The Lombard Orioles won the NABF Blackburn Major Division Championship today with a 16-5 victory of the Brunswick (MD) Orioles. Brunswick took a 4-0 lead before Lombard scored 16 runs in the top of the sixth inning.

The Orioles, one of twelve teams in the field, went 2-1 in pool play in order to advance to the final-eight, single-eliminatin round. In the quarter-final game, the Orioles defeated the Fort Wayne Jackers by a score of 10-2.

In the semi-final game, the Orioles came from behind for a hard-earned victory over the Beecher Muskies of the CSBL. The Muskies had advanced to the championship round as the only team out of twelve to finish pool play with three wins and no losses.

In the championship game, the Orioles entered the top of the 6th inning trailing 4-0. It is rumored that, at the end of the fifth, the Brunswick coach, while leaving the 3rd base coaching box,  looked in to the Lombard dugut and said, "You better get your hitting shows on." The team then erupted with a record 16 runs in one inning. Remarkably, KC Simonich had three hits in the inning!

At the completion of the tournament, four Orioles were named to the All-Tournament team: pitcher Jack Bellinger, catcher Ron Marinec, infielder Kyle Fitzgerald, and outfielder Dylan Gilberts.  Rob Marinec was named MVP of the tourney!

This was the fourth appearance by the Orioles in the NABF World Series, their first since 2015 when the team finished 2nd. Before that year, they appeared in 12 AABC Stan Musial World Series, with a third place finish in 2004, a runner-up finish in 2008, and two championships (1992 & 2007).

1989-2001, 2004-21, 23-24 CSBL Division or League Champions
1990-94, 1999-2014 AABC Stan Musial Regional Qualifier Champion
1992-1993, 1996, 1998-99, 2001, 2004-22, 24 Wisconsin State League Champions
 

1992, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2003-04, 2007-2010, 2013-2014 AABC Stan Musial Regional Champion

 
1989, 1995, 2015, 2018, 2019-24 NABF Major Regional Champion and/or World Series Participant
 

1992 AABC Stan Musial World Series Champion
2004 AABC Stan Musial AABC World Series 3rd Place
2007 AABC Stan Musial World Series Champion

2008 AABC Stan Musial World Series Runner-Up

2015 NABF Major Division World Series Runner-Up

2018 NABF Major Division World Series Champion

2022 NABF Major Division World Series Runner-Up

2023 NABF Major Division World Series Runner-Up