Third Time's A Charm For Lions

Mohawk Valley shined in the 2014 postseason, winning 12 of 16 games, with a stingy pitching staff and grinding offensive attack. 

Lions pitchers (and defenders) allowed just 2.69 runs per game in a playoff context in which no other team allowed fewer than 4.00 R/G (Goldenrod). That performance might have been expected based on Mohawk Valley's regular-season showing, in which the club led the MMDA in strikeout rate (8.3 per nine innings) and ranked third in ERA (3.44) and opponent average (.237). 

The Lions offense, on the other hand, exceeded expectations during the playoffs, scoring 4.56 runs per game, which was a better rate than all but Goldenrod (5.07) and Rochester (4.86). During the regular season, Mohawk Valley led the MMDA in only one category (doubles) and ranked outside the top 10 for scoring, but with a condensed roster during the playoffs the Lions were able to put their best foot forward. They ranked third among postseason participants with a team .340 on-base percentage and strikeout rate of 17.1 percent, and they logged the top walk-to-strikeout ratio of 0.55.

But good fortune has not always smiled on Mohawk Valley, at least when it mattered most.

"Winning in 2014 is especially gratifying for the Lions," manager Matt Eddy said, "because we lost the World Series in 2012, then lost a taut, seven-game LCS in 2013. To come so close three times without winning the ring? Well, that would have been tough."

Whether owing to blind luck or from learning from past mistakes, Mohawk Valley emerged victorious in 2014, though just barely. The Lions required all seven games of the World Series to win the franchise's first title, but in so doing they defeated the top three playoff seeds, which had not been done in more than a decade of MMDA playoff history, if ever.

Even had they lost, the Lions could have been proud of a distinguished three-year run from 2012-14. No other team in that period logged a higher winning percentage in the playoffs (.617). Here are the top five managerial postseason records since 2012, with playoff series won listed last:

No	Manager	W	L	PCT	Series
1	Matt Eddy	29	18	.617	6
2	John Lamanna	25	16	.610	5
3	John Tresca	24	20	.545	5
4	Steven Tresca	6	6	.500	1
5	Ray Ross	16	18	.471	2