Middleboro captures first MABL title in franchise history
The Middleboro Mocka Rays (formerly Middleboro Red Sox) are the MABL 18+ champions for the first time in the franchise's 13-year history, defeating the Boston Sox three games to one in the best-of-five MABL Championship Series.
Middleboro, which produced one of the most efficient offenses in MABL regular-season history, manufactured a .323 team batting average in the postseason, spearheaded by nine-year veteran and first-year manager Tyler Ferdinand, who went 16 for 31 (.516) with 3 doubles, 5 RBI's, and 7 runs scored.
This is the first MABL title for the rookie manager, who was just 13 years old when the Middleboro franchise was formed by his dad Bill Ferdinand, back in 2008. Four years later, Tyler would join the squad and team up with his dad for the next eight seasons, but they would all end in disappointment as the franchise failed to reach the Finals in each of its first twelve seasons.
Bill knew that drastic changes were going to be necessary in order to turn the ship around for his ball club. At the end of the 2019 season, he decided to step down as Middleboro's manager and hand over the reins to his son Tyler, but not before giving the franchise a new identity and a chance at a clean slate.
Beginning with the 2020 season, the Middleboro Red Sox would change their team name to the Middleboro Mocka Rays and Tyler Ferdinand would take over as the newly branded team's skipper. The transformation appeared to have an immediate impact, because in just his first season at the helm, the rookie manager led Middleboro to their first MABL championship. More importantly, Tyler earned himself some well-deserved Ferdinand family bragging rights.
Because of the delayed start to the 2020 season, courtesy of the pandemic, all MABL teams played an abbreviated 10-game regular-season schedule. The Mocka Rays finished with the top overall record at 9-1, earning the No. 1 seed in the postseason for the first time in franchise history.
Their successful 2020 campaign was due in no small part to the Mocka Rays' potent offense, which led the MABL in nine different offensive categories, most notably their .413 team batting average - the highest team mark in MABL regular-season history.
The offense was led by MVP-candidates Mike Cahill and Kevin Luciano, as the dynamic duo finished top-two in Batting Average, Hits, Runs, RBI's, HR's and Slugging %.
Cahill became just the second player in MABL history to win baseball's coveted Triple Crown, finishing atop the league in Batting Average (.645), RBI's (26), and HR's (5). He also set a new MABL single-season record with his .645 Batting Average.
The pitching staff of the Mocka Rays, led by Jake Mainey (2-1, 2.74 ERA, 23 IP, 19 K's), produced the league's second-lowest ERA (3.27), allowing just 38 runs in the regular season.
The 2020 MABL postseason comprised of the league's top four teams, beginning with two best-of-five Semifinal series. In the first of two matchups, the No. 2-seeded Boston Sox (8-2) faced the No. 3-seeded Waltham Cutters (6-4), in a 2009 Finals' rematch.
The Sox' pitching staff, which produced a league-best 1.65 ERA in the regular season, entered the semifinal series without their ace Jon Shepard (due to Park League playoffs), so in a surprise move, the Sox sent out rookie southpaw Nick Powers in Game 1.
Powers, who had zero innings under his belt in the regular season, threw a complete game 3-hitter and struck out 15 batters in the 3-1 Game 1 win for the Sox.
The Cutters evened the series with a 4-1 victory in a foggy Game 2. Rookie of the Year candidate Ryan Fleming provided six strong innings on the hill, before giving way to Billy Beauchesne who closed out the final frame with the bases loaded.
Unfortunately for the Cutters, this would turn out to be their only win of the series, as the Sox went on to clinch their third straight Finals' appearance with a 4-0 win in Game 3 and 13-2 win in Game 4. Powers was 2-0 (0.50 ERA, 23 K's) in the series for the Sox, giving up just 1 earned run in 14 innings of work.
The Sox Finals' opponent would be revealed following the outcome of the Semifinal series between the No. 1-seeded Mocka Rays (9-1) and No. 4-seeded Waltham Athletics (4-6).
In Game 1 of a gritty back-and-forth series, the two-time champion A's stunned the Mocka Rays with a 7-0 shutout win, behind a complete game 3-hitter from Brett O'Keefe, handing the top-seeded team just their second loss and first shutout loss of the season.
Due to some inclement weather in the days to follow, a full week would pass before the series resumed, so the A's called upon a fresh O'Keefe again in Game 2. The Mocka Rays' top-ranked offense would have better results the second time around, putting up 8 runs (3 unearned) on the A's starter and narrowly squeaking out a 12-11 win in Game 2 to even the series at 1-1. Four different players had multiple hits for the Mocka Rays, including a 4-for-4 night from Tyler Ferdinand.
After splitting Games 3 and 4, the two teams forced a series-deciding Game 5 that featured a classic pitcher's duel between Alec Christian of the A's and 17-year old Cameron Breault of the Mocka Rays.
In the 'win-or-go-home' game, the A's jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the 1st and maintained that lead until the Mocka Rays tied things up in the 5th on a RBI-single by Derek Pizarro. Both starting pitchers were magnificent on the hill and the score remained deadlocked at 1-1, before heading into extra innings.
In the bottom of the 9th, Zachary Walker led off the inning for the Mocka Rays with a base hit. Two batters later, he advanced to third on a single by Pat Yee. With the winning run now 90 feet away, the stage was set for Evan Chand, who came up huge in the clutch - delivering a walk-off single that would send Middleboro to the Finals for the first time in the franchise's history.
Breault earned his first postseason win in the thrilling 2-1 victory, while Christian was charged with the tough loss. Both starters threw all nine innings for their respective squad.
The 2020 MABL Championship featured a best-of-five series between the No. 1-seeded Mocka Rays and the No. 2-seeded Sox, in a battle of the MABL's top-ranked offense versus the MABL's top-ranked pitching staff.
In Game 1, the advantage went to the Mocka Rays, as the top-ranked offense batted .400 (12-30) as a team in the 4-3 win, including multi-hit games from Pizarro (2-4), Luciano (2-3), Thomas (2-3), and Yee (2-3). The Mocka Rays handed Powers, the Sox' Game 1 starter, his first loss of the postseason.
Game 2 fell in favor of the Sox' number one pitching staff, with a little bit of help -- courtesy of the long ball. The Sox' ace John Shepard made his postseason debut and held the Mocka Rays' offense to just two runs through seven innings. He would get very little run support up to that point, as the Sox trailed the Mocka Rays 2-1 heading into the final frame.
Traverse Briana led off the bottom of the 7th for the Sox with a base hit, putting the tying run on first base. After a fly out to right by Ortiz, rookie Kyle Zeberlein stepped up to the plate with one out. On the second pitch of his at-bat, Zeberlein would win the game with one swing of the bat, connecting on an 0-1 fastball that sailed over the left-center fence for a 2-run walk-off home run, the first homer of his young career. The Sox would win Game 2 in dramatic fashion, by a final score of 3-2.
With the series tied 1-1, the three-time champion Sox appeared to have momentum on their side heading into Game 3, but Jake Mainey and Cameron Breault would quickly put an end to that theory, tossing back-to-back shutouts for the Mocka Rays in Game 3 (3-0) and Game 4 (6-0) respectively, leading their team to their first-ever MABL championship.
At 17 years-old, Breault became the youngest pitcher in MABL postseason history to win a clinching game in both the Semifinals and Finals. Offensively, Kevin Luciano led the attack for the Mocka Rays in the Finals, going 5 for 11 (.455) with 6 RBI's, including two mammoth home runs.
Congratulations to the Middleboro Mocka Rays on winning their first MABL Championship and to Bill and Tyler Ferdinand on becoming the first father-son duo to win a MABL Championship. Hats off to the Sox on a great season and their third straight Finals appearance.
