The Portage Padres are once again Santa Clara Baseball League champions after taking down the Plumas Pirates 5-0 on August 11th.

Head coach Shane Moffatt says it was a bit of a slow start to the game as Joey Moffatt, the starting pitcher for the Padres as well as Plumas' pitcher, were off to a hot start. He notes it wasn't until after four innings that the bats started to connect.

"We got a couple of hits and then Ryan Botterill hit one off the roof of the rink there," explains Moffatt. "We just kept plugging away and then Riley Borody hit one off the foul pole for a three-run shot."

He explains after Portage took the lead, Joey Moffatt was able to control the game the rest of the way defensively. Moffatt says once they opened the scoring, it helped calm everyone down and let them start to play with more confidence.

Moffat notes one of the biggest challenges the team had to overcome was happening before the season even began.

"At the start of the year, we looked at our players and we had seven or eight guys," says Moffatt. "I think it was a couple of weeks before the league started, we were thinking about even folding. Then we had some veteran players step up and we ended up carrying around 17 guys."

He explains, that when you have a large number of players on the team, it can be hard to make sure everyone gets playing time, but he didn't have to worry about the team dynamic. Moffatt says everyone on the team enjoyed playing alongside one another and they're all friends.

Moffatt concludes by saying it was an honour to coach this Padres team.