There’s an old saying in sports — the playoffs are a whole new ball game. The Rigney Athletics proved just that Monday night when they knocked off the first place Red Dogs to win the east division semi-finals in the Kingston men’s fastball league. The Athletics beat the Red Dogs 4 to 1, winning the semi-final series 2 games to 1.
“Coming in as the underdog makes it a little easier to be yourself and play your game,” said A’s Manager Craig Palmer. He added, “we’ve been playing pretty good ball the last few weeks coming into the playoffs — just clean baseball — not making too many mistakes and when everyone comes together with a full line-up and full batting order it makes a big difference.”
The Athletics finished in last place in the east division coming into the playoffs. In fact, they only won four games during the regular season. But the A’s are clicking now with clutch hitting, timely defense and solid pitching from Joel Dean.
“The key now is to keep it going. I believe we’re playing the Ice Cold Pitchers next round so if we can keep rolling we’ll see how far we can go. We really won’t supposed to make it this far. so now we need to keep playing good ball and hopefully keep on rolling right to the end,” said Palmer.
Game one of the east division final between the Rigney Athletics and Ice Cold Pitchers will be Wednesday night at Garrigan Park. First pitch is at 6:30 p.m.