Cubs Minor League News: Tennessee Smokies win Southern League Title |
Although things were frustrating for the Chicago Cubs down in Atlanta on Tuesday, there was some excitement to be had as the Cubs AA Affiliate, the Tennessee Smokies, were just one win away from an AA Championship. Not only that, but if they were lucky enough to come away with the title, it would be the organization's third title in five seasons, with South Bend claiming Titles in 2019 and 2022, as plenty of good things are on the horizon for this organization.
After coming up short against Pensacola in the Southern League championship last season, Cade Horton took the ball on Tuesday with a chance to return the favor. Horton may not have been at his best in terms of command, as he walked three and struck out four in five innings. However, all that matters is the amount of runs you allow, which was very minimal against Horton all season as he allowed just one run on one hit in his five innings to set the tone while the offense did the rest in the Smokies dominating 10-3 win to cap off their first outright Southern League title in 45 years. Whenever you have someone with the ability of Horton on the mound, you have to like your chances, especially in a series-clinching situation. After Pablo Aliendo gave the Smokies a 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly in the second, Norel Gonzalez answered with one of his own in the bottom of the second as things were deadlocked 1-1 in the early stages of this one. For the fourth time this post season, the Smokies strike first. @pabloaliendo14 knocks in McGeary to make it 1-0. #BestYearEver #SmokiesBaseball pic.twitter.com/VeMmuct14J Sometimes, all it takes is a big inning to get the juices flowing, or in this case, a pair of big innings by the Smokies offense as they started to pull away in the third inning and never looked back. All it took was one big swing off the bat of BJ Murray Jr., whose homer took what was a tie game and made it 4-1 in favor of the Smokies. BJ Murray with a mammoth blast to give the Smokies a 4-1 lead! #BestYearEver #SmokiesBaseball @BJMurray14 pic.twitter.com/J3kkJG5Yh9 Considering Horton was on the mound, four runs are typically enough, and that was the case here as his homer went down as the game-winning hit. Murray Jr. continued to be right in the middle of the action again in the top half of the fifth as he reached base on an error to allow another run to score as Tennessee opened up a 5-1 lead through five. With Horton now out of the game after five, Pensacola felt a sigh of relief as anyone other than Horton had to be a pleasant sight for them. Knowing that it was the Tennessee offense that put the game away as they scored four times in the top of the sixth inning to open up a massive 9-1 lead. Credit Matt Shaw and Murray Jr. for being part of that, as both picked up a pair of sacrifice flies to make things 7-1. Later in the inning, you had Owen Caissie come through with an RBI double as he put an exclamation point on what will most likely be an MVP-caliber season and put him in the running for the Cubs Minor League Hitter of the Year. Smokies slam their foot on the gas pedal! @owen_caissie doubles to score Matt Shaw and take an 8-1 lead in the top of the sixth. #SmokiesBaseball #BestYearEver pic.twitter.com/pk2dRbwtYf Caissie would come around to score on the Haydn McGerary RBI single to close out that frame, as it was now up to Frank Scalzo Jr. and the rest of the pen to lock things down the rest of the way. Since arriving in AA, Scalzo Jr. has been lights out, but this wasn't one of his better outings as he was forced to work around some traffic. Eventually, that would come back to bite him, with Jake Thompson delivering an RBI single to make things 9-2 before Scalzo Jr. escaped without further damage. He turned things over to Riley Martin, Porter Hodge, Blake Whitney, and Hunter Bigge the rest of the way, as the four allowed just one run for the remainder of the game. Immediately following that sixth-inning run, the Smokies offense grabbed it right back as the Andy Weber single closed out the scoring for Tennessee and had them in front 10-2. They held that lead until the eighth when a bases-loaded walk brought home the game-final run before Bigge sealed it in the ninth as the Cubs have now won two minor league titles at different levels in two seasons and three in the past five years. After a slow start to AA, Kevin Alcantara heated up down the stretch and finished his season with a three-hit game. Alcantara hit a very good .284 between High-A and AA this year with 13 homers, 71 RBIs, and 15 steals. Alcántara doing so much damage to RF in AA. pic.twitter.com/vDvk05bPxC Weber, McGeary, and Moises Ballesteros added multi-hit games to the Tennessee offensive assault, as Aliendo was the lone starter without a hit. Murray Jr. paced the offense with four RBIs, as most of these players will be on the verge of AAA next season. Congratulations Pete Crow-Armstrong, Owen Caissie, and Luke Little on being named MiLB Southern League All-Stars! pic.twitter.com/5b62irZUE1
