Biscuits Just Win Them All, Eliminate Barons to Face Braves in Championship, Pennants in History

 

The Biscuits return to the postseason for the sixth time in six seasons still seeking the elusive pennant. The last time a Montgomery team won the league flag was 2007, a distant memory even to longtime fans. Can this be the team that brings home the ring?

Montgomery Biscuits celebrate what would become the clinching game

 THESE GUYS ARE TOUGH BISCUITS

This Biscuits club is a little different than the other teams we have sent to the postseason and faced a different set of challenges over the summer. Playing through issues like Covid, some terrible umpiring, the weather, constant promotions sapping the team, carrying less than a full roster, brutal injuries and oh yeah, those other teams were tough too. 

What sets this team apart from past clubs going into the playoffs? For one thing this year its just one round, a five game set between the two top teams in the league. 

Divisions were only for scheduling but they gave the Biscuits a close look at the Braves team they will face off against for the championship. 

 

BIGGEST SERIES OF THE YEAR AT THE END

Biscuits sluggers wait out the delays

Sterner and Proctor with Edwards in the dugout

The Braves got the best of the Biscuits last time but this Montgomery roster has nothing to lose. 

In the last few years the Biscuits roster was full of prospects and expectations. This squad was given a few of the former and none of the latter. These Biscuits are built with spit and baling wire and held together with old-fashioned moxy.

 

That Montgomery is able to claim a spot in the postseason is stunning. All summer long I have said the final series would be the biggest one of the year, pitting longtime rival Birmingham against Montgomery in the last six games. That statement loomed larger and larger over the recent weeks as the Biscuits made their late-season push. 

Back in June the Biscuits and Braves split a six game series, but since then the Ms. Braves have handled the Biscuits roughly by winning nine and losing just three against Montgomery.

Facing the Braves has been tough this year

Winning series after series the hopes were high in the Montgomery stands until the Mississippi Braves came to town and easily took five of the six games.

 A Biscuits visit to the Braves park a couple weeks later saw the Bravos take down the Biscuits in four of six contests. 

At that point the Rays started promoting players around the Biscuits, leaving the club shorthanded and sending fans the message that there wasn't much expectation ahead. 

Fortunately the players wearing the uniforms didn't get that memo.

Biscuits Aranda slides in safely

JUST WIN THEM ALL

Facing a final series against Birmingham, the Biscuits came in trailing by a couple games and needing to win five out of six of the scheduled games to make it to the postseason. 

While some got out their calculators and slide rules to work up the odds against them and possible scenarios including other teams, one Biscuits player told me the plan. "We just win them all."

And that is exactly what they did. 

 

Tuesday the Biscuits handled the Barons easily in a six-three contest that was never as close the score would indicate. Montgomery scored twice in the first inning and three in the fifth inning made it an easy victory to open the series.

Wednesday it rained.

Thursday it rained. again.

Doubleheaders were scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

GET ONE IN

Xavier Edwards bat dies a hero

On Friday the Biscuits took the first game in walk-off style as Xavier Edwards played the hero with a broken bat single. 

In the second game Montgomery scored once in the first and then batted around in the third inning en route to a nine-six victory to bring the Biscuits just a half game behind the Barons.

For the Barons this was a crushing defeat, requiring them to win two of the final three games in order to stave off elimination. The Barons dugout was silenced and from what I could tell, this was the final gasp of Birmingham's efforts.

 

Biscuits celebrate walkoff win against Birmingham

Saturday a doubleheader was scheduled but only one game was started after the three and a half hour rain delay. The grounds crew and Biscuits staff did an unbelievable job turning an unplayable field into a playable one. Seriously. I have never seen the field take so much water and still get a game in. Amazing job to get the team a chance.

Even Jim Haley lent a hand with tarp pulling

GAME ON

And it was not wasted.

Jack Labosky, Biscuits legend

Montgomery again scored once in the first inning and added one in the fifth as Jack Labosky put the Biscuits on his back and carried them for six full innings.

Jack Labosky's mound efforts were Herculean, the first opposing hitter of the game singled against him but was erased on a double play as JackLab tossed six one hit innings, walking none and striking out six to earn the victory. A masterful effort.

 

Reliable reliever Justin Sterner threw a strong seventh inning for the save in the seven-inning game and the Biscuits won two-nothing, earning a half-game lead over the Barons in the standings.

On Sunday it rained. 

And rained. 

And rained. 

Mother Nature prevailed and the games were called due to unplayable conditions and the Biscuits finished in second place overall, sweeping the Slagtown Barons and earning a spot in the championship series against the Ms. Braves.

 

Edwards applies the tag

THOSE BRAVES AGAIN?

Yes, the Biscuits earned to right to fave the team that has beaten them in nine of their last twelve face offs. Hey, it is also the team I used in the lead a few weeks ago with "possible playoff preview". And while the Biscuits got beaten in the season series and there is reason to wonder if Montgomery can get past the toughest opponent in the league, it isn't a given that the Braves are unstoppable.

Connor Hollis

This Biscuits club is much more resilient after having faced an improbable task to get to the postseason and has changed a bit since the last meeting between the two clubs. 

Adding Miller Hogan to the starting rotation and Connor Hollis to the lineup has shored up the Biscuits in two spots they desperately needed help with. 

Connor Hollis has been swinging a hot bat and fits in the Montgomery batting order nicely, also showing excellent range at second base. 

Hollis safe at third

 

Miller Hogan

Also fresh to the club is starting pitcher Miller Hogan, bringing a fresh arm to the short series championship will help the Biscuits greatly. Hogan is a hard thrower who gets good movement and seems to have a solid workmans mentality on the mound.

 

The rain out on the final day is a good thing for the Biscuits, as it could allow Easton McGee to return to the hill early in the championship series and possibly be available for game five in Mississippi, if needed.  

I think there is a good chance these guys do it.

Catcher Chris Betts, catcher Ford Proctor, outfielder Niko Hulsizer and pitcher Joel Peguero are all former Perth Heat players in the Australian Baseball League.

Ivan Pelaez led the staff with 8 victories

Ivan Pelaez finished the year tied for the league lead with eight victories.

Alex ValVerde led the pitching staff with 92 strikeouts this season.

Biscuits reliever Dalton Moats will soon be out of the boot and is on the mend from his midseason injury. 

 Rainouts may have kept Jonathan Aranda from winning the league batting title. With 322 plate appearances he may come up short of getting the minimum needed to qualify, despite hitting a strong .325 in 79 games with Montgomery. Aranda leads the club in several batting stats including average, slugging and OPS.

#BULLPENLIFE

THIS WEEK IN MONTGOMERY HISTORY

Lots of good history this week, some goes way back to the earliest games of our history and others cementing their place in local legends. There are a couple of dates I don't have items for but have left them open here in hopes we can add something from the current Montgomery team! 

SEPT 17 1914 

Gilks 1914 Mgm mgr.

Montgomery Billikins lose to Chattanooga 10-9 in last Southern Association game for 30 yrs. 

The city would go without affiliated minor league baseball for a dozen seasons. Montgomery will be Southeastern League-rs beginning in 1926. South Atlantic League in 1951-56, join the Southern Assoc for the end of 1956, Al-FL league in 1957-62 and Southern league in 1965-80. 

Montgomery returns to the Southern League in 2004.

 
 

 

SEPT 17 1948 

Montgomery Rebels win playoff against Jackson TN with a 2-0 victory, winning the series four games to one.
 

 

SEPTEMBER 20 1867 

Montgomery base ball game goes seven innings, called in the 8th to darkness with Montgomery at bat.
 

SEPTEMBER 21
 

SEPTEMBER 22 1885  

The game of baseball between Florence and Leighton ended in the defeat of our boys (florence), the score 42 to 29. One of the best players of Florence club, Charley Warren was “catcher” for Leighton club and very few of the regular home club playing was cause of defeat.
 

SEPTEMBER 22 1973 

Montgomery wins Southern League championship under skipper Fred Hatfield 

SEPTEMBER 23 1972 

Montgomery wins Southern League championship under skipper Fred Hatfield.

SEPTEMBER 24

SEPTEMBER 25 1976 

Montgomery Rebels win Southern League pennant under skipper Les Moss.

SEPTEMBER 27 1920 

Grey Sox captain M. Cunningham

"Montgomery Grey Sox Win Negro Pennant - Montgomery, Alabama, September 28. - P.M. Perdue, of Birmingham, president of the Negro Southern League baseball clubs today announded that the Montgomery Grey Sox team was winner of the pennant. The season ended with a game of 6 to 5 score between Montgomery White Sox and Chicago Giants yesterday."