The ISC has a new champion for the first time since 2013, the Toronto Gators. The Gators defeated the Hill United Chiefs, ending their three-year reign as world champions.
Newfoundland’s Shane Boland, who struggled for most of the tournament, rose to the occasion hitting a walkoff three run home run in the bottom of the 7th, to break a 3-3 tie, for the win and a world title for the Gators.
The Toronto Gators defeated the Chiefs not once but twice in the last 24 hours, both times on dramatic walk-off home runs, clinching the world title with an exclamation mark.
For fastball fans around the world who might have thought nothing could match the drama of Wayne Laulu’s walkoff home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of the winners bracket final, they were treated to a game that will be remembered for many years to come.
The Chiefs did not go quietly and battled to the end to hold onto their world title. Trailing 3 to 1 in the seventh inning, they reached back and came up with two solo home runs to tie the game. one by Mark Johnson and the other by James Todd Hunter. But the Chiefs were once again the visiting team, leaving the Toronto Gators one last at bat in a game of last man standing.
Toronto’s Wayne Laulu, the hero of last night’s big win over the Chiefs, led off the bottom of the 7th, with leadoff single rifle up the middle nearly taking out the Chiefs ace Adam Folkard.
The next batter was Brad Rona, setting up a classic power on power match-up between two of the greatest fastball players the world has seen for more than a decade. In the 5th, Rona won the battle hitting a solo home run. In the 7th, it was Folkard who prevailed, striking out Rona. Thomas Enoka was next, who walked, putting the potential winning run at second base, and giving the Gators two chances to bring home pinch-runner Dante Mantakatea, sent in to run for Laulu. Next up was Shane Boland, who had struggled at the plate, and entered the game with just one hit in 14 at-bats , and .071 average.
But in this game, he had already notched a hit. And Adam Folkard, though battling as a champion, had not been the dominant pitcher that carried his chiefs to three consecutive world titles. This time, on this day, the battle was won by Shane Boland, who delivered the hit that Toronto was looking for. Not a single to bring the speedy Matakatea home from second, but a dramatic, walk-off, three run homer that echoed all the way to Boland’s home in Newfoundland, and made him the hero of the 2016 ISC World Tournament.
The win also gave their ace, Sean Cleary, the win over Folkard and his Chiefs that eluded him in 2015, when the Gators came within five outs of the world title but couldn’t hold the tiger by the tail. Cleary was outstanding on the night, scattering five hits, while striking out 13, and surrendering just one earned run.
Ben Enoka was a perfect 4-for-4 for the Gators from the leadoff spot driving in two of the runs. Enoka batted .476 in the 2016 tournament, adding another page to the resume of the player many think can lay claim to being the game’s best pure hitter. But Enoka’s performance was overshadowed by a hitter finishing the tournament with a .167 average. The average mattered not to Shane Boland, who saved his best for last, going 2-for-4 on the day, scoring two runs and delivering the game winning home run for 3 RBI.
Last summer, Shane’s older brother Ryan starred for Team Canada’s gold medal winning team. Shane himself earned a silver medal for the Canadian Jr. Men’s national team in 2008. But on this day, as the glasses are hoisted to celebrate the Gator’s big win at the 2016 ISC World Tournament, it will be young Shane who will be the man they’ll first toast.
The loss by Folkard left him one win shy of Gerald Muizelaar’s record for consecutive wins in the ISC World Tournament. The Chiefs finished one title shy of tying the Long Beach Nitehawks record of four consecutive world titles. For three years, they ruled the fastball world, with tremendous talent, class and dignity, earning the respect of every team that crossed their paths. In this year, they battled mightly, just one win shy of continuing their reign, and showing tremedous heart. In the process, both the Chiefs and the Gators gave the fans thrilling world caliber fastball more than worthy of the game.
Earlier in the day, the Chiefs ousted another of their arch rivals, the New York Gremlins, who finished 3rd in the tournament.
The Gremlins in turn ousted the Vancouver BC A’s earlier this morning. The A’s rounded out the 4th spot in the ISC’s 2016 Final Four.
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