HURRICANES
WIN 2003 TITLE
The
2003 Irish baseball season, arguably the most
competitive in the League's history, came
down to the final day of the schedule.
Trailing
by one game, the 2002 champions, the Spartans,
needed a victory over the first place Hurricanes
to force a one game playoff for the championship
title. Jaime Cuevas, last year's MVP, took
the hill for the Spartans and helped his team
defeat the Hurricanes 6-1 in the first game,
striking out 16 and scattering a couple of
hits over seven strong innings. Although the
Hurricanes took an early 1-0 lead, the Spartans
amassed several timely base hits, eventually
over-taking their rivals while Cuevas secured
their lead with dominant pitching.
The
Spartans' victory forced a one-game playoff.
The Spartans jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the
top of the first, yet the Hurricanes bounced
back in the bottom half of the inning with
four runs of their own, lead by Tom Kelley's
lead-off home run to left centre. Paced by
starter Cormac Eklof's effective pitching,
the Hurricanes stretched their lead to 7-1
by the fourth. But the Spartans refused to
quit, striking for four runs with two outs
in the bottom of the fifth.
Eklof's
command settled the Hurricane defence and
Chris Foy added an insurance run in the bottom
of the sixth with a base hit to left. In the
end, the Hurricanes outlasted the Spartans,
winning by a final score of 8-5, becoming
Irish National Champions for the first time.
