Laverock Plumbing A’s back to back Men’s league champs (PHOTOS)

For the second year in a row, the Laverock Plumbing A’s are North Bay Men’s Baseball champions.

The A’s took the crown with a 2-1 win over Assante Wealth Management to sweep the best of three championship series 2-0.

“It feels great, it feels great,” said A’s team leader Mike Klein. “We took the long route to the finals, ended up eliminating every team in the league…can’t say enough about the guys. Top to bottom, hell of an effort from the guys.”

Assante picked up the first run in the top of the first inning after a deflected ball found the A’s dugout, which allowed the runner on second to make it home.

From there, offence was hard to come by as A’s pitcher Ty Cuculick and Assante Ace Kyle Kennedy pitched near perfect. Eventually Laverock was able to get a couple on the board in the fifth inning. From there, Cuculick was able to close out the final two innings, including a strike out to seal the game in the seventh.

“It’s pretty cool,” Cuculick said. “I played forever in Sudbury where I am from and we made it to the finals once, so to win back-to-back is pretty cool.

“This is what I expected. Coming in throwing against Kyle (Kennedy), who is also an amazing pitcher, it’s going to be a pitchers duel 2-1, or 1-0. Kudos to Kyle, he was no hitting us until the fifth inning, so it was really fun and nice to get some big hits in the end and see everyone get on base at the end.”

For Laverock, a championship wasn’t guaranteed at the start of the year.

“We’re the old guy team out here and it took about two months for us to get going,” said Klein. “It’s a credit to all these guys. We peaked at the right time.

“It was very close. The first game they beat themselves defensively, and this game they had Kyle Kennedy out there pitching a gem but he ends up giving up two runs and Ty gives up one and we’re champs.”