And there it is…
The Tennessee Smokies will be taking a trophy back home to Kodak as they won the Southern League Championship 10-3!
Heading into the night, the Smokies stood a pretty good shot of winning the title as they had Cade Horton on the bump and that potent lineup that has just been eviscerating teams the last month.
The Smokies got on the board in the top of the second with a Pablo Aliendo sac fly that brought in Haydn McGeary to make it 1-0. The Blue Wahoos answered right back in the bottom of the second as they plated a run on a walk and a double.
But that was all she wrote for Pensacola’s chances on the night.
In the top of the third, BJ Murray put some distance into the scoreboard with a 3 run jack.
Cade Horton took that lead and went 5 innings as he gave up that 1 run on 1 hit and 3 walks but he struck out 4.
When Horton left, it was 5-1.
The next inning, the Smokies offense just pummeled the Pensacola pitching staff for four more runs to make it 9-1.
The Smokies would add another run in the seventh and that made it 10-2. Riley Martin pitched a scoreless seventh. For the ninth, the Smokies went with Hunter Bigge who closed out the game for a 10-3 win!
Here’s the big takeaway from this win…
Most of this team could be ready for Chicago within a year. From Shaw to Murray to Caissie to McGeary to Ballesteros to Aliendo to Alcantara….all of that talent is less than a year away! It almost makes we want to write the season review tonight and the Iowa preview tomorrow…but I did say almost, It will be fun to do both when the time does come!
For now….just enjoy that this was one of the most elite prospect laden teams of the past 12 years in the Cubs’ system!
