CarL1 Frederick Keys

Keys shutout Indians to win first Mills Cup since 1990

Published on September 15, 2005 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Frederick Keys News Release


Kinston, NC -- The Frederick Keys (5-2) suffered through four days and a Hurricane after taking a two-games-to-none lead in the Best-of-Five Championship Series. They finally prevailed on Thursday night at Grainger Stadium in Kinston, NC, shutting out the Kinston Indians, 2-0 (4-3) to earn their first Mills Cup since 1990.

The Keys and Indians waited 45 minutes to start the game, due to a rain delay, but the Keys offense did not waste any time getting started once Game Five of the Mills Cup Series began.

Mario Delgado gave the Keys a 1-0 lead with a solo home run off Nick Pesco to lead off the top of the second inning. Delgado, who hit 26 homers during the regular, saved his first post-season home run for the most important game of the year. Nolan Reimold followed with a double to left field, before Dustin Yount reached on a walk. Bryan Bass' sacrifice bunt moved both runners up, setting up Brian Bock to drive in Reimold with a ground out back to Pesco, as the Keys took a 2-0 lead.

Brian Finch and the Keys spent much of the early part of the game living dangerously on the edge, as the Indians left runners stranded in scoring position in four of the first five innings, including leaving the bases loaded in the bottom of the third. But Finch worked his way out of several jams, stranding 10 runners over the first five innings.

The Indians came away unscathed in the top of the sixth inning after Branden Florence and Delgado led off with singles. Aaron Laffey came on to replace Nick Pesco, and walked Bryan Bass to load the bases. Laffey was able to get Bock to ground out to short to keep the Keys from breaking the game open.

Garrett Olson replaced Finch to start the bottom of the sixth inning and retired six consecutive batters, striking out three. Chris Britton replaced Olson to start the bottom of the eighth. Britton pitched a scoreless inning of relief to set up Marino Salas to pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning.

In the bottom of the ninth, Salas allowed a one-out double to Brian Barton, who advanced to third base on a wild pitch. But Salas struck out the final two batters to earn his second save of the post-season. Finch (2-0) earned his second win of the Mills Cup Series, tossing 5.0 shutout innings, allowing just four hits, despite walking five and hitting three batters.

Pesco (0-2) took the loss, allowing two runs on seven hits over 5.1 innings. Laffey, Jesus Soto, Kyle Collins and Tony Sipp combined to throw 3.2 scoreless innings the rest of the way.

Another Comcast-Spectacor team won a championship this season - the Philadelphia Phantoms captured the American Hockey League's Calder Cup this past June. In fact, four hockey teams playing in Global Spectrum-managed facilities won Championships. Global Spectrum is the public assembly management subsidiary of Comcast-spectacor.

Comcast-Spectacor is the Philadelphia based sports and entertainment firm which owns the Philadelphia Flyers, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Philadelphia Phantoms, the Wachovia Center and Wachovia Spectrum, Flyers Skate Zone community ice skating and ice hockey rinks and Comcast SportsNet. Comcast-Spectacor is also the principal owner of Global Spectrum, the fastest growing firm in the public assembly management field with more than 45 facilities throughout the United States and Canada; Ovations Food Services, a food and beverage service provider; New Era Tickets, a full-service ticketing and marketing company for public assembly facilities; and Front Row Marketing Services, a commercial rights sales company. Comcast-Spectacor also owns the Bowie Baysox, the Delmarva Shorebirds, the Frederick Keys baseball teams, all affiliates of the Baltimore Orioles.

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Carolina League Stories from September 15, 2005


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