”

When confronted with Mattingly’s statement, Foxx replied, “Yeah, I let the team down all year long… I know that I am better than that, but I just couldn’t find a groove… When I look at what Hornsby did tonight and what Cobb did all season long it’s pretty clear that I am the reason that the Fogelberg Falcons are done right now.”

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