By Clifton Mandrake, National City Examiner
September 20, 2016

The National City Bankers have won the North American Farm Team Affiliation Free Trade Throwdown for the first time ever.  The Hi-A farm team of the Palm Springs Codgers triumphed over the Alexandria Macedonians, winning the best-of-five series three games to one.

“This feels awesome,” said third baseman David Hunter, who led the team with 33 home runs in the regular season and added two more during the championship series.  “Winning never gets old.”

The Bankers’ victory capped off a dominating 88-40 regular season – the best record in the NAFTA, and good enough for the top seed in the Baja Cali League.  But the team also finished first in 2014 and 2015, only to falter in the playoffs.  What was the difference this year?

Pitching coach Felipe Lara had the answer. “Those other teams were chokers, man,” Lara laughed, putting his hands to his neck.  “But once I joined, I knew winning was, like, 98 percent for sure.”

And sure enough, the Bankers roared through the Baja Cali half of the bracket, sweeping first El Cajon and then San Luis Río Colorado to reach the championship series.

Meanwhile, Alexandria had something of a fairy tale run in the Amber Waves League’s postseason.  Little was expected of the team, which had just a .500 regular season record and qualified for the playoffs only thanks to a very weak Coastal Division.  However, once the playoffs started, the Macedonians showed why they play the games. They defeated the heavily favored Rapid City Rushmores two games to one.  They then went on to claim the AWL pennant by sweeping the Columbia Helos (who had similarly upset their first-round opponents, the Nampa Moccasins), sending the city of Alexandria into a frenzy.

Indeed, a third straight miracle looked as though it might be in the cards.  Alexandria blasted the Bankers 6-1in the first game as starter Tsuramatsu Ito tossed 7.1 scoreless innings for the win.

But then reality hit as the Bankers foreclosed on Alexandria’s dreams with three straight victories.  Felipe González and Hisamitsu Suzuki combined to pitch a 2-0 shutout in Game 2. Then, National City teed off on Macedonian pitching in Game 3, hitting four home runs en route to a lopsided 16-3 victory.

Game 4 looked as though it might turn into more of the same as the Bankers hit three home runs while jumping out to a 5-0 lead.  Dauntless, Alexandria refused to give up.  Led by outfielder Bill Sewell, who had a triple and 2 RBI, the Macedonians scored four runs in the seventh inning to cut the deficit to a single run, igniting a flicker of hope in Alexandrian breasts.  But those hopes were ruthlessly extinguished by a trio of National City relievers, who used a total of just seventeen pitches to close out the final two frames and secure ultimate victory for the Bankers.

“Yeah, it was all over once we got Chileans involved,” smiled pitching coach Lara as he tousled the hair of José Campos, credited as the winning pitcher of the decisive fourth game (both Campos – who struck out ten batters over six innings – and Lara are natives of Chile).  “Chileans give you the lock, man.

“That’s, like, 98 percent for sure.”