At long last, the Boston Cardinals are champions of the 28+ Division for the first time in franchise history, snapping their 11-year championship drought in historic fashion.

With a 9-2 victory over the Boston Bombers in Game 5 of the 28+ Finals, the Cardinals became the first team in BMBL postseason history to overcome an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five series.

After the final out of Game 5 was recorded, a collective sigh of relief could be felt emanating from the Cardinals players, before gathering on the mound at Morelli Field to shower each other in champagne and celebrate the long-awaited moment.

"I don't know what to say, but it's been a long twelve years to get to this point," said Cardinals manager Rich Slamin. "I'm just happy for my guys and so proud of them. Hopefully, we can have another good showing next year."

The 2022 season was more than just a good showing for the newly-crowned champs, who finished the regular season with the second-best record at 16-6 — the club's best finish since 2017.

Offensively, the Cardinals had one of their finest seasons at the plate, hitting a franchise-high .356 as a team while averaging 6.5 runs per game. Eight different players batted .400 or higher, including Joel Torres (18-41, .439 Avg., 12 R, 15 RBIs), who led the team with 18 hits and 15 RBIs and placed 8th in MVP voting.

The pitching staff, consisting of Juan Mendoza (4-1, 1.27 ERA, 34 K's), Yulkin German (3-1, 1.50 ERA, 46 K's), and newcomer Luis Rivera (3-1, 2.43 ERA, 32 K's), finished atop the division in ERA (2.45), strikeouts (170), and runs allowed (63), while giving up an average of just 4.5 hits per game.

The Cardinals entered postseason play as the No. 3 seed and faced off against the No. 6-seeded Waltham Athletics (13-8-1), who, in 2022, made their 28+ season debut after a 20-year stint in the 18+ Division, where they won two championships.

The two teams faced each other twice in the regular season, with the Athletics coming out on top in both of those contests, however, a different story would unfold in the postseason, as the Cardinals flipped the script and defeated the Athletics 7-2 and 12-0 in the best-of-three quarterfinal series.

Juan Mendoza (7 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, BB, 11 K) and Luis Rivera (4 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, BB, 4 K) combined to go 2-0 in the series, allowing just 2 runs on 6 hits to go along with 15 strikeouts.

For the seventh straight season, the Cardinals advanced on to the best-of-five semifinal round, where they faced the No. 2-seeded Boston Havoc (15-6-1) — winners of the 28+ Blue Division.

A strong outing from Juan Mendoza (5 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 6 K) in Game 1 helped the Cardinals gain an early edge in the series. In his second start of the postseason, Mendoza tossed five strong, allowing 3 runs on 3 hits to go along with 6 strikeouts, before giving way to Jean Ramirez (2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 K), who secured the 9-3 win with two shutout innings of relief.

The Cardinals No. 3 through 6 hitters combined to go 9-for-14 with 8 RBIs and 4 runs scored, handing the Havoc's Game 1 starter, Mitch Philibert (6 IP, 12 H, 5 ER, 5 K), his first loss of the season.

Game 2 of the series featured a fantastic pitcher's duel between Yulkin German (5.2 IP, 1 H, 3 ER, 12 K) of the Cardinals and Seth Perkins (5.1 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 7 K) of the Havoc.

With the score knotted at 3-3 heading into the bottom of the 7th, the game appeared to be headed for extra innings — that is until veteran Harry "Houdini" Smith pulled off some baserunning magic.

Smith, a longtime member of the Cardinals, was called upon to pinch-run for teammate Brenden Moore, who led off the inning with a walk. Chris Romero followed with a sacrifice bunt that advanced Smith to second, but before having a chance to catch his breath, Smith looked up to see third base was unoccupied and took off, finding himself in a foot race with Havoc's third baseman Hector Garcia Jr., who had charged in on the bunt.

With the baseball still in first baseman Omar Ortiz's glove, Ortiz channeled his inner Tom Brady and attempted to relay the ball to Garcia, Jr. at the third base bag, but instead overthrew his target, allowing Smith to score the winning run and the Cardinals to walk off with the wild 4-3 Game 2 victory.

Jean Ramirez (1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER) earned the vulture win with 1.1 innings of scoreless relief, while the Cardinals Jose Paulino (2-3, RBI, K, SB) and the Havoc's Hector Garcia, Jr. (2-3, 2 RBI, BB, K, 2 SB) each had multiple hits in the game for their respective squad.

With a two-games-to-none lead, the Cardinals turned to right-hander Brenden Moore (4 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 7 K, 2 BB) in Game 3, while the Havoc countered with Adam Anderson (5.1 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 8 K, 6 BB) in his first-ever postseason start.

Anderson, who had just 3.1 innings under his belt in the regular season, held the Cardinals scoreless through five while striking out eight, before the wheels began to fall off.

Trailing 2-0 in the 6th, the Cardinals put up 3 runs in the inning to go up 3-2, taking advantage of several walks and a hit batter.

Unfazed, the Havoc came right back with a run of their own in the bottom half, tying the game at 3-3 on a clutch RBI single from Omar Ortiz (1-2, RBI, BB, K).

Not to be outdone, the Cardinals wasted little time retaking a 4-3 lead in the top of the 7th. With one out and a runner in scoring position, pinch hitter Xavier Landestoy (1-1, RBI) delivered what would turn out to be the game-winning RBI, singling home Yulkin German (2-3, 2 R, BB) from second.

Jean Ramirez (1 IP, H, K, BB) entered the game in the bottom of the 7th, and for the third time in the series, shut the door on a potential Havoc comeback, securing the 4-3 Game 3 victory.

Richard Delgado (2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 K) was credited with the win, pitching 2 innings of relief, allowing 1 run on 2 hits to go along with 2 strikeouts.

Overall, five different Cardinals pitchers took the mound in the series, combining to throw 16 scoreless innings with 31 strikeouts while allowing just 12 hits.

For the fifth time in seven years, the Cardinals punched their ticket to the 28+ Finals, where they faced the top-seeded Boston Bombers.

The Bombers secured the No. 1 seed in the playoffs with a division-best record of 17-5, earning longtime manager Dave Lightbody his record-tying fourth Manager of the Year award.

The 3-time 28+ champs led the division in average (.386), runs (199), RBIs (178), slugging (.521), OPS (1.000), and run differential — outscoring opponents by 124 runs in the regular season.

The offense was powered by Teddy Dziuba, who took home his second consecutive MVP award with a .500 batting average and a division-leading 35 hits and 37 RBIs.

On the defensive side, the pitching staff ranked second in ERA (2.52) and runs allowed (75). Bryan Saffelle (9-1, 1 Save, 1.20 ERA, 52 K's) anchored the staff with a division-leading 9 wins and 1.20 ERA. The Bombers right-hander was named the Cy Young Award winner for the first time in his career, after a 3rd place finish last season.

The Bombers opened up postseason play with a 2-0 series win over the No. 8-seeded Somerville Senators (12-10) in the quarterfinals, followed by a 3-0 series sweep of the 4th-seeded South Shore Spartans (15-7) in the semifinals.

Backed by solid pitching and timely hitting, the Bombers handed the 4-time champion Spartans their first-ever playoff series loss, as they cruised their way to the 28+ Finals for the third time in four years.

This set the stage for a best-of-five Finals matchup between the top-seeded Bombers and the No. 3-seeded Cardinals in a rematch of the 2020 Finals, which saw the Bombers sweep the Cardinals in three games.

In what felt like a flashback to 2020, the Bombers quickly jumped out to a 2-0 series lead, outscoring the Cardinals 14-to-2 (10-1, 4-1) in the first two games of the series.

No team in BMBL history had ever come back from an 0-2 deficit to win a five-game series, and given the Cardinals' offensive struggles in Games 1 and 2, there wasn't much reason to think this series was going to break that trend.

Trailing 3-0 heading into the 6th inning of Game 3, the Cardinals found themselves down to their last six outs and on the verge of being swept in the Finals for the second time in three seasons.

Refusing to go down without a fight, Julian Alvarez (1-4, R, 2 RBI, HR) blasted a 2-run homer to cut the Bombers lead down to 3-2 and breathe some much-needed life into a stagnant Cardinals offense.

Heading into the bottom of the 7th, the Bombers still clinged on to a one-run lead. With two outs and a runner on second, the Cardinals were down to their final out, and the end of another disappointing season seemed all but inevitable.

That's when things began to take a wild turn. Down to his last strike, Jose Paulino (3-5, R, 2 RBI) hit what appeared to be a routine game-ending fly ball to center, when suddenly it was as if the baseball Gods parted the clouds and shined the sun directly down on Nipper Field, causing the Bombers center fielder Juan Parra to lose sight of the ball and the Cardinals to miraculously tie the game, 3-3.

The game would head into extras, wherein the top of the 9th, the Cardinals suddenly erupted for five runs and went on to stun the Bombers with an improbable 8-4 comeback victory.

Luis Rivera (2 IP, 2 H, ER, K) picked up the win out of the pen, while Bryan Saffelle (8 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 6 K) was charged with the tough-luck loss, scattering 6 hits to go along with 6 strikeouts in 8 innings of work.

On the brink of elimination, the Cardinals lived to play another day. The come-from-behind victory in Game 3 seemed to give them all the momentum they needed to pull off an 8-2 win in Game 4 and force a series-deciding Game 5.

Juan Mendoza (6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 6 K) collected his third win of the postseason, allowing 1 earned run on 4 hits to go along with 6 K's.

Julian Alvarez (3-4, 2B) continued to set the pace on offense, going 3-for-4 while knocking out Bombers starting pitcher Dan Godfrey (1.1 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 3 BB) with a 2nd inning RBI double.

Jose Paulino (3-3, 2 R, RBI, BB) and Harry Smith (2-3, R, RBI) combined to go 5-for-6 with a pair of clutch RBIs, as the Cardinals climbed within one win of making history.

In the all-or-nothing Game 5, the Cardinals continued to come out swinging, plating six runs in the top of the 1st, highlighted by a Julian Alvarez (3-5, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2B, HR) 2-RBI double and a Juan Valle (3-4, 3 RBI) 2-RBI single.

Alvarez helped keep the Cardinals' foot on the gas in the 2nd with a towering home run to left that traveled an estimated 380 feet. He would finish the game a triple shy of the cycle. Joel Torres (1-3, 2 R, 2B, SB) and Xavier Landestoy (2-4, 2 R, RBI, SB) added two more runs in the 4th to put the game out of reach.

The Cardinals went on to win the decisive fifth game by a final score of 9-2, becoming the first team in BMBL postseason history to pull off the reverse sweep.

Yulkin German (6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K) earned the win on the hill, giving up two runs over six innings while striking out eight.

Anthony Del Prete (5 IP, 11 H, 8 ER, BB, 5 K) suffered his first loss of the postseason, tossing five innings, giving up eight runs while striking out five. Juan Parra (1-3, R, BB) and Mike Maguire (1-3, R, RBI) scored the lone runs for the Bombers in the loss.

Congratulations to the Boston Cardinals on winning their first-ever 28+ Division title, and hats off to the Boston Bombers on a successful season and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.