Phillies       17
Blue Jays      11


The third-seeded Ports International Phillies stunned second-seed Vitamalt Blue Jays on Saturday to advance to the championship series against pennant-winner Prime Bahama Angels. The Blue Jays had previously beaten the Phillies in all four regular season games.


However, Phillies bats caught fire early at the Rookie field, in front of a large crowd of fans for both teams, as all but three Phillies players recorded hits for the game. Sluggers Oliver Euteneuer (4 for 4), Sean Wrinkle (3 for 4) , Aidan Adams (3 for 4) , and Andrew Malcolm (3 for 3) , who combined for 13 total hits, led the offensive charge.


But defense also played a key role in the victory. Tavis Simms made an unassisted double play with runners on second and third, to quash a Blue Jays rally and end the third inning. A stretched-out Simms pulled down a pop fly hit to short stop, when the runner at third base headed home. Simms then tagged third base for the second out of the double play, and the final out of the inning.


Second baseman, Glen Ritchie, also contributed to the defensive effort by scooping up several hard-hit balls and throwing runners out at first. Ritchie and first baseman, Euteneuer, each managed to rob the Blue Jays of potential runs by snatching pop ups out of the air.


The Phillies scored five runs in their first at bat, only to fall behind by one run in the bottom of the first. But solid all-around defense and strong hitting from all Phillies batters kept the Blue Jays on their heels. The Phillies effectively shut the door on the Jays in the top of the sixth inning with the score 10-9, by scoring seven runs and going through their entire line up of batters. The Jays would only manage two more runs in their last at bat of the game.