For the second-straight season, and for the third time since 2008, the Key West Ramblers are champions of the Prairie League. The Ramblers captured the title once again by out-slugging Peosta 11-6 on Saturday at A.J. Spiegel Park in Peosta.
Key West (40-12) trailed 6-4 heading to the bottom of the sixth following a four-run fifth for Peosta. But the Ramblers roared back with a seven-run frame in the sixth to seal the team's third championship of the season. No walk-off grand slams would be necessary in this contest.
"It's huge for us to have a 40-win season and end it the right way -- with a championship," Dan Spain told the Telegraph Herald. "And it's even better knowing we did it with the same core group of guys.
"The whole year, we never felt like we were out of games. If one guy didn't get the big hit, the next guy would."
Five different Ramblers tallied at least one hit in the sixth inning, including left fielder Cory Davidson, who cracked a double and a single and scored a run and drove in a run in the outburst. Even starting pitcher Sean O'Connor got in on the scoring barrage with an RBI single. Kenny Capesius, Spencer Kuehn and Spain also added a single apiece in the sixth.
The offensive surge made a winner out of O'Connor, who improved to 3-0 on the season. The right-hander and former Clarke University hurler tossed six innings and allowed six runs (five earned) on six hits and two walks to go along with two punch outs. Spencer Kuehn relieved O'Connor in the seventh and fired a scoreless inning to pick up his first save of 2012.
Key West got on top early when Dan Spain connected for a solo homer, his fourth of the season, in the bottom of the first inning. An O'Connor run-scoring fielder's choice in the second and RBI doubles by Kuehn (third) and Andrew Redman (fifth) provided the offense prior to the game-deciding sixth-inning fireworks.
Peosta mustered a single run each in the third and fourth innings to get within 3-2. Peosta made its push for a championship with the big sixth inning, but left two men on base to end the game in the seventh.
The Rambler offensive attack was anything but rusty after a layoff of 20 days between games. Seven players recorded exactly two hits: Chris Briggs (2-for-4), Capesius (2-for-4), Davidson (2-for-5), Kuehn (2-for-3), O'Connor (2-for-4), Redman (2-for-4) and Spain (2-for-5). Collectively, Key West tallied 15 hits.
The Ramblers conclude the 2012 season with a franchise record 40 victories and championships at the Worthington Tournament, the Dyersville Tournament and the Prairie League finals. In the process, Key West improved to 220-155 since 2004 and now has a total of six championships over the past two seasons. The Ramblers won the 2011 Prairie League title over Farley, thanks to a walk-off grand slam by Ben Cottrell.
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