Memory Lane trip: The 2015 Eastern League champion Bowie Baysox

They were the last Orioles affiliate to win a league championship. They had to rally from being down two games to one in a best-of-five finals to win, but did, and an epic postgame celebration followed when the 2015 Double-A Bowie Baysox claimed their one and only Eastern League championship.

That Bowie team included Trey Mancini, Chance Sisco, Mike Yastrzemski and Corban Joseph, plus some minor league vets that came up big, like Quincy Latimore, Brandon Snyder, Terry Doyle and Garabez Rosa.

Bowie lost the first game of the playoffs to Altoona, but then won three in a row to reach the championship series. Then Bowie beat a prospect-laden Reading team to win the championship, three games to two, clinching it in front of a big and enthusiastic crowd at Prince George's Stadium.

Mancini hit .359 with an OPS of .981 in 84 games for the 2015 Baysox. During an interview several years later for this entry, he remembered how special that 2015 season was.

"It was one of the best few months of my baseball life," said Mancini. "Getting to play on that team with that group of guys. It was so special. Having guys like Brandon Snyder, Terry Doyle, guys like that, that had been around and Brandon had some significant major league time. Those guys were in Double-A and just had the best attitude and were great mentors. Great guys to be around and you don't see that every day. That team had such a good mix of some younger guys coming up and the older guys on that team did such a good job. We just had really good camaraderie and we really wanted to win."

Trailing two games to one in the finals, Bowie won Game 4 at home 9-1 behind a great effort from right-hander David Hess and then Rosa bashed two homers in the 7-3 Game 5 win.

After Reading took a 2-1 lead in the series, the Phillies asked if they could buy Bowie's champagne to celebrate a title since they were now closing in on one. Big mistake. They lost the next two games by big scores.

Adam Pohl, who also was the broadcaster for two title teams when he worked with Single-A Frederick from 2007-2013, was in his second season in Bowie when the Baysox won it in 2015.

"Trey Mancini was an eighth-round draft choice first baseman and Mike Yastrzemski was a 14th-round draft choice. There were a lot of guys that were a little bit under the radar that have gone on to become really good major league ballplayers," said Pohl. "Mancini stands out the most to me. The team was a really good pitching team early. Mychal Givens was in that bullpen and Andrew Triggs has been a big league pitcher.

"But the team couldn't hit and were playing .500 ball. Brandon Snyder was signed out of independent ball after a month and that really aided the team. But when Mancini came in late May - oh, my goodness. This guy was an eighth-rounder, and, being honest, at that time a non-prospect. And he comes to us and, quite frankly, he was the best player in that league easily. He was a dominant player."

Gary Kendall was the manager of that Baysox team. His coaches were Blaine Beatty and Kyle Moore, who is expected to manage the 2022 Baysox.

Click here for the piece that aired on MASN the day after the Baysox won it all, and below is the Zoom interview Pohl and I recorded to remember the 2015 Baysox.