Spartans 3-peat as MSBL 28+ Champions
The 3-peat is complete for the South Shore Spartans, winning their third straight MSBL 28+ title with a 6-1 victory over the Boston Bombers in Game 5 of the 2019 MSBL 28+ Championship Series.
The Spartans become the fourth team in Boston MSBL 28+ history to earn their entry into the exclusive 3-peat fraternity, joining the North Shore Reds (1993-1995), Scituate Tides (2009-2011), and Newton Red Sox (2005-2007, 2013-2015) — the only franchise to achieve the feat twice.
The Spartans are the first BMBL franchise to pull off the 3-peat in their first three seasons, accumulating a combined regular and postseason record of 80-13-1 — the best start for any BMBL franchise in their first three seasons.
In the 2019 regular season, the Spartans finished with a league-best 19-2 record, earning the No. 1 seed in the postseason for the second straight year.
The two-time champions looked to successfully defend their title and complete the historic 3-peat, but would have to get past the team responsible for their two regular-season losses and arguably their toughest rival — the Boston Bombers.
The Bombers secured the No. 2 seed in the postseason with a 16-5 regular-season record. They looked to make it back to the MSBL 28+ Finals for the first time since winning the title in 2016.
One of their regular-season wins came on July 21st in a 9-0 rout of the Spartans, handing the defending champions their first regular-season loss since August 9, 2017, and the first shutout loss in their 3-year history, putting an end to the Spartans' streak of 76 straight games scoring at least one run or more.
In the 2019 postseason, both the Spartans and Bombers swept their first round opponent and quickly advanced on to the semifinals. The two squads combined to score 46 runs in their opening-round series.
In the first of two semifinal matchups, pitching was the story behind the Bombers' second-straight 2-0 series sweep, as the staff allowed just one run to the potent offense of the No. 3-seeded Somerville Senators (17-5). The Bombers defeated the Senators 5-0 and 4-1 in Games 1 and 2 respectively, advancing to the Finals for the first time since 2016.
Meanwhile, in a rematch of the 2017 and 2018 Finals, the Spartans came out on top in their semifinal series matchup, narrowly defeating the Boston Cardinals in two games (2-1, 5-3), both of which would go into extra innings. The defending champions secured their third straight trip to the MSBL 28+ Finals.
This set the stage for a 2019 Finals matchup between the No. 1-seeded South Shore Spartans and the No. 2-seeded Boston Bombers, with the Bombers holding a 6-5-1 lifetime record over the Spartans heading into the series.
The two teams had just one prior meeting in the postseason, back in 2017, in what was a seesaw semifinal series that went to a deciding Game 5 and required extra innings. The game lasted 10 heart-pounding innings with the Spartans ultimately winning the series and eventually the 2017 MSBL 28+ Championship in their inaugural season.
A similar story would unfold between these two clubs in the 2019 Championship Series. Trailing 2-1 in Game 1 of the best-of-five series, the Spartans' offense rallied to tie the game 2-2 in the bottom of the 6th.
In the top half of the 7th, the Spartans' defense kept the game tied after gunning down the Bombers' potential winning run at the plate, giving the Spartans all the momentum they needed to walk off in the bottom of the 7th and win Game 1 by a score of 3-2.
Both Tim Troup (6.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 K, 2.10 ERA) and the 2019 Cy Young Award winner Dan Godfrey (6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 K, 2.33 ERA) pitched well for their respective squads.
In Game 2, the Spartans sent out their ace Mike Smith (7 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2.00 ERA), who allowed just two earned runs, while Chris Curran (3-4, 2 RBI), Frankee Alexopoulos (1-4, 2B, 3 RBI), and Johnny Phelan (2-4, RBI) provided most of the offense for the Spartans in the 7-5 Game 2 victory.
Down 2-0 in the series with their backs against the wall, the Bombers' offense finally came alive, as they went on to take both Game 3 (6-4) and Game 4 (4-1) from the Spartans, evening the series at two games apiece.
Teddy Dziuba (4-7, 2 2B, 3 RBI), Bobby Barrett (4-7, 2B, 2 RBI), and Dave Lightbody (3-6, 2B, RBI) led the offensive charge for the Bombers, while Sean Sullivan (6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 4 K, 1.05 ERA) and Bryan Saffelle (CG, 10 H, 4 ER, 5 K, 4.00 ERA) held it down on the hill. Dziuba would hit a milestone in Game 4, collecting his 100th hit of the season across all of his teams.
With the series tied 2-2, the fate of these two teams once again came down to the series-deciding Game 5. Both squads called upon their ace in the 'do-or-die' game, which started out as a low-scoring affair between Mike Smith of the Spartans and Dan Godfrey of the Bombers.
Up 2-1 through four innings, the Spartans struck for three runs in the 5th and one run in the 6th, giving Mike Smith (CG W, 6 H, 1 ER, 2 K, 0.00 ERA) all of the insurance runs he would need to close out the 6-1 Game 5 victory and help the Spartans complete their historic run of three straight MSBL 28+ championships.
Congratulations to the South Shore Spartans on winning the 2019 MSBL 28+ Championship and their third straight title, and hats off to the runner-up Boston Bombers on a hard-fought series and an overall great season.
