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CLIPPERS END POSTSEASON FUTILITY WITH 2018 SIMBL TITLE

Calgary Ends First File Era With Their First SIMBL Championship In Eleven Postseason Trips; San Diego Denied Eighth SIMBL Title

Calgary Clippers teammates storm the field in a silenced San Diego Great American Ballpark and celebrate their first SIMBL championship in eleven postseason appearances for GM Christian DeMarco.  The Clips went seven tough games in the ULCS with Sacramento and followed that with another tough seven games against San Diego in the 2018 SIMBL Coveted Cup Championship Series.  Calgary's ending of their infamous postseason choke streak concludes the SIMBL's First File Era as the league heads towards a new file and the conversion to OOTP 11 next.

2018 SIMBL Coveted Cup Championship Series:
Game One: San Diego 8 Calgary 3
Game Two: San Diego 4 Calgary 1
Game Three: Calgary 13 San Diego 10
Game Four: Calgary 7 San Diego 6 (10 Innings)
Game Five: Calgary 9 San Diego 4
Game Six: San Diego 13 Calgary 7
Game Seven: Calgary 4 San Diego 2

2018 SIMBL CS MVP:
Ray Barrot RF Calgary

GM Christian DeMarco's Calgary Clippers ended their infamous and dubious distinction of being the SIMBL's choke artists supreme when it comes to the SIMBL postseason.  The Clippers, known as the '1990's Atlanta Braves of SIMBL' for their failure to win a single championship despite ten previous playoff appearances with powerhouse teams, finally ripped the raven off of their necks and won the 2018 SIMBL Coveted Cup Championship Series in grand style by defeating GM Paul Ware's seven-time SIMBL champion San Diego Warewolves in seven games.

The series was another classic SIMBL Coveted Cup going down to the last out in a white-knuckle affair.  As is the custom and tradition in the SIMBL, the series was run with a live SIM over the phone with SIMBL Vice-Commissioner and Ruston GM Jamey Carter handling the honors with DeMarco and Ware on the phone making ingame decisions while managing their teams.

The Clippers, who lost their previous two trips to the SIMBL CS by being swept by Oregon in 2011 and losing in six games to San Diego in 2014, lost the first two games at San Diego.  The ten-time UL Central Champions then won the next three games of the series, including a rare postseason defeat of future SIMBL Hall Of Fame ace Bobby Grimes, to go up 3-2 in the series before the 'Wolves came roaring back with a 13-7 Game Six victory in Calgary to tie the series and force a Game Seven in San Diego.

Game Seven was one for the ages as the Clippers former second-round draft pick RF Delbert Howes homered in the top of the second off of former Ruston first-round draft pick and rookie Ron Webb to give Calgary a 1-0 lead.  An error and a wild pitch by Webb in the top of the third scored the Clippers speedy leadoff man CF Hugo Latta to give Calgary a 2-0 lead. San Diego added a run in the bottom of the fourth to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Calgary UL MVP candidate Ray Barrot, who continued his dominance in the playoffs by hitting .341 with 7 HR and 22 RBI, then scored catcher Charlie Thompson on a fielders choice in the top of the seventh to put the Clips up 3-1.

Ware, going with his trademark usage of all lefthanded pitchers, then brought in his young closer Evaristo Gonzalez who loaded the bases in the top of the ninth and then walked Howes forcing home 1B Chris Cota to give the Clippers a 4-1 lead in front of 43,409 silenced 'Wolves fans in their Great American Ballpark.

The seven-time SIMBL champs didn't go down easily though.  SS Israel Moton singled off of former first-round draft pick and rookie Jeremiah Flores.  The speedy Moton then stole second base on a weak throw by Calgary catcher Charlie Thompson.  Two-time SL MVP Aaron Rasch then singled in Moton and moved to second on the throw to home plate to make it a 4-2 game with no outs. 

The 10/9/8-rated Flores then got the dangerous Pablo Figueroa, who sizzled during the entire playoffs with a .329 average with 7 HR and 16 RBI, to fly out though allowing Rasch to tag up to third base.  Flores then walked fellow rookie 1B Jose Ibanez to put runners at first and third with one out in a two-run game for all the marbles in the 2018 SIMBL season.

DeMarco then decided that he had enough and brought in another one of his former first-round reliever draft picks, Francis Cox, who had been relegated to a starting pitcher for the postseason after being an All-Star setup man this season.  Cox, who started and won Game Three of the series, then got Greg Lainez to ground into a double-play to end the white-knuckle affair and give DeMarco and his Clippers their first SIMBL championship.

"It finally feels good," an exuberant DeMarco shouted to reporters in the celebrating locker room.  "But, these guys couldn't do anything easy for me.  If I had to wait fourteen seasons and three and a half real-life years to get a SIMBL ring, they were going to make me a nervous wreck until the last out!  Paul's teams are always tough and we really didn't expect to win this series with both of his top two pitchers completely rested and ours not going in to start the series."

Ware conceded after the dramatic series. 

"We really thought we had this series won after the sixth game going back to San Diego.  You have to give Christian and his Clippers credit.  He always has great offensive teams but his bullpen that he built, by the draft and some savvy trades specifically for situations like this, was the difference in Game Seven and throughout the series.  Congratulations to Christian.  It's the Clippers' time," said Ware.

That wraps it up for the SIMBL's first fourteen seasons and the end of the First File Era.  The SIMBL's 15th Anniversary Season will begin with a new file and inaugural draft in an effort to correct the old files' unsuccessful jump from OOTP 6.5 to OOTP 10 in which the league devoted the three previous seasons (2016-2018) to.

The SIMBL League Office stated that an announcement of the schedule of the new file proceedings will be announced shortly and events should be taking shape after a one week grace period to allow the leagues leadership and its GMS to prepare for the new file and draft.

2018 SIMBL CS GAME ONE:

SAN DIEGO 8 CALGARY 3
WP: Bobby Grimes (3-0) LP: Javier Martinez (2-2)
HR: Aaron Rasch SD 2 (5) Ray Gardner SD (1)
San Diego Leads Series 1-0
Player Of The Game: Aaron Rasch C San Diego
3 for 5  3 R 2 HR 4 RBI

2018 SIMBL CS GAME TWO:

SAN DIEGO 4 CALGARY 1
WP: Bruce Tucker (4-0) LP: Son Haynes (0-3)
SV: Evaristo Gonzalez (3)
HR: Pedro Coria CGY (2) Jose Ibanez SD (4) Aaron Rasch SD (6)
San Diego Leads Series 2-0
POG: Bruce Tucker SP San Diego
8.0 IP 6 H 1 R 1 ER 0 BB 2 K

2018 SIMBL CS GAME THREE:

CALGARY 13 SAN DIEGO 10
WP: Francis Cox (2-1) LP: Ron Webb (1-2)
SV: Lester Almaraz (2)
HR: Aaron Rasch SD (7) Michael Fulghum SD (1) Greg Lainez SD (1)
Hugo Latta CGY 2 (3) Ray Barrot CGY (6)
San Diego Leads Series 2-1
POG: Hugo Latta CF Calgary
3 for 5 3 R 2 HR SB 6 RBI

2018 SIMBL CS GAME FOUR:

CALGARY 7 SAN DIEGO 6 (WALK-OFF WIN BOTTOM OF 11TH INNING)
WP: Lester Almaraz (3-0) LP: Rayford Lingo (0-1)
HR: Pablo Figueroa SD (7) Hugo Latta CGY (4) Pedro Coria CGY (3)
Series Tied 2-2
POG: Pablo Figueroa CF San Diego
3 for 6 1 R HR 2 RBI

2018 SIMBL CS GAME FIVE:

CALGARY 9 SAN DIEGO 4
WP: Javier Martinez (3-2) LP: Bobby Grimes (2-1)
HR: Larry Galusha SD (1) Pedro Coria CGY (3) Chris Cota CGY (3)
Ray Barrot CGY (7)
Calgary Leads Series 3-2
POG: Delbert Howes LF Calgary
3 for 4 1 R 2B 3 RBI

2018 SIMBL CS GAME SIX:

SAN DIEGO 13 CALGARY 7
WP: Bruce Tucker (5-0) LP: Son Haynes (0-4)
HR: Santiago Hernandez SD (1) Pedro Coria CGY (4)
Series Tied 3-3
POG: Santiago Hernandez RF San Diego
2 for 4 2 R HR 5 RBI

2018 SIMBL CS GAME SEVEN:

CALGARY 4 SAN DIEGO 2
WP: Zachariah Tardif (4-0) LP: Ron Webb (1-3)
SV: Francis Cox (1)
HR: Delbert Howes CGY (2)
Calgary Wins Series 4-3
POG: Zachariah Tardif SP Calgary
7.0 IP 10 H 1 R 1 ER 0 BB 3 K