How good were your firemen?

The Southern Illinois Miners won their first Frontier League championship Sunday night by defeating the Florence Freedom, 4-3 in 12 innings, at Rent One Park. The Miners won the best-of-five series, 3-1.

One reason for the Miners' success was their bullpen. No team in the Frontier League had fewer blown saves than Southern Illinois, and late-season acquisitions Brandon Cunniff (River City), Nick Cicio (Washington) and Steve Grife (Washington) were so reliable that the Miners' opponents were forced to forge a lead before the seventh inning or the game was essentially over.

That Florence was in the championship series was an impressive accomplishment when you consider that the Freedom tied for the league lead in blown saves, going almost wire-to-wire atop the list. Florence gave up six runs in the top of the ninth inning of a July 24 game against Lake Erie and lost 8-7. That loss might have been the turning point in Florence's season. From that point on, the Freedom's bullpen starting protecting leads and was a key to Florence's late-season charge to the postseason, going from fourth place in the East Division to a second-place finish and the top wild-card spot.

Washington's bullpen had 11 blown saves, which was three off the team record. The 11 blown saves came from eight different pitchers. No reliever had more than two blown saves. Washington was 2-9 in games when they had a blown save.

2012 Blown Saves
16 - Florence
16 - Joliet
12 - Rockford
11 - Washington
10 - London
10 - Normal
10 - Traverse City
 9 - Evansville
 9 - Gateway
 9 - Schaumburg
 8 - Lake Erie
 8 - Windy City
 7 - River City
 6 - Southern Illinois
 4 - Road Warriors