A Class AA Springfield club that set franchise records for most wins in a single season and recorded the longest winning streak in team history claimed its first Texas League crown in over a decade Wednesday night.
Springfield’s lineup jumped out to a three-run lead in the first inning over Midland to begin a winner-take-all Game 3 in the Texas League Championship Series and did not let its offensive flurry up. The S-Cards combined for 19 hits in a 13-1 title-clinching win against the Athletics’ Class AA affiliate at Momentum Bank Ballpark in Midland, Texas.
The Texas League title win marks Springfield’s first league championship since 2012. It bookends a season during which Springfield won a franchise-best 88 games and set a franchise mark with an 11-game winning streak.
Before Springfield starter and Texas League post-season All-Star Brycen Mautz could take the mound in the bottom of the first inning, the S-Cards were elevated to a 3-0 lead on a two-run single from Dakota Harris and an RBI single from Zach Levenson.
Midland pushed across one run against Mautz in the second inning on a two-out double from Casey Yamauchi, but had its deficit grow as S-Cards hitters found ways to get on and get runs in every inning from the fourth through the seventh.
Springfield scratched across two runs in the fourth inning on a single from catching prospect Leonardo Bernal to extend its lead to 5-1. A single from Noah Mendlinger in the fifth inning tacked on an additional run and preceded a two-run sixth inning that included Levenson’s one-run single and a run scored on a sacrifice bunt from Ramon Mendoza.
After Mautz’s exit following six innings and one run allowed, Springfield sent 10 batters to the plate in the seventh inning as they tallied six hits and one walk in a five-run frame. The five-run seventh inning included run-scoring hits by Bernal, Harris, and Mendoza.
In their title-clinching win, Springfield had five hitters deliver multi-hit games, including Jon Jon Gazdar (4 for 5), Mendlinger (3 for 5), Bernal (2 for 4), Harris (3 for 3), and Levenson (4 for 5). Harris (four RBIs), Bernal (three RBIs), and Mendoza (three RBIs) each tallied at least three RBIs in the win.
Relievers Austin Love (one inning), Hunter Hayes (one inning), and Zane Mills (one inning) limited Midland to two hits and one walk after Mautz’s start came to a close.
The title win marks its second in franchise history for Springfield, which went 88-50 in the regular season. Springfield dropped Game 1 of the Texas League Championship Series at Hammons Field in Springfield, Missouri, and won Tuesday’s Game 2 in Midland to force a third game in the series.
The championship makes it back-to-back years during which a Cardinals minor league affiliate won its league championship after Class Low-A Palm Beach claimed the Florida State League title a year ago.
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Daniel Guerrero | Post-Dispatch
Baseball writer
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