The 2007 DelCal Championship was stolen away from the Damascus Oaks by a stunning comeback effort from the aptly named Orange County Outlaws. Down 3 games to 1, The Outlaws got superlative pitching in the final 3 games to go with timely hitting to capture their 1st Championship since 1995, it is their 4th title overall. Damascus, who had won in 2006, had a remarkably talented team with great starting pitching and plenty of offensive firepower. The one area OC may have had the advantage was the bullpen, 7 games later it most certainly was a major difference. .

It was a thrilling series throughout with a little of everything thrown in. Each team had a blowout, each team lost a heartbreaker. Individually each team got surprisingly good and inexplicably poor performances from their players. For Damascus M. Ramirez had only 3 hits in the series but 10 K's. V. Martinez hit .214 with 2 rbi from the cleanup positon. Yet L.Overbay and G.Mathews each had 10 hits. Overbay led all players with 7 rbi. J. Santana was everything advertised with 22 K, and 2 wins, but dropped the finale. Damascus relievers had a 6.97 ERA over 21 IP and gave up 6 homers to sink their hopes. Those numbers include the exception, H.Street who had 2 saves, 6 K, & a 0.00 ERA. OC was equally enigmatic as 8 players hit below .200, including season MVP Justin Morneau (.179). However J. Lugo captured his second straight postseason MVP award with a spectacular 11-21(.524) with 5 bombs. Contributing substantially were R. Halladay at 2-0, 1.42 and D. Jeter. Derek had the most hits (13) but was also spectacular at SS turning 12 of 13 x-chances into outs. Again the OC bullpen was terrific, they tossed 22.2 IP, 14 h, 4 ER, 23 K for a 1.59 ERA.

The heroes of OC seem to thrive elswhere. The leagues best road team won 3 games in Damascus.

The action in the series was homerun, strikeout, or doubleplay. Each team struck 50 batters and each team had 8 dp's. A big difference was OC's 15 hr to Damascus' 8.

Gm1: Dam 4-1. The Oaks scored early and J.Santana was dominant.

Gm2: OCO 3-0. R.Halladay has 6 sho innings and 2 OC homers even the series.

Gm3: Dam 5-4. appeared it would be the decisive game at the time. 3 Dam hr to 2 for OC, but OC had 6 LOB to 3 for Dam and OC hit into 2 dp's killing even more opportunities.

Gm4: Dam 11-4. Santana was pulled early as Dam pelted Lackey for 14 h & 9 ER, 3 by hr.

Gm5: OC 12-4. Jeter goes 4-4 to pace a 5 homer attack by OC, 2 by M.Cuddyer.

Gm6: OC 6-5. This is the one Dam would like to get back. AJ Burnett is removed after a leadoff walk in the 7. The lead was 3-0 and He had faced the minimum batters (1 h, cs). Eventually A. Kennedy gets a "clutch" ph bases loaded single cutting lead to 3-2. In 8th M. Bradley ph's a 2 run homer to put OC on top 4-3. In 9th light hitting E.German knocks one out. In the bottom of the 9th, Dam loaded the bases for V. Martinez who socked a si* to pull within 1, OC's last remaining reliever, H.Carrasco got the final out with the bases still loaded.

Gm7 OC 3-0. Lugo and Mench homer again and J.Lackey rebounds with 5+ sho innings.