SWBL Season 15 brought another former franchise era Champion...
Congratulations to the SWBL Rockies on winning the 2017 SWBL Championship, their second in the franchise era and their second in three years. The Rockies lineup consisting of Blake Spencer, Brett Spencer, Brian Kenney, Grant Boyd, and Kyle Breda went 6-4 in the regular season, to win the Sportsbarn Division and secured the third seed in the playoffs. But the real magic of this team always happens in the playoffs.
The playoffs started out this year with the new Wild Card game format featuring the Brewers (5 seed) vs. the Twins (4 seed). The Brewers offense was too much for Will Rath in his first playoff start in a while after finishing second in the CY Wiffle race.
The second playoff matchup featured the #3 Rockies vs. #2 Yankees. Brett Spencer got injured running to first but his pitching was the difference as the Yankees lost just their second game of the 2017 season.
In the third playoff game, the #5 seed Brewers went up against the 10-0 Royals and after a close 13-10 game, the Royals won their first playoff game in franchise history to secure a spot in the finals.
The Royals came into the Championship 11-0, with the best offense in the league. The Rockies had to be without Brett's bat, but he was a soldier on the mound even with a bum ankle and held the Royals to just 3 runs. The Rockies would take the victory 8-3 to secure the title. Another big story line was the rare error from Ty Butler that would have ended the inning, but like clockwork, the Rockies took advantage and ended the inning scoring 5 runs.
Congratulations to the Rockies on their 2017 Championship and to Brett for his 4th in his career!