By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
After coming back from a seven-run and a five-run deficit in their previous two postseason games this week, the St. Joseph Mustangs were the ones to take a big lead Friday.
And this time, there was no drama at the end.
The Mustangs' offense got rolling in the middle of the game, behind a quality start from pitcher Braden Berry, and St. Joseph won its seventh MINK League title with a 12-2 victory over Sedalia Friday at Phil Welch Stadium in the second game of the championship series.
The seven championships are more than any other team in the MINK League.
"There's so many local kids (on this team) who grew up watching the Mustangs," coach Johnny Coy said, winning his second MINK League title as the team's head man. "They got to experience it as fans, and now they get to experience it as players. They really wanted it bad, and that just shows you the kind of fight that they have and how tough they were all season long."
Berry is one of those locals, and he did not disappoint in the Mustangs' final game of the season.
After spotting Sedalia (21-19) an early run in the first, Berry settled in, striking out six and walking only two over six innings pitched.
"I just wanted to do it for the city of St. Joseph," said Berry, a graduate of St. Joseph Central High School. "They've supported me through high school and everything until now. I mean, it means everything to me."
Offensively, St. Joseph was slow to start, getting just one hit through the first three innings. Things began to click in the fourth inning, as the Mustangs (26-20) scored four runs in that frame.
Jake Grauberger led off the bottom of the fourth with a double, and three Mustangs were hit by a pitch in that inning, allowing them to take a 4-1 lead.
The Bombers got a run back in the top of the fifth, but the Mustangs scored two more runs in both the fifth and sixth inning, and finished the job with four runs on three hits in the seventh.
An RBI single by Michael Paule scored Cole Slibowski from third to end the game in mercy rule.
In all, seven Mustangs hit and eight of them scored. Slibowski was 2-of-4 with a double and a pair of runs scored. Grauberger, Paule and Kissane each had a pair of hits as well.
All of this in front of a solid crowd of 2,246 fans.
"The fans are such a huge part of it," Coy said. "I don't think they realize how big of a part they play in this. Whenever we go on the road, there's not a lot of fans and not a lot of energy. And these fans, we feed off of them every single year. Without the fans, I don't know if the Mustangs would be what it is. We're always going to be grateful for our fans."
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