When the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes defeated the Lancaster JetHawks (Rockies) in Game-4 of the California League South Division finals in front of their home crowd at LoanMart Field on Saturday night, it secured their berth into the 2018 California League Championship Series. But even as they celebrated as you might expect from a team that hasn’t been to the World Series of the Advanced Single-A California League since 2015 – when guys named Cody Bellinger, Alex Verdugo and Tim Locastro helped hoist the championship trophy – they did so without knowing who their Cal League North opponents would be.

They do now.

The 2018 Cal League South champion Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

While the Quakes won their best-of-five south division finals rather handily over the JetHawks in four games, the north division finals went the full five games, with the Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks) prevailing over the Stockton Ports (Athletics) three games to two on Sunday evening.

After dropping Game-1 of the Cal League South Finals to the JetHawks, the Quakes bounced back in Game-2 with a remarkable 1-0 shutout win, due largely to the 4.0 perfect relief innings pitched by Quakes right-hander Parker Curry. It was arguably the turning point of the series, which the Quakes ended up winning in four games. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

On paper, the Quakes are the odds-on favorites to win the best-of-five Championship Series, having posted an outstanding overall 2018 season record of 87-53 (.621) that, at one point, included a franchise record-setting 15 consecutive wins, as opposed to the Rawhide overall 2018 season record of 70-70 (.500). But as we all know, the game of baseball isn’t played on paper, and on any given day, any team can beat any other team, records be damned.

In fact, of their 11 head-to-head meetings during the 2018 season, Visalia won six of them, so there’s that little tidbit to keep in their minds when the Championship Series begins on Tuesday evening at Recreation Ballpark in downtown Visalia. Then again, the last time that these two teams faced one another was on May 14, which was exactly 38 games into the 2018 season. In other words, the current Rawhide team has not faced the current Quakes team … the one that won 52 of their 70 second half games.

As noted, Game-1 of the Cal League Championship Series will be played on Tuesday, September 11, at 7:05 pm PT in Visalia, as will Game-2 on Wednesday evening. After a Thursday off day, the teams will resume play on Friday evening, September 14, at 7:05 pm PT at LoanMart Field in Rancho Cucamonga, as will games four and five if necessary, although their respective start times are TBD.

Go Quakes!