Captains win first Midwest League crown since 2010

It had been 14 years since the Lake County Captains won the championship.

But after one of the most dominant seasons in Midwest League history, the Guardians' High-A affiliate ousted the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers with a 9-4 victory on Wednesday in a winner-take-all Game 3 at Classic Auto Group Park.

After leading the circuit in runs scored (632) and runs allowed (507) during the regular season, the Captains swept through the semifinals against Dayton (Reds) before taking on Wisconsin (Brewers). They were the first team to lead the Midwest League in both stats during the regular season since 2011 and the first since Fort Wayne 2009 to do so and then win the title.

It was fitting, then, that Lake County won its first title since 2010 on the strength of its highly touted offense and scoreless ball from most of the pitching staff.

The Captains' loaded lineup featured a trio of Top 100 prospects, each of whom drove in runs in the title-winning game. Ralphy Velazquez (CLE No. 4/MLB No. 72) crushed a three-run homer in the sixth inning, while Travis Bazzana (CLE No. 1/MLB No. 11) and Angel Genao (CLE No. 5/MLB No. 87) plated runners with singles in the eighth.

Guardians No. 26 prospect Jake Fox and Jonah Advincula both swatted home runs in the finale. For Fox, it was his second long ball of the series.

Four of the five Lake County pitchers did not give up an earned run in Game 3, including right-handed starter Dylan DeLucia, who struck out five batters across 4 2/3 innings. Lefty Shawn Rapp closed out the game with three easy outs on 13 pitches.

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The Captains cruised to their first-half division title with a 41-25 record -- seven games ahead of second-place Dayton and Great Lakes -- and added an influx of talent midway through the campaign. Bazzana, the No. 1 pick in July's Draft, posted a .369 on-base percentage in 27 games, while Matt Wilkinson -- the winning pitcher in Game 2 -- was promoted to the club in May and finished second in the Minors in regular-season strikeouts with 174.

During the regular season, Lake County finished with a +125 win differential, an average of nearly a run better than the opposition per game. And as champions tend to be, they were twice as good in the postseason: the Captains outscored their opponents by a combined 10 runs across five games.