Marcell Ozuna led the New York-Penn League in both home runs (21) and RBI (60) during the regular season, both franchise bests for the Jammers. (Photo by Gary Rinaldi)

Faced with long odds, the Jamestown Jammers were able to win the games it needed down the stretch and received a bit of help from a divisional rival to secure a spot in the New York-Penn League Playoffs.

The Jammers won its final four games last week, one at Pinckney Division champion Batavia and three against Mahoning Valley on the road, and received a Williamsport loss at the hands of State College to grab the Wild Card and a playoff berth.  Entering the season’s final day, Jamestown trailed Williamsport in the Wild Card standings by half a game needing a victory and a Williamsport loss to keep its season alive. Jamestown held its end of the bargain with a thrilling, 10-9 victory over the Scrappers and then played the waiting game while Williamsport battled State College. Despite losing its previous nine games, the Spikes were able to hand the Crosscutters a 6-2 loss to knock Williamsport out of the playoffs.

As a Wild Card, Jamestown owned the fourth and final seed in the playoff tournament, facing off against top overall seed Brooklyn and needed to fight back once again in Game One of the NYPL Semi-finals at Diethrick Park on Tuesday night. In a wild, rain-soaked affair, Jamestown fell behind in the first inning, 1-0 only to tie the game in the second on an Aaron Senne home run before opening up a 6-1 lead in the fourth. The scoring chased Brooklyn starter Yohan Almonte from the game. Almonte was the NYPL’s ERA champion for the regular season, posting a league-best 1.91 ERA in the league-high 89.2 innings of work.

The Cyclones, the class of the league throughout the regular season wouldn’t go down without a fight, however.  On either side of a nearly two-hour rain delay, Brooklyn chipped away at the Jamestown lead, tying the game in the top of the eighth on a two-run double from Joe Bonfe off closer Jordan Conley to tie the score 6-6.   

Jamestown had an unlikely hero in the home half of the inning. Following a walk to designated hitter Mark Canha and a ground out to move Canha to second base, Jammers catcher Dallas Hord knocked in the game-winning run with a single to centerfield. A .235 hitter for the season with 16 RBI, Hord had come off the bench as a defensive replacement earlier in the game. Conley struck out the final two batters of the game to earn the victory. The win sent Jamestown to Brooklyn after press time on Wednesday for Game Two of the NYPL Semi-final with an opportunity to advance to the championship round. The winner of the semi-finals moves on to play in the NYPL Championship Series beginning either Friday or Saturday against the winner of the other semi-final series between Pinckney Division champion Batavia and Stedler Division champ Tri-City. Tri-City won Game One in 11 innings.

The Jammers reached the post-season on the heels of strong play from several players throughout the year. The season of Marcell Ozuna will be remembered for quite some time to come, as the 19-year-old outfielder displayed prolific power throughout the season, hitting a franchise-best 21 home runs. The mark eclipsed the old record of 17 set by Jammers catcher Miguel Fermin in 2008. Ozuna also set the franchise mark for RBI in a season with 60, ahead of Ernie Banks’ 51 during the 2008 campaign. The franchise first became known as the Jammers for the 1994 season. Ozuna just missed the all-time NYPL home run record of 23, set by John Hennell of Utica in 1982.

Also leading the league in significant categories were Ryan Fisher – the rookie led the NYPL in doubles (24) and extra base hits (41). Closer Jordan Conley led the league in saves with 16 and in appearances with 30. Setup man Michael Brady had the most holds with 10.

Finishing the regular season with a 43-32 record, the Jammers also secured the second best mark in franchise history, short of only the 47 wins recorded in 2008. Since the Jamestown franchise became the Jammers in 1994, the team had won 40 or more games only twice prior to this summer.