But in the end the Whalers were just too tough for our heroes. Talented young starter Sekien Hamasaki had another tough outing and while the Brewers battled right to the end they fell short and lost 7-5, and the Columbus Whalers repeat as WPK Champions.
Brett Kane was tremendous in the series and took the series MVP honors. Bobby Erbakan and Andrew Kennedy both did their part for Denver, each hitting .417 for the series. In limited action, right fielder Josh Schaeffer also did quite well (also hitting .417) and there were some questions about whether he should have been used more even though he generally struggles to hit against left-handed pitching. Although in fairness, his replacement Jon Williams wasn't bad and got hot towards the end of the series including hitting one of 3 homers that the Brewers managed in the series and going 2 for 3 with a double and a stolen base in the the final game. But in spite of hitting a HR also, Joe McPhillips was held to just .250 with 1 RBI and Brett Taranto struggled to a .208 batting average. Rich White hit a bit better (.286, 1 HR) and was marvelous defensively. But the Brewers just didn't have enough fire-power to win against that tremendous lefty rotation. And while a few relievers were quite good- Ben Flynn and John Weaver- the relievers they counted on most- Jason Gottula and Tim Shore- let them down in the end.
For the Columbus Whalers it is 4 championships in 5 Kinsella Classic Series. At this point of league history, they truly are the class of the WPK.