The Ban Johnson Legends (21-5) boasted the best record in the league this summer and now stand only two wins from a repeat as the BJCL champions, which would lift Manager Cary Lundy to the top of the league record book.
The Legends got a quality start from RHP Max Columbo (Topeka/JCCC) on Saturday in a 5-2 win in the best-of-five BJCL Championship Series opener.
Columbo gave up two runs in the first inning but shut down the BJ Raiders the rest of the game.
1B Dagen Brewer (Seaman [Kansas]/JCCC) went 3-for-3 with a double and was hit by a pitch. He scored twice and had one RBI as the Legends claimed Game 1.
The Legends cruised to the American Division regular season title and rolled through the playoffs into the championship series against the Raiders.
“The success of our team, like last year, was that we came to play every night,” Lundy said.
Now, the Legends have a chance to deliver a record ninth title for Lundy, who currently is tied with Alex Nigro and Lew Denny for the all-time lead with eight BJCL championships as a manager.
Going into the series, Legends CF Caleb Adams (Lansing/Saint Leo [FL]) said, “We feel really confident. There’s not really any pressure on us. There really hasn’t been all year — obviously, the record has shown. We play really loose, we have fun with it, and it usually gets the job done.”
Lundy said he isn’t surprised that the Legends have managed to play loose.
“This year’s team has very few players from last year’s championship team, so we are not feeling any pressure or even thinking about repeating,” he said. “We are just going out every night, playing baseball — and playing well.”
The Legends have the most high-powered offense in the BJCL, batting .329 with 249 runs scored as a team, but they’ve proven to be a well-rounded squad.
“It all starts with pitching,” said Adams, who leads the Legends in runs scored and RBIs. “It always does. Hopefully, our starters have quality starts and then we get the bats going early.”
Lundy also credited the defense for the Legends’ success.
“When (Regal Plastic) Manager (Clint) Culbertson and I were talking about the season, he said the reason we are playing well is our defense is so good,” Lundy said. “He said we don’t make mistakes, and I believe he is right.”
Manager Jeff Williams’ Raiders (16-10) took a different path to the championship series, finishing as the No. 3 seed from the National Division and upsetting their way through the playoffs.
“During the playoffs, we got a lot of trash talk from the teams that were the higher seed than us, and I think that kind of fueled us,” Raiders SS Jett Buck (Liberty North/Washburn) said. “… I feel like when that started, we just kind of turned it on and didn’t want to lose.”
The Raiders dropped their first-round playoff opener before beating Building Champions twice and sweeping past the Creche Innovations Stars in the semifinals to reach the championship series against the Legends.
“We’re going to have to pitch it well, we’re going to have to play really good defense and we’re going to have to swing the bats,” Williams said. “That’s probably their biggest strength is swinging the bats, so we’re probably going to have to score some runs. It’s going to be a tough matchup … but we’ve been hot lately. I think we always have a chance.”
That chance got slimmer when two of the Raiders’ top pitchers, RHP Aaron Lewis (Liberty North/KCKCC/Austin Peay [Tennessee] commit) and RHP Nick Gibler (Blue Springs/UCM), left this week to report to their college teams.
That puts even more pressure on the Raiders’ bats.
“It’s definitely going to be a big challenge,” Buck said. “… But we’ve done a really good job of putting together good at-bats, feeding off the at-bats before us. We kind of score in spurts. Once one person gets on, especially the leadoff, we go on a little roll. I think we have good momentum once we get started.”
