South Bend Cubs Win High-A Midwest League Championship

A trio of home runs helped lead Chicago Cubs affiliate South Bend to its first league championship since 2019.

Though all of the pressure was on them for most of the series, the High-A South Bend Cubs overcame their Game 1 loss with a 7-4 Game 3 victory over the Lake County Captains to win the Midwest League Championship, clinching the series 2-1.

The Chicago Cubs affiliate trailed at some point in each of the first two games of the series, but that changed in Game 3 following two scoreless innings when South Bend erupted for five runs in the third inning. 

Owen Caissie broke the ice for the Cubs, sending a three-run home run to right to make it 3-0. Three batters later, catcher Pablo Aliendo followed suit with a two-run home run to make it 5-0.

Lake County tried desperately to keep paces in the bottom of the third, tagging South Bend starter Porter Hodge for three runs. That would be all the Captains got off of the righty who finished with three runs allowed over five solid bend-don't-break innings.

A Luis Verdugo two-run blast in the fifth would extend the Cubs' lead to 7-3, and the South Bend bullpen allowed just one Lake County run. Closer Sheldon Reed tossed a clean ninth to secure the Cubs' victory. 

The championship is South Bend's second in three seasons, the last of which came in 2019. The team had a number of highly-regarded prospects on the championship roster, including No. 1 prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong, an encouraging sign for the future of the Chicago Cubs.

Also on the farm:

Triple-A: Iowa Cubs (66-77) at Omaha Storm Chasers (69-78): W 6-3

• Matt Mervis continued to be perhaps the biggest revelation in the Cubs' organization, hitting his 35th home run of the minor league season. The first baseman knocked in two runs and leads all of minor league baseball with 115 RBI.
• Alex Canario went 2-for-3 with two walks. The outfielder has a .895 OPS in Iowa.
• Ben Leeper tossed a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout for his 11th save of the season. The righty hasn't allowed a run in 10 of his last 12 outings.

High-A: South Bend Cubs (2-1) vs Lake County Captains (2-1): W 7-4

• All but one of South Bend's starters had at least one hit.
• Jordan Nwogu went 2-for-4 with a double and a walk, ending the postseason batting .385.
• Pete Crow-Armstrong finished the game 1-for-5 and ended his postseason with a .933 OPS.
• Joe Nahas tossed three relief innings, allowing one run on one hit, and no walks while striking out three.

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