Astros win the Championship
As the Astros and Royals arrived at Wishing Well on Sunday Sept. 23 there was
literally
no tomorrow. Whether the Championship finals series ended with game 4 or was extended to
a game 5, SABL baseball was poised to end its season.
After winning game 1 in a big way, the Royals had lost games 2 and 3 by a total
score
of 18-6 and faced the unenviable proposition of needing to sweep the Sunday doubleheader
to win the series. So daunting was the task before the Royals that their cooler
contained
not a single bottle of champagne, the way sports championships are traditionally
toasted.
For many Cinderella teams, just getting there is a battle won and often the clock
strikes
midnight. Both the Dragons (the Astros semi-final opponent) and the Royals upset higher
ranked
teams to get as far as they did. The Astros, on the other hand, were playing with
confidence
and hoping for a game 4 victory to secure the 2007 Championship and avoid a series
deciding
5th game.
Sohan "The Legendary Guyanese M.V.P." Singh pitched a gem in game 4, giving up
just a
single run and striking out 13 Royals in a complete game 7-1 series clinching Astros
win.
Sohan also opened the scoring for the Astros hitting a long home run to left
center in
the second inning. The runs were spread out for the Astros as the most scored in the
game
in any inning were two showing that the team could win with the big inning (8 runs in
the
7th inning of game 2) or by chipping away and building a lead (game 4, the Astros scored
either one or two runs in 5 of the 7 innings).
If Las Vegas odds-makers were handicapping the playoffs, the likeliest outcome
was what
transpired in the end as the Astros had the most wins during the regualr season (a
record-tying
24), the most runs scored (269, 9 ahead of the Psychos at 260) and the least runs
against
(134 with the Psychos again next best at 158).
The 2007 SABL Championship was the 4th in team history and first since 2003. They
also
won in 1998 as the Pirates, a team they retired as Champions to become the Astros and in
1999, their initial year playing as the Astros.
Overall in 2007, the SABL had what could arguably be called its most successful
season
with four teams ending up with between 19 and 24 wins (the Psychos, Royals, Reds and
Astros)
and another four teams finishing with between 12 and 15 wins (a much-improved Yankees
team,
the Jays, the Red Sox in a good opening season and the Dragons who ended up going to the
semi-finals).