Desert Dogs Win Fall League Championship

Congratulations to the Phoenix Desert Dogs who have won the Arizona Fall League Championship for the fifth year in a row. Saturday, November 22, 2008 in Scottsdale, Arizona, the Desert Dogs reign victorious as their dynasty continues. Phoenix, who was coming off of a losing streak went head-to-head with the red hot Mesa Solar Sox. With great baseball weather and over 1,800 fans in attendance, the Dogs pull off an amazing victory as they finish off the season as champions.

Things began to look bleak for the Dogs as they were unable to get runners on base in the first few innings of play. Mesa looked solid as they scored the game’s first run in the second inning and followed up with two more in the top of the fourth. The two runs would come off of a home run by former ASU Sun Devil, Jeff Larish’s two-run homer. The Desert Dogs would score once in the fifth inning which would include a triple by Danny Valencia of the Minnesota Twins. Valencia would come in to score on a sacrifice grounder by Evan Frey of the D-Backs.

Phoenix would trail by two runs going into the sixth inning before Mesa would score again to extend their lead. With a healthy lead, Mesa would watch it diminish in the bottom of the sixth inning as Phoenix scores five to lead the game by two. Phoenix would repeat the offensive attack in the bottom of the seventh inning, scoring four more runs. Three of the runs were a result of Josh Donaldson’s three-run home run as the Oakland A’s prospect adds to his spectacular game.

Josh Donaldson went 3-for-5 at the plate with one home run and four RBIs. In a game that looked to favor the excellent hitting of the Mesa Solar Sox, the tides quickly turned as the Desert Dogs took advantage of some shaky pitching. Wild pitches, hit batsmen and passed ball plagued Mesa as Phoenix would end up capitalizing on all sorts of fielding errors. Although the box score would only show one error for each of the teams, there were some fielding choices gone terribly wrong.

We are glad that we had the opportunity to bring you all of this year’s Fall League action and look forward to next year. A special thank you goes to our visitors who make the AFL such a fun place to be. Watching baseball in such intimate settings is always fun and we are glad that we were able to share this tear’s exciting season with you. We will be continuing to work through the winder meetings to maximize our Arizona baseball coverage to bring you more new and exciting action.

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