September 19th, 2016 at 6:00 am 
by Harold Uhlman 
The 2016 Midwest League Champion Great Lakes Loons.
(Photo credit – Amanda Ray)
After giving up 16 runs in the opener of the Midwest League Championship Series, the Great Lakes Loons suddenly found themselves on the brink of its first title in their 10-year history in Midland.
The Loons were back at it again on Sunday afternoon in the hunt for that elusive championship title. They had taken the second of three steps on Saturday with that second straight shutout of the Clinton LumberKings. The third step is clinching one more game in the best-of-five series.
On Saturday Loons catcher Stevie Berman had perhaps his best offensive game of the year with two hits, a walk and a run batted in. Berman is enjoying the moment, not only the winning part but catching the young Loons pitching staff.
“These guys are coming out with very good arms and good secondary stuff, also,” Berman said. “It’s just fun to call a game behind them.”
“We trust our pitchers and we know what our strengths are,” said Steve Berman, who caught both games after sitting out the opener. “We studied their hitters a little bit, so we just tried to work our way around that.”
Berman also spoke of the decision by manager Gil Velazquez to pull left-hander Caleb Ferguson from the game after 76 pitches on Saturday.
“Ferg is a good pitcher because he can throw everything for strikes,” Berman said. “He loves to compete and guys love playing behind him because he works so quickly and throws strikes. No pitcher ever wants to come out of a game, especially when you want to compete for your team, but we all respect Gil’s decision because we know he wants us to win and he wants us to do better than what we want for ourselves.”
Heading into the potential championship game on Sunday the Loons had an aggregate batting average during the playoffs of .287 while they posted a team batting average of .234 during the season which was one of the lowest in minor league baseball.
The Great Lakes pitching staff has recorded a 3.46 ERA during the post season games compared to a regular season 3.30 ERA. However, the playoff statistics include the 16-6 loss to the LumberKings in their first game match up with Clinton. With that game removed from their statistics, the Loons pitchers have allowed just 17 earned runs in their eight other playoff games including the two shutouts and two games in which they gave up just one run.
Manager Gil Velazquez and pitching coach Bobby Cuellar have done a masterful job of guiding the pitching staff throughout the playoffs. On Sunday the schedule worked as perhaps they would have hoped with 20-year-old Yadier Alvarez ready to go. On the season the young right-handed posted a 2.29 ERA in 39.1 innings with the Loons with 11 walks, 55 strikeouts and a WHIP of 1.07. In his two playoff appearances he gave up eight hits in nine innings with no runs while walking but one and striking out six.
His mound opponent on Sunday also had himself quite an impressive season with the LumberKings. In 91 innings pitched 19-year-old Nick Neidert had an ERA of 2.57 and a WHIP of 0.97. He struck out 69 and walked 13. In 14 playoff innings over two starts the right-hander has allowed only six hits with one walk and 18 strikeouts.
The LumberKings struck first when right fielder Alex Jackson hit a a long home run to left field on a 3-1 pitch to lead off the top of the second inning. That appeared to rattle Alvarez who struggled with control in the inning and at one point threw seven straight balls out of the strike zone. Following a walk and a single Clinton took a three-run lead on a double by second baseman Chris Mariscal.
In the bottom of the second inning the Loons struck back with three runs to knot the score at three. LumberKings starter Nicholas Niedert gave up his first runs in 15 post season innings on a single by Logan Landon, a balk, a HBP, a double by catcher Jake Hensen and a single by first baseman Matt Jones.
After walking the lead off runner in the bottom of the fourth inning, Alvarez was relieved by right-hander Ivan Vieitez who promptly gave up an infield single to shortstop Ricky Eusebio. A sacrifice bunt moved the runners up to second and third base but Vieitez retired the side with a strikeout and a ball pounded into the dirt just in front of home plate.
Leadoff hitter Saige Jenco pushed across a fourth run in the bottom of the fourth inning following a Matt Jones double to right center field only to have the LumberKings tie the score in the top of the fifth inning on a home run by first baseman Dalton Kelly.
In what was turning out to be considerably less than a pitcher’s duel, the LumberKings responded with three runs in the sixth inning on a home run to lead off the inning followed by three singles and a wild pitch.
The Loons entered the bottom of the sixth inning down 7-4 but not to be out done scored five runs before the inning ended on four walks, a single, a sacrifice fly and a two-run double by Logan Landon.
With three innings left in the game the Loons ran into more trouble in the top of the seventh inning. The LumberKings scored one run with the possibility of a big inning until right-hander Dean Kremer came on to put out the fire with the bases loaded.
Kremer then pitched a clean eighth inning sending the Loons back to the dugout in the bottom of the inning with a precarious 9-8 lead.
The 20-year-old Kremer finished off the game in the top of the ninth inning with no further damage claiming an eight-out save.
First baseman Matt Jones closed out his season with a perfect 4-for-4 day, including two doubles, two runs scored and two runs batted in.
Loons win! Loons win!
Posted in 
Congratulations to Gil Velazquez and his entire Loons staff and team on this unlikely but incredible (and well deserved) MWL Championship.
If ever there were an underdog to even make the playoffs, it was clearly the Loons.
GREAT JOB BOYS!
And a huge ‘Thank You’ to our own Harold Uhlman, who kept us up to date throughout the playoffs with his daily game recaps.
This is an incredible group of young men. They absolutely refused to roll over. Down three runs twice yesterday they battled right back.
They beat the two teams with the best overall records in the MWL – Clinton (86-54)and Bowling Green (84-55)along with West Michigan (71-65). The Loons were 65-75 on the season including 29-41 in the first half.
Velazquez was absolutely the right man for the job in Midland. Even when for so long the team had the lowest batting average in minor league baseball he wouldn’t let them get down on themselves.
They did so without Luke Raley and Imani Abdullah and with Jordan Sheffield and Walker Buehler limited to a couple of innings per start. Buehler got in three innings in his last start and certainly looked good.
The amount of travel they had to do was unbelievable and by far the most of any team in the playoffs, usually making the long runs at night.They played six of their first eight games on the road.
Should be some fun in Rancho in 2017. The pitching staff has the potential to move a group of youngsters along together.
That is the most fun I have had in the baseball world since the 1988 WS and ST 2013.
“That is the most fun I have had in the baseball world since the 1988 WS and ST 2013”
That’s telling us a lot Harold. Thank you for the updates and all the time you spent following all the rungs of the Dodger system. I know it has to be time consuming, (and a lot of fun too). It’s great to see that the GL kids were able to persevere and come out on top. Rancho Cucamonga has a lot to look forward to next season.
It is time consuming Evan but very rewarding. As you know well over half of the Dodgers games are late on the east coast and especially for me, starting after 11:00 P.M. However, Vin’s last games won’t be too late.
The Loons especially, and the Drillers and OKC are much more time friendly for me. Ogden has a 10:00 P.M. start for me so I can follow some of their game time.
Yesterday when I woke up I told Elaine I seemed to be very nervous. Now one should never be nervous waking up as that is a good thing. As the day wore on I came to realize the nervousness was in preparation for the Loons game.
“YES!” Ron Cervenka said selfishly.
Should also be a lot of fun.
I was unfortunately away from home and a computer Sunday thru mid morning today. I kept shaking my head and wife asked what was wrong. I told her I do not know how the Loons are doing/did. But I knew I could come here and read a thorough recap of the Game from Harold. Congratulations to Gil Velazquez and the 2016 Great Lakes Loons, Midwest League Champions. It has a great ring to it.
Many (if not most) of these players will make the progression to Rancho in 2017. I plan to go to as many Rancho games in NorCal as possible, starting with April 6, Opening Game at Stockton.
You too have something to look forward to. These young guys are just starting their development. This has to be a tremendous confidence booster for them. It was truly a team victory.
I am just amazed at how Gil steered the ship, especially through the pitching maze. Pitching coach Greg Sabat deserves a whole lot of credit too as well as Jon Valentin. His work was evident about midway through the second half.
AC – Ron mentioned on another article (Vin) that there is crying in baseball. I didn’t actually cry but on that last out it was very close with that lump in the throat. I wanted to hug a Loon and say thanks.