Altamonte Boom takes FCSL title

The Altamonte Springs Boom got red hot when it counted in the Florida Collegiate Summer League, walking away with a shock ninth inning 5-4 championship win over the Sanford River Rats under the Tropicana Field dome Sunday.

But that moment on the big field almost didn't come for the Boom, who nearly let the DeLand Suns walk onto the field instead.

Only in their second season of existence, the Boom (22-19) had ridden a late season surge that saw them leapfrog the DeLand Suns (20-20) in the standings to force them into a best-of-three playoff, which quickly got out of hand.

Game one had looked easy for the Boom, who shut out DeLand 2-0 when Mark Moclair nearly threw a no-hitter, going 8.2 innings before giving up a Suns single and eventually grabbing the five-strikeout, one-hit win. That let the Boom cruise into game two with a shot to clinch the series and punch their ticket to the FCSL Championship on Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

That didn't happen after DeLand's bats exploded for 10 hits and seven runs in a wild 13th inning comeback that ended when Chandler Rodriguez sent a sacrifice fly soaring into right field to score Brad Gresock and end one of the longest playoff games in FCSL history.

That 7-6 walk-off win would cement the need for a game three and force the Boom into needing a win or losing everything.

In game three, with both teams on the cusp of walking under the dome in St. Pete, Boom starting pitcher Kyle Burkhead dialed up his best stuff, pitching a five-strikeout, three-run effort over seven innings to keep things close for his team. Homeruns by Mickey Scott and Christian Hicks blasted in three runs. Wild pitches and ill-timed errors took care of the rest.

The Boom blasted their way into the championship with that dominating 6-3 win, facing a Sanford River Rats (27-16) team that had led the league unchallenged since the second week of the season. The surging Boom, who had won four of nine games against the Rats this season, came into the game prepared to use eight pitchers in an unorthodox all-star game style strategy.

It worked, as the Boom platooned their entire pitching bench and were just effective enough to win it all. The Rats used starter Nick Swan for all he was worth, and let just one more runner cross the plate.

The Boom collected the winning run in a desperate scramble on a passed ball in the top of the ninth, with Cristian Rivera stamping home plate for the winning run. That would decide the game after a failed Sanford comeback in the bottom of the ninth produced just one run, ending the game 5-4 with the Boom victorious.

In their rapid pitcher-switching the Boom would only let two hurlers go beyond an inning, and those two, Anthony Rosati and Jason Bahr, would grab the win and the save, respectively.

Sanford's Swan struck out seven in 6.1 innings and allowed only one earned run.

For the Rats, who smashed 10 hits, including two doubles and a Sergio Lopez triple in the game, the loss was a rare defeat on the championship stage. They beat Leesburg 1-0 in the Tropicana dome last season.

For the Boom, a first ever championship puts them among few of the league's expansion teams to have such early success, hoisting the trophy in just their second season.