NEW CARLISLE - The words "traveling trophy" don't mean much to Scott Soos and his Cult West Warriors. Soos and his squad will take the Hometown Cup back to South Bend for a third consecutive year, after an 11-8 victory over the New Carlisle Newts in the title game.
Cult West ran through the weekend undefeated for the second straight year and now own a 25-game winning streak in Championship play. Prior to the Hometown Cup Finals, their only win of the tournament that came by less than nine runs was a 5-1 victory over the Pterodactyls in the first round of the Hometown Cup Playoffs.
The bats woke up after that, and it was another typical Sunday performance by Cult West. Hanging a ten in the third and an eight in the fourth, the Warriors cruised to a 22-13 victory over the Maple City Magic in the first semifinal at Migley Field.
Cult West met the hometown Newts, who defeated the Clutch Players, in the finals. The energetic crowd of 200 was treated to the best title game in years. The two familiar opponents, who have played plenty of close games over the last three years in ORWBL, traded runs until the fourth. Trailing 7-5, the Warriors scored five in the bottom half of the frame, to grab a 10-7 lead.
While the Newts inched closer with one in the top of the fifth, Cult West answered with an insurance run to keep the lead at three heading into the sixth. Jay Ryans finished off his complete game by working a scoreless sixth. New Carlisle had signs of a two-out rally, but fell short with the tying run on-deck.
Despite the title game loss, Noah Shail of the Newts was named Hometown Cup Finals MVP. Shail made the play of the day, running across the entire outfield to track down a fly ball off the bat of Ryans.