The Valley Cats take the championship

By: Hunter McIntyre

Sports Editor

After a overall strong season for the Tri City Valleycats they emerged victorious as this years New York Penn League champion led by first year manager Jason Bell. Only a year after their major league affiliate the Houston Astros won the World Series.

Their opponent was the Hudson Valley Renegades who are an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays . The Renegades went into the playoffs with the most wins in the Penn league and won the championship in the 2017 season making the Valleycats underdogs during in the series, however they managed to sweep them in a three game series.

The game two was tied at the top of the 12th 2-2 when Alex Holderbach hit a 2 run single between the shortstop and second baseman putting the cats up. Holderbach was a 16th round pick for the astros in the 2018 draft. He also batted 201. on the season with two stolen bases and three home runs. Holderbach was also 0-4 in the game.

Jason Bell said regarding Holderbach and winning the title.“It says a lot about his character. That’s not an easy thing to do,” Bell said. “He had some tough, pressured at-bats earlier in the game. He saw the first pitch well, didn’t get the pitch that we wanted and the second pitch he executed the base hit that scored two.”(Danny Wild / MiLB.com)

Relief pitcher Manny Ramirez entered the game and retired two batters however, he ended up walking three batters and loading the bases. Jason Bell the Valleycats manager then replaced Ramirez with Jacob Billingsley who proceeded to record the final out.

When asked about his clutch hit Holderbach said “I don’t even know how to describe it, honestly,We’ve all worked so hard toward this goal and being able to do that in the end on the field is a great feeling. It’s a very special moment.”(Danny Wild / MiLB.com)

Jason Bell also mentioned on Billingsley’s final out that won the series.”I felt confident in him, he was the guy on the mound when we clinched in the regular season,” Bell said. “I knew he would compete and I knew he was tough. I figured he was gonna give us everything he had.” Bell then said “He came in and located three sliders with the bases loaded and the tying run on second base and that speaks wonders about who he is and where he’s come from and who he is as a person,”(Danny Wild / MiLB.com)

Billingsley responded to winning the championship by stating “It means everything to a lot of these guys. It was a big situation and a big game. The City of Troy has been phenomenal to us. So it was fun to be the guy to get the last out.” (Danny Wild / MiLB.com)

The series was exciting until the end and provided the cats with a third league title. To go along with their 2010 and 2013 championships. We hope to see the Valleycats continue their success and look forward to the 2019 season