And then there were two.

The Mon-Clair League baseball playoffs took place Saturday and Sunday, with the Waterloo Buds and Valmeyer Lakers the last teams still standing after all the dust had settled. 

Saturday in Millstadt, the Buds won 8-3 over the St. Louis Spikes and the Belleville Rockies took down Godfrey by an 11-4 count.

Sunday in Belleville, the Lakers punched their ticket to the finals with a 1-0 win over the Rockies. Jacob Thompson pitched a complete game nine-inning shutout for Valmeyer. 

Also on Sunday, Waterloo upset the defending league champion Millstadt Green Machine, 4-1. Erik Kaiser shined on the mound for the Buds. 

The best-of-three Mon-Clair League Championship Series takes place Saturday and Sunday (if necessary) at Borsch Park in Valmeyer. Game one begins at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, with game two to follow. 

If needed, a decisive game three would begin at 2 p.m. Sunday.

All games in the finals are seven innings.

For the Buds, the offense came through in Saturday’s win over the Spikes. Waterloo plated three runs in the third inning thanks to hits from Markus Isaiah, Nick Krodinger and Zane Timon. 

Waterloo put the game away with a four-run eighth inning.

In Sunday’s clash with Millstadt, Kaiser went the distance on the mound for the Buds with a nine-inning complete game. 

“Erik was a beast for us,” Waterloo manager Barry Grant said. “Our defense played great and we had a few key at-bats that led to our runs.”

TJ Williams had an RBI single to kick-start Waterloo’s offense on Sunday. Other offensive contributions came from Isaiah, Krodinger, Timon, Nate Albrecht, Patrick O’Donnell, Max Oswald, George Schneider, Ty Kueper and Eric Creech. 

Defensively, Grant pointed to run-saving catches made by Isaiah and Albrecht in the outfield.

Serving as Kaiser’s battery mate during his dominant mound performance was  Timon, who “called a tremendous game while doing his best to mitigate the running game,” according to Grant.

“This was truly a team effort for us today… It took all aspects of the game to beat this very good Millstadt team, who seemed to have had our number this year,” Grant said. “I have a lot of respect for those guys over there and I didn’t relax until the last out was recorded. I was very proud of our guys for battling until the very last out.  They showed me a lot today in support of their starting pitcher.”

Kaiser, a hard-throwing righty, went 3-2 with a 2.42 ERA in 26 innings pitched during the regular season. 

The top hitters this season for the Buds have been Williams (.393, 24 RBIs) and Schneider (.351, 11 RBIs).  

The Buds face a tall order in the finals, however, as the Lakers will be on their home diamond and are loaded in both pitching and offense.

Valmeyer, managed by Mike McCarthy, enjoyed a first round bye in the playoffs courtesy of its second place regular season record of 16-9.

On Sunday, one run was all the Lakers needed as Thompson showed why he is one of the top pitchers in the league. He threw JUST 89 pitches in a game that lasted only one hour and 45 minutes.  

Thompson, a southpaw, posted a 5-1 record and 1.88 ERA in 41 innings pitched during the regular season. He will likely be a key factor in this weekend’s finals. 

The top hitters for Valmeyer this season are Kameron Hanvey (.393), Matt Helm (.368, 24 RBIs) and Evan Davis (.352, 20 RBIs).