Back-to-Back Champs

THE BREWERS are the 2022 Twi League Champions. They successfully defended their 2021 title by beating the Slappers 3-1 in the Twi Finals, completed by a 3-1 victory in Game 4 on Friday night at Moulton Park.  (Dan Pawlowski Photo)

Brewers defeat Slappers 3-1 in 2022 Twi League Finals

By DAN PAWLOWSKI

WAKEFIELD — The Twi League trophy is staying put.

The Brewers won their second consecutive Twi League championship on Friday night at Moulton Park, defeating the Slappers 3-1 in Game 4 to seal up a three games to one series victory.

While their offense did enough to scratch together single runs in both the 1^st, 2^nd and 6^th against the Slappers’ Jake Baressi, it was starting pitcher Colin Jaena and an always-sound Brewer defense that got the job done.

Jaena tossed a complete game victory, allowing just 3 hits and 1 walk in 7 innings while fanning 3. His only run allowed was unearned.

Keeping batters “off-balance” is a term used quite loosely in baseball but it was more literal for Jaena who employed an equal mix of fastballs and off-speed pitches to keep the Slapper bats guessing.

The only time a Slap base runner made it past second base was due to a pair of throwing errors with two outs in the 4^th.  That put runners at the corners to set up Nick Porter’s RBI base hit.

It was a 2-1 Brewer lead at that point. Jaena won an epic battle with Matt Mercurio in the next at-bat getting the Slapper catcher to fly out and end the threat.

Before the big celebration, the Brewers celebrated all the little victories that an offense needs in order to score any runs against a pitcher as talented as Baressi. The righty’s fastball was too much for many of the Brew Crew’s hitters to catch up with, leading to 9 strikeouts.

However, the Brewers capitalized when they could, starting with a one-out triple by Brendan Casey in the 1^st. An error at short off the bat of Steve Morganelli with two down led to a 1-0 Brewer lead.

That moved to 2-0 in the 2^nd. Chris Coombs led off with a single, Mike Fiore hit into a fielder’s choice and Chris Casey walked.

Drew Betts then came through with an RBI single to score Fiore.

The Slappers had a chance to tie it in the bottom of the 5^th after Andrew Patti reached on another error to lead off the frame but Jaena buckled down again and quickly got the next three batters to fly out or pop up.

Coombs led off the 6^th with a walk. A balk moved him up to second and Mike Fiore got the Brewer bench to their feet with a ground out that moved Coombs to 3^rd.

Chris Casey then did his job with a sacrifice fly to push the lead to 3-1.

Baressi kept his team in it as he did all day but the Slapper offense couldn’t get anything going in the 6^th or 7^th as the Brewers cruised to their 6^th Twi title in the last 16 years (’06, ’08, ’12, ’13, ’21, ’22).

In many ways, winning it all was a wire-to-wire victory for a Brewer team that was unquestionably the best in the league all season, finishing the regular season with a Twi-best 9-3 record and a plus-48 run differential that was also tops.

The Brew Crew were 5-1 on July 11 and pretty comfortably in front before consecutive losses put them at 5-3 and in a battle with the Slappers and Unknowns for first place. The Brewers responded by winning their last four games in a row to secure the top seed going into the playoffs.

The Unknowns made the Brew work for it in the semifinal round, forcing a deciding third game but the Brewers maintained their well-rounded pitching and hitting dominance by winning Game 3 11-1.

In the Twi Finals, the Brewers got the upper hand by coming back to win Game 1 7-5. The Slappers bounced back, taking Game 2 7-1 but the Brewers won the all-important Game 3 by a score of 2-1 to set up their Game 4 heroics.

The 2022 Twi Finals wrapped up another successful season of summer ball at Moulton Park in the Twi League’s 47^th season.