Tucson 1-hits Hopatcong to clinch 2nd crown

Tucson limited the highest-scoring offense in the league to just a 1st-inning single and shut out Hopatcong, 7-0, in Game 5 on Thursday in Hopatcong to win their second DMBL championship in three seasons.

Left-hander Robbie Ray (2-3) danced around 5 walks but only allowed a two-out single to Nick Castellanos while striking out 10 over 7 innings. Marcell Ozuna again provided the punch, slugging a two-run homer in the 1st inning off Stephen Strasburg to give Tucson a quick 2-0 lead. Brett Gardner book-ended the victory with a solo dinger in the 9th off Mychal Givens.

The Kingsnakes added 2 runs in the 4th. A one-out single by Avisail Garcia was followed by Strasburg plunking Jose Altuve. Tucson's best postseason run producers, Ozuna and Mike Zunino, then delivered back-to-back, run-scoring singles. Paul DeJong cut the rally short by grounding into an inning-ending double play, but would later add his 4th homer of the series in the 7th for a 5-0 lead.

Hopatcong was banking on their ace Strasburg, the league's only 20-game winner during the regular season, to help stave off elimination but he wasn't himself in Game 5. Neither was the Floating Fish lineup. Their only baserunners came early.

In the 1st inning, Zack Cozart was plunked before their only hit, an infield single no less, got to men aboard, but then the Fish went hitless for 8 1/3 innings. In the 3rd, a walk, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly got Ryan Zimmerman as far as 3rd base but that was the closest Hopatcong would get to scoring.

Ray, who was lit up in a Game 1 start that lasted one inning, rebounded to go 7 innings, leaving with a 5-0 lead. Josh Hader walked a batter after getting two out in the 8th inning and he gave way to Luis Garcia, who retired pinch-hitter Robinson Cano.

In the top of the 9th, Tucson finished off the scoring with two more runs. Nolan Arenado led off with a triple deep to right center and scored on Brandon Crawford's sac fly to left before Gardner followed with a solo blast.

In the bottom of the 9th, Garcia went on to strike out the 5-6-7 hitters in the 9th: Gary Sanchez, Bryce Harper and Yoenis Cespedes.

Tucson finished with 7 runs on 12 hits, leaving 6 runners on base. Hopatcong stranded 7 thanks to 6 walks by Kingsnakes pitchers. Ozuna had a team-high 3 RBI and Garcia led the team with 3 hits. Zunino and Arenado added 2 hits apiece and Altuve scored 2 runs.

Cespedes and Zimmerman each walked twice while Castellanos had the lone hit for the Fish. Bryce Harper struck out 4 times for the Golden Sombrero. Gary Sanchez and Joey Votto finished with 3 strikeouts. Votto entered Game 5 with 11 walks and just 7 strikeouts so far in 10 playoff games.

Strasburg (2-2) allowed 8 hits and 5 runs with 4 strikeouts and 2 walks. About two-thirds of his 99 pitches were for strikes (.666). Ray was a different pitcher from Game 1, tossing 59 of his 103 pitches (.572) for strikes, with 10 strikeouts and 5 walks.

Game 5 turned out to be the second blowout of the series after the 10-2 shellacking of Game 2, with the other two wins coming in 1-run games, which seemed to be Hopatcong's Achilles heel during the regular season.

Not only did Tucson smite the three 100-win teams on their way to the title, the 4th-seeded Kingsnakes won 4 consecutive games for the second straight series, after having to win a play-in game to determine the Clemente Division winner and even make it to the postseason. Tucson had the weakest record (89-74, .546) of any of the six seeds and had the worst regular season record (18-32) against the field, including 2-8 versus 2nd-seeded Hopatcong.