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THE ISLANDIAN TIMES
Tuesday, October 11, 2050
2050 IPA PRO CUP SERIES - Game 4
VIPERS SWEEP AND REPEAT AS IPA CHAMP
They did it... the Valmara Vipers have repeated as IPA Pro Cup champion and they did it in a sweep of the White River Rascals, finishing them off 7-6 in game four at War Memorial Stadium in Valmara... not only did they sweep the Rascals, the Vipers ran off 12 consecutive victories in this year's playoffs, going unbeaten... only three other clubs have accomplished that phenomenal feat... Far Mountain in 2013, Eastshore in 2016 and Rocky Rapids in 2019... Valmara tied Turon and North Hills for the most Pro Cup trophies with four... Waleska, Rolling Hills, Southport and Tuckanarra have garnered three IPA crowns.
Valmara played powerball in game four, slugging three homers in the win... Jorge Aparicio (.311), Ken Jensen (.321) and Arnie Pliska (.270) all went deep... Pliska led the Viper hit parade with three RBIs and two hits... Jensen got three base hits and two RBIs... and Aparicio was 2-4 with a run scored and one driven in... Jensen led the playoffs with 17 RBIs... C Karol Koska (.240) had 13, and Pliska and LF Tomek Abramczyk (.378) had 10 apiece.
White River was sparked by LF Billy Joe Hickman (.197) with three hits, three RBIs and three runs scored... two of his hits were four-baggers, giving him six in the playoffs this year... Hickman also doubled... SS Kunta Burton (.343) collected three hits for the Rascals... and 1B Ruben Reaves (.242) batted in two runs and had 15 in the postseason... Hickman finished with 13.
The Vipers busted up a tight 3-2 affair with four runs in the sixth to make it 7-2, then managed to hold on and survive White River's belated comeback with four runs in the seventh... neither starter was particularly effective... Darus Grajek (5-0/3.02) did get his fifth win of the playoffs, but was drilled for six runs and nine hits... Grajek fanned eight and walked one in seven and two-thirds innings... reliever Mirko Musial (1-0/0.00/3 saves) carded his third playoff save and wrapped up the series by striking out three in his inning and one-third, thus preserving the win for Grajek... in a lackluster performance Butch Slattery (1-3/2.97) took the loss, giving up seven runs in six-plus innings, though only three of them were earned... three errors hurt the Rascals.
Overjoyed with another Pro Cup, Valmara skipper Vanya Vasylenko gave credit to his offense today... "It was the offense today, but overall, it was our pitching... the mound staff really stood out in the postseason... to win a Pro Cup is quite an accomplishment... to win it two years in a row is almost beyond belief."
Vasylenko also had words of praise for his bullpen... "Some people thought we were weak in relief, but Kasio and Mirko proved the critics wrong... they didn't give up a single run in eight games and 12 innings... totaling two wins, no losses and five saves... they may have been the difference in the two clubs."
Mick Cronyn, the White River manager, said, "My Rascals are a very fine ball club, but we ran into one that was a little bit better... Valmara does everything well... I didn't see any weaknesses."
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