Bucks Win 2018 SBL Championship

The Brookhaven Bucks swept the Marietta Patriots in the best-of-three Sunbelt Baseball League Championship Series (August 3-4), to win the first title in team history.

Jacob Gassert (LaGrange), Zavier Lushington (Young Harris), Cole Neuber (Georgia Tech) and Lyndon Weaver (Eastern Kentucky) all had multiple hits for the Bucks in the championship clinching game.

Pitchers Austin Hunter (Belmot Abbey), Tyler Elkins (Georgia Gwinnett) and Christopher Bergmoser (Chattahoochee Valley) combined to hold the Patriots bats in check in the 11-4 victory.

“The guys really put it all together at the end of the season and I’m really proud of them,” said Corey Patterson, the Bucks head coach.

Throughout the season, the Bucks were led offensively by:

  • Brenton Sanders (Georgia Tech), .333 average and 6 doubles;
  • Zach Williams (College of Charleston), .328 average;
  • Lushington, .309 average, 8 doubles, 15 RBI and 11 SB;
  • Neuber, .304 average and 9 RBI;
  • John Cable (Georgia), .296 average, 2 HR and 15 RBI;
  • Connor Stutts (Alabama), 8 HR, 25 RBI and 21 R.

The Bucks pitching staff led the Sunbelt Baseball League with a 3.21 team ERA. Leading the staff were:

  • Williams, 4-0, 0.98 ERA, 27.1 IP, 30 SO;
  • Bergmoser, 1-0, 2 saves, 1.28 ERA, 21 IP, 21 SO;
  • Jordan Ward (Jacksonville), 5-2, 1.56 ERA, 46 IP, 34 SO;
  • Harrison Fant (Central Alabama), 3-2, 2.43 ERA, 40.2 IP, 42 SO;
  • Keyton Gibson (Georgia Tech), 1-1, 2 saves, 2.76 ERA, 13 IP, 17 SO;
  • Hunter, 2-1, 2.93 ERA, 43 IP, 38 SO.

The Bucks finished the season with a 21-13 record, which is the most wins in the 8-year history of the franchise. Stutts set new team records for home runs (8) and RBI (25) and Jack Rubenstein (Emory) set a new record for number of times being hit by a pitch (18).

Brookhaven Bucks players came from 20 different colleges and universities around the southeast to play for the team this summer.

The Brookhaven Bucks are members of the Sunbelt Baseball League, a summer collegiate wooden-bat league that is funded in part by Major League Baseball. The league has six teams around the metro-Atlanta area (Alpharetta, Brookhaven, Marietta, Norcross, Lawrenceville and Suwanee). Bucks home games are played at Oglethorpe University. Primrose School of Brookhaven is the Bucks lead sponsor. Supporting sponsors include Matt McCord of Norton Commercial, Kaleidoscope Bistro & Pub, MOSAIC [Design+Build], Kapp Koncepts, Galla’s Pizza, Bravo Realty Consulting and Bull Engineered Products.

For more information on the Bucks, please visit brookhavenbucks.com. For the latest news about the team, please like the Brookhaven Bucks at facebook.com/brookhavenbucks, follow on Twitter @BrookhavenBucks or on Instagram @Brookhaven.Bucks.