For the first time in 13 years, the Deltaville Deltas are league champions.
The Deltas, top seed in the Richmond National Adult Baseball Association, defeated the #2 seed and defending 2016 champion Richmond Blue Jays, 2-1, in a closely contested championship game on Sunday afternoon in Richmond.
Sunday’s championship was a rematch of the 2016 title game, where the Blue Jays bested the Deltas. This year, Deltaville claimed the title thanks to timely hitting and a few spectacular, game-changing defensive plays.
The game was a pitchers’ duel from the start. Each team managed just one hit and failed to score over the first three innings. However in the top of the fourth, the Blue Jays’ cleanup hitter reached base on a single, and scored on a Deltas’ throwing error two batters later to give the Jays a 1-0 lead.
Deltaville responded immediately. In the bottom half of the fourth, the Deltas strung together three consecutive singles by Craig Johnson, Kinston Carson and Jacob Houston, with Houston’s single scoring Johnson to tie the game at 1-1.
The game remained deadlocked until the bottom of the sixth, when Houston delivered again. He drove a two-out single to the outfield, and Ryan Wiggins scored from second base, beating the throw to the plate and giving Deltaville the 2-1 lead.
Meanwhile, on the defensive side, the Deltas depended on their pitching and gloves to hold off the Blue Jays’ offense. Starting pitcher Paul Jones pitched seven strong innings, allowing just three hits and one unearned run. Former Mathews High standout Brian Owens came on in the eighth to close the game. The left-hander hurled two scoreless innings to seal the game and record the save.
But the pitching statistics would not have been as good as they were without numerous defensive plays. Deltaville turned three double plays in the game, and threw out two attempted base stealers. Houston saved a run in the top of the first inning, diving to catch a would-be line drive hit in the outfield and turned a run-scoring hit into an inning-ending double play by doubling off the advancing runner at second base. Later, in the top of the ninth, shortstop Alexander Crittenden made a dramatic play that likely saved the game. With the tying run on first base and no outs, the Blue Jays nailed a screaming line drive towards the outfield gap. However, Crittenden sailed into the air and grabbed the ball out of the sky, and then fired to first base to double off the would-be game-tying runner. The next batter was retired on a routine fly ball to the outfield, and the Deltas began celebrating the championship.
Offensively, the Deltas were led by Wiggins and Houston at the plate. Wiggins singled twice, and scored the Deltas go-ahead run in the sixth. Houston also singled twice, and was responsible for driving in both Deltaville runs.
Deltaville last captured a league title in 2004, when it defeated the Spotsylvania Sun Devils in the now-defunct Virginia Baseball League. Since then, despite reaching league championship games in 2005, 2013, 2015 and 2016, the Deltas had not won the final game of the year until this season. The Deltas finished the season with a final record of 23-2, and a league mark of 20-1—their only league blemish being a 6-4 loss to the Blue Jays back in June.
Semifinal: Deltas 4, Blue Jays 2
To advance to the championship in the double elimination tournament, Deltaville met the Blue Jays last Wednesday night in Richmond, and the game was equally as exciting as the championship.
Carson pitched a complete game, allowing just two runs on three hits as the Deltas defeated the Blue Jays, 4-2.
Deltaville took a 2-0 lead in the third inning on an RBI single by Johnson, followed by a run-scoring sacrifice fly by Scott Crump. In the fourth, Deltaville extended the lead to 4-0, taking advantage of a defensive error to score one run, and scoring another on a Carson single.
The Blue Jays hit solo home runs in the top of the fifth and ninth innings, but were unable to generate any other meaningful offense against Carson, the league’s earned run average leader for 2017. Carson didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning, and outside of the two home runs, only allowed two baserunners past first base throughout the game.
Carson also led at the plate, who along with Johnson led all hitters by collecting two hits in the game.
The Blue Jays later advanced to the championship by defeating the Richmond Orioles on Thursday during the elimination round of the tournament in a 5-4, 11-inning victory. The Blue Jays would have needed to defeat the Deltas in a second “if-needed” championship game had they defeated Deltaville in Sunday’s matchup.