The Rookie-level Appalachian League seems like it always comes down to Elizabethton and Danville in recent years, and the Twins claimed their second Appy League title in three seasons, completing a sweep of the Braves in the championship series.

Righthander Mike McCardell completed his dominance through the league, allowing five hits over six scoreless innings to lock up the series.

McCardell, a sixth-round pick out of Division II Kutztown this year who went 49-5 and pitched the Golden Bears into the DII World Series, went 5-1, 2.00 with a ridiculous 70-5 strikeout-walk ratio in just 45 innings in his pro debut.
Elizabethton won the Appy League title in 2005, but fell to Danville in three games last season.

GCL Yankees Roll: Another Rookie-level season came to an end Friday, as the Gulf Coast League Yankees defeated the Dodgers, 8-1 in the final game of the three-game championship series.

Yankees catcher Jesus Montero, who signed last year out of Venezuela for $1.6 million, hit a second-inning homer that opened up the floodgates. The Yanks scored six times over the following two innings, allowing lefthander Tim Dennehy room to work.

Dennehy, a 26th-round pick in 2006 out of Chandler-Gilbert (Ariz.) Community College, allowed a run on five hits over six innings.