Royals return to glory with 2020 MetroWest Title

The MetroWest Royals are the 2020 MSBL MetroWest Division champions, producing an undefeated 4-0 record in the postseason, with series' wins over the No. 3-seeded Douglas Tigers and No. 1-seeded Metrowest Orioles.

This is the Royals' third title (2016, 2018, 2020) since joining the Boston Men's Baseball League in 2015 and their fourth title overall as a franchise (2013 MetroWest Adult Baseball League Champions).

What a difference a year makes. The Royals entered the 2019 season as the reigning MetroWest champs, and by season's end they owned a mediocre 9-9 record and suffered an early exit in the postseason Semifinals, after getting swept by the would-be champion Northborough Cardinals. Following the disappointing season, Royals' skipper Anthony Perry vowed to get his ball club back to their winning ways in 2020.

Perry would make good on that promise, boosting the Royals' offensive prowess with the preseason acquisition of Alex Wong and Nicholas Rotolo, while also solidifying the Royals' defense with the addition of SS Mike Oliveira and OF Chris Careyand.

The new and improved offense finished the 2020 regular season with a league-leading .390 team batting average. Eight different players hit .400 or higher, including Mike Power who fueled the offense with a .640 batting average and .720 slugging %.

On the defensive side, the Royals' pitching staff produced a league-best 1.81 ERA, backed by their ace and Cy Young candidate Chris Dion, who assembled a perfect 6-0 record and 1.23 ERA, including 39 K's in 40 innings pitched.

At the end of the 2020 regular season, the Royals found themselves back on top of the standings, as co-owners of a league-best 10-2 record.

Joining the Royals atop the standings with a matching 10-2 record was the Metrowest Orioles (formerly Framingham Orioles), led by longtime skipper Chris Currie — marking the third straight year and fourth time in five years the O's finished the regular season with the best overall record.

2018 Cy Young award winner Brian Lindsey produced another outstanding season on the hill for the O's, assembling an unbeaten 6-0 record and a team-best 1.16 ERA.

Offensively, the O's led the league with 95 runs scored and amassed the league's second-highest team batting average at .370. Steve Paddock (15-30, .500 Avg.), Chris Deane (19-39, .487 Avg.), Zak Platts (14-34, .412 Avg.), and Andrew Kelley (13-32, .406 Avg.) all hit over .400 and accounted for half of the team's hits, runs and RBI's.

Because the Royals and O's finished the regular season with identical records, while also splitting their regular-season series, the recipient of the No. 1 seed was determined by a coin flip, per MetroWest division rules. With Lady Luck on their side, the O's won the coin flip and claimed the top seed in the 2020 postseason.

Their opponent in the first of two semifinal matchups was the No. 4-seeded Grafton Braves, who secured the final playoff spot with a 6-6 regular-season record. Their semifinal series opened with a Sunday morning double dip, just one week after the O's defeated the Braves in both sides of a doubleheader to end the regular season.

The Braves refused to let history repeat itself for a second straight weekend and promptly took a 12-5 lead over the O's in Game 1, after just 3 innings of play. The O's slowly chipped away and cut the lead down to 4 heading into the final frame, but the Braves would add 3 more runs in the top of the inning and quickly build their lead back up to 7.

Those insurance runs turned out to be crucial, as the O's responded with 5 runs of their own to pull within 2, but that was as close as they would come to pulling off the miraculous comeback, as the Braves squeaked out the 15-13 Game 1 win. Alex Bulger (2-3, 4 RBI's, 3 R) and Josh Haglund (3-4, HR, 5 RBI's, 3 R) led the offensive attack for the Braves, combining to go 5-7 with 9 RBI's.

In Game 2, the O's offense was the storyline, as the No. 1 through 4 hitters combined to go 15 for 19, including a 9-RBI game from Paul Goodwin. Goodwin would set a MSBL MetroWest record for most RBI's in a postseason game. The O's rolled to a 26-0 victory in Game 2 to even the series at 1-1 and force a Game 3.

Due to the Columbus Day holiday, the two teams would have to wait two weeks before the deciding game got underway, giving Game 1 starters Andrew Kelley and Mike Zavala plenty of time to rest. Unfortunately for the Braves, the long delay appeared to have a negative impact on the defense, and the O's capitalized, scoring six unearned runs in Game 3 en route to a 7-2 victory and their second straight Finals' appearance and third appearance in four years. Andrew Kelley produced a 2-0 record and 0.63 ERA in the series for the O's.

Meanwhile, in the second of two semifinal matchups, the No. 2-seeded Metrowest Royals battled the No. 3-seeded Douglas Tigers (8-4). The Tigers earned the 3-seed after closing out the regular season on a five-game winning streak, outscoring opponents 53-3 in their final five games.

The unquestioned strength for the Tigers in the regular season was their dominant pitching staff, made up of Carlos Mejia (2-0, 0.48 ERA), Ray Begin (4-2, 0.65 ERA), and Ben Nugent (2-1, 1.13 ERA), as the trio produced the league's top three ERA's, allowing just 7 earned runs combined on the shortened season.

The Royals and Tigers split their two-game series in the regular season, despite the Tigers holding the Royals to just three runs in those two meetings. The postseason would be a different story, as the two squads combined to score 23 runs on 34 hits in the first two games of their semifinal matchup. The Royals would come out victorious in both of those games (8-4, 8-3) and quickly advance onto the Finals to face their longtime rivals - the Metrowest Orioles.

For the first time in league history, the Royals and O's slugged it out in the MSBL MetroWest Championship. And despite these two familiar foes never locking horns in the Finals, they still shared plenty of history.

Dating back to 2014 (when the MWL started tracking stats in 400Hitter), the two sides have faced each other 23 times in the regular season, with the Royals holding a slim 12-11 lead in those affairs. They also met four times in the postseason semifinals, with the Royals winning the last three series' meetings. Since 2008, these two franchises have combined to win 7 titles, with at least one of the two teams reaching the Finals in each of those seasons.

Game 1 of the 2020 MetroWest Finals featured a matchup between a pair of dominant southpaws, in Andrew Kelley of the Orioles and Chris Dion of the Royals. The Royals would find a way to get to Kelley early and proceed to load the bases in the very first inning, but Kelley would settle down and dig himself out of the early jam, limiting the Royals to just one run on an RBI-ground out by Mike Feetham.

Three innings later, the Royals made it 3-0 on a pair of RBI singles from Mike Oliveira and Chris Careyto. The 3-run cushion would prove to be more than enough run support for Dion (7 IP. 3 H, 7 K's, 0.00 ERA), who shut down the O's offense and earned the 3-0 complete game shutout win in Game 1, allowing just 3 hits over 7 innings, to go along with 7 K's. Dion did not allow a single runner to reach past second base in his outing. Kelley (7 IP, 10 H, 3 ER, 3 K's, 3.00 ERA) was charged with his first loss of the postseason, allowing 3 runs on 10 hits, to go along with 3 K's.

Up 1-0 in the series with a chance to clinch their third BMBL championship, the Royals sent out right-hander Jon Shepard, in a flashback to the 2016 Finals. The O's countered with their longtime ace Brian Lindsey, in a matchup that did not disappoint.

Lindsey kept the Royals' hitters off-balance early on in Game 2, surrendering just four hits over the first four innings. The Royals finally broke the scoreless tie in the 5th, on a 2-out RBI single by Miguel Gonzalez that drove in Anthony Perry and gave his team a 1-0 lead. In the very next inning, the Royals doubled their lead to 2-0, after Ryan Bere drew a walk with the bases loaded.

Meanwhile, on the defensive side for the Royals, Shepard continued to improve upon his postseason resume, taking a no-hitter into the 7th inning and setting the stage for a suspenseful ending to Game 2.

Down to their last three outs, the O's leadoff hitter Alex Hall ended the no-no bid with a bunt base hit. Andrew Kelley followed with a single down the third-base line, giving the O's runners on first and second with no outs. A sacrifice bunt by Rick Downs moved the runners into scoring position for Steve Cadoret, who laced an RBI-single up the middle and cut the deficit to one. To avoid the double play, Cadoret took second base on defensive indifference, giving the O's runners on second and third with one out, trailing 2-1.

With the momentum now suddenly shifting in the O's favor, the Royals needed a big defensive stop, and the baseball gods delivered, as Paul Politsopoulos proceeded to line a Shepard fastball directly at the Royals' second baseman Gonzalez, who caught and flipped the ball to his teammate Oliveira at 2B for the double play to end the game. The Royals pulled off the dramatic 2-1 win, taking home their 3rd MSBL MetroWest title in the last five years.

Congratulations to the Metrowest Royals on winning the 2020 MSBL MetroWest Championship and hats off to the Metrowest Orioles on a fantastic series and another fine season.