ST. JOSEPH - The St. Joseph Mustangs did not enter the MINK League playoffs as the favorite, but they played like it.
St. Joseph closed out the MINK League championship series Friday night with a 12-2 win in seven innings, sweeping the best-of-3 series against the Sedalia Bombers at Phil Welch Stadium.
The Mustangs, the No. 2 seed in the North Division, went 4-0 in the postseason this week. St. Joseph won 5-3 against Chillicothe on Monday, then knocked off Clarinda - which went 32-4 in the regular season - with an 8-7 victory Tuesday, overcoming a 7-0 deficit after one inning.
That win gave the Mustangs the North Division title, and they opened the championship series Wednesday with a 9-7 win against Sedalia, scoring seven runs in the top of the ninth inning, all with two outs.
In Friday's clincher, Sedalia's Brandon Stahlman hit an RBI single in the top of the first inning to give the Bombers a 1-0 lead. St. Joseph's opponents scored first in all four postseason games.
But it was all Mustangs after that. St. Joseph plated four runs on just one hit in the fourth inning, then scored two runs in each of the next two innings to build an 8-2 advantage.
Chase Spoonmore hit a two-out, two-run single in the sixth for St. Joseph. He led the team with three RBI.
In the seventh, the Mustangs ended the game by run-rule with four runs. Noah Bodenhousen hit an RBI single, Brady Holden drew a bases-loaded walk, Spoonmore was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Michael Paule hit the game-ending single to score Cole Slibowski.
Slibowski, Jake Grauberger, Paule and Sam Kissane each had two hits for St. Joseph.
Braden Berry was the winning pitcher for the Mustangs. In six innings, he allowed two runs on six hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
This is St. Joseph's seventh MINK League title since joining the league in 2009.