Metro Red Sox take home 2014 Masters championship

2014 MSBL Masters 38+ Champions - Metro Red Sox

After losing to the Winchester Chiefs in last year's Masters Finals, the Metro Red Sox came into the 2014 season with a small chip on their shoulders. Those lingering feelings were quickly set aside, however, after the Sox dominated the regular season with a division-best 14-1-1 record while also leading the league in both runs scored (134) and runs allowed (31).

The Red Sox' regular-season success carried over into the postseason, where they defeated the 8th-seeded Billerica Monarchs (2-14) in two games (19-0, 17-1), outscoring their opponent by a combined margin of 36-to-1 in the best-of-three quarterfinal series.

In the semifinals, the Red Sox faced a formidable opponent in the 5th-seeded Somerville Alibrandis (9-8), who they managed to narrowly defeat in two games (6-5, 5-2), the first of which came in walk-off fashion.

For the seventh time in eight seasons, the Red Sox advanced to the Masters Finals, where they went head-to-head against the second-seeded Waltham Braves (14-2), who reached the finals for their fourth time in five seasons.

After exchanging 3-1 wins in the first two games of the series, the championship would come down to a decisive Game 3, where the Red Sox came out firing on all cylinders. The Sox' offense produced 13 runs on 15 hits and were backed by a dominant pitching performance from Steve Hueston (7 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 11 K), who earned the complete-game win, allowing no earned runs on six hits to go along with 11 strikeouts. With a resounding 13-1 victory, the Red Sox clinched the 2014 Masters championship.

Overall, a well-played Finals series by the Waltham Braves and Metro Red Sox ended another competitive season of 38+ baseball. Congratulations to the Metro Red Sox on winning the 2014 Masters 38+ championship and the franchise's 7th overall title.