By DAN PAWLOWSKI
WAKEFIELD — Death, taxes and the Brewers holding up the Twi League’s championship trophy in August.
With a 3-1 victory in Game 4 of the Twi League Finals on Thursday night at Moulton Park to seal a 3-1 series win, the Brew Crew became inevitable with their fifth consecutive title during the Twi League’s 50th season.
The Brewers were given a good run by the Slappers, the last team to hold the trophy when they beat the Brewers back in 2020.
After a slugfest resulted in a 24-10 final score in Game 3, the Brew Crew gave the start to who else but Colin Jaena, two days after a rare loss in Game 2.
Jaena, who has started and won every clinching Finals game for the Brewers during their current five-year reign, did it again on Thursday with yet another complete-game victory. He was simply dominant on Thursday, scattering 7 hits and 3 walks while striking out 5 and allowing just one run.
The Slappers hung around and made it close thanks to strong pitching of their own from the duo of Everett (5IP, 6H, 5BB, 3ER, 2K) and Barresi (2IP, 0H, 0BB, 0R, 4K).
An Andrew Porter sac fly scored Everett in the 4th to make it 2-1 but Jaena buckled down to escape the inning and never let the Slappers back into it even after Barresi shut out the Brewers in the 6th and 7th, giving his team the momentum.
With the trophy in tow and a chance to finish the job before the weekend, the Brewers got on the board first with a two-out rally in the 1st inning. Brendan Casey started it with a walk, followed by an infield single from John Halsey and an RBI single from Matt Fiore who helped ignite his 9th championship as a member of the Brewers.
The Brew Crew added another in the 2nd. Base hits from Jaena and Darren Bisso and a walk to Tom Leahy loaded the bags for Brendan Casey who took another walk and an RBI to make it 2-0.
To Everett’s credit, he worked hard in these early innings to limit damage, successfully doing so in the 2nd as well with a fly out to the always-dangerous Halsey who was just coming off a 4-hit, 6-RBI Game 3.
Unfortunately for the Slappers, Jaena was locked in from start to finish. He worked around two hits in the 2nd with back-to-back strikeouts and picked off a baserunner to calm a threat in the 3rd after an error and a walk.
As Everett and the defense settled in nicely, the Slapper bats showed signs of life in the bottom of the 4th with three consecutive, one-out singles by Everett, Kevin Deleary and Ryan DiBenedetto setting up Porter’s sacrifice fly to make it 2-1. Jaena’s strikeout of Cam DePrizio ended the threat and provided some confidence and swagger for the ace to lean on later in the game.
The Brewers, hyped up from that sequence, added insurance in the 5th on a 2-out RBI knock from Leahy, scoring Fiore to make it a 3-1 lead.
Leahy followed that up with the defensive play of the day in the bottom of the 5th. With two outs and a runner on, Matt Mercurio launched a deep fly to left. Running towards the foul line and the fence, Leahy’s route was perfect as he made a running catch just before disappearing behind a tree, keeping the lead at 3-1.
Barresi reclaimed momentum in the 6th by striking out the side with some serious heat. The feeling was, yes, the Brewers had their ace and a 2-run lead, but the Slappers have theirs on a full tank of gas and six outs to find two runs.
Jaena didn’t see it that way. He allowed a leadoff single in the 6th but calmly mowed down three in a row.
After another quick, perfect inning from Barresi, Jaena climbed the hill again to finish it off in the 7th. He got two fast outs before a Barresi walk and Paul McGunigle single kept the Slap alive. A ground out to second base sealed the win and the 5th consecutive Brewers title.
Year 50 of the Twi League featured plenty of excitement and good baseball across the board. Of course, part of the charm is that not much has changed in 50 years. And as for the last five? Well, that’s really stayed the same: with the Brewers and a Twi League trophy that once again, isn’t going anywhere.