SPORTS FLASHBACK 1989: Electric Blue upsets Blazers for Hanover fastball championship
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In their first year in the league, Electric Blue defied local fastball pundits by defeating the Bothwell Blazers in a five-game final series to win the Hanover Fastball Association championship.
Electric Blue’s 7-5 extra inning victory in New Bothwell gave the underdogs the series by three games to two, to cap off a Cinderella season for the first year team.
A tie-breaker in extra innings was necessary to decide Thursday’s final game.
New Bothwell scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh, to tie the game at five, to send the game into extra innings. Larry Stoesz, Garry Funk and Menno Hiebert all had RBI’s in the seventh.
Brad Wiebe tripled to drive in two runs to give the Blues a 7-5 lead in the eighth. The Blazers went up for what was to be their final turn at the plate, with Ernie Funk starting the inning at second base.
Bob Banman flied out to left field, Murray Vogt popped up to first and the final out came as Randy Thiessen struck out Larry Stoesz to end the game.
Electric Blue opened the scoring in the top of the first, but the Blazers got two runs back on three hits in the bottom of the first.
New Bothwell committed three errors in the third inning, allowing the Blues to score twice to take a 3-2 lead.
The Blue scored two more runs in the fifth on only one hit, taking advantage of two more Bothwell errors to take the three-run lead, which Bothwell erased in the bottom of the seventh.
Electric Blue had forced the fifth and deciding game with a decisive 8-1 victory in just five innings of play to even the series at two apiece after four games.
Electric Blue was relentless in their attack in Tuesday’s game in Steinbach, as they pounded out ten hits enroute to an 8-1 shellacking of the Blazers. The game was stopped in the fifth inning because of the seven-run mercy rule.
Most of the damage came in the third inning, when Electric Blue put six runs on the board. Anton Koop paced the Blues going 3 for 4 at the plate, hitting two singles, and a double, getting on base with a walk and scoring three runs.
Randy Thiessen said the 8-1 victory gave the Blues a lot of confidence going into the final game.
After struggling through the first eight games of the season, Electric Blue reeled off five victories in a row late in the season to give them the final play-off spot with a 7-8 record, and Thiessen says “that was the turning point for the Blues as they headed into the play-offs.”
Electric Blue knocked off the defending champion and pennant-winning Friedensfeld Sultans in the semi-finals, as the team continued to play well.
Thiessen says one of the keys to the team’s success was that Friedensfeld and New Bothwell had more pressure on them to win than Electric Blue did.
For the Bothwell Blazers, it was a bitterly disappointing loss. It was the second year in a row the Blazers had lost the fifth and deciding game of the Hanover finals.
New Bothwell coach Vern Penner congratulated Electric Blue for “playing the game the way it should be played, ” referring to the number of errors Bothwell committed.