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MVP Acuna steals the show in AFL title game

Top Braves prospect plates four to lead Javelinas to championship
Helmed by Luis Salazar (center), Peoria featured prospects from Atlanta, Boston, San Diego, Seattle and Toronto. (Arizona Fall League)
November 18, 2017

With the Most Valuable Player award already in his pocket on Saturday afternoon, Ronald Acuña Jr. went out and demonstrated how much he deserved it.After the top Braves prospect was named the youngest-ever Arizona Fall League Joe Black MVP, he went 2-for-4 with four RBIs and a run scored to

With the Most Valuable Player award already in his pocket on Saturday afternoon, Ronald Acuña Jr. went out and demonstrated how much he deserved it.
After the top Braves prospect was named the youngest-ever Arizona Fall League Joe Black MVP, he went 2-for-4 with four RBIs and a run scored to boost the Peoria Javelinas to an 8-2 win over the Mesa Solar Sox in the Championship Game.

Gameday box score
"The best thing that can happen to any player -- either big leagues or Minor Leagues -- is to win the championship, and that's what we were looking for from the beginning," Acuna told MLB.com through interpreter Yoel Monzon. "We competed and praise God, we got the championship."
The 19-year-old outfielder victimized a pair of Cubs pitchers early, plating a run with a single up the middle against Solar Sox starter Alec Mills in the third, then adding two more RBIs with a base hit to right against Jake Stinnett the next inning. Facing Athletics right-hander Nolan Blackwood in the eighth, Acuna drilled a sacrifice fly to right-center field.

Acuna finished atop the AFL leaderboards in home runs (seven), slugging (.639), runs scored (22) and total bases (53). He was in a three-way tie for the most extra-base hits (12), third with a .414 on-base percentage and fourth with a .325 batting average while helping the Javelinas go 18-12 to win the West Division. This followed a regular season in which he went from being the Braves' No. 18 prospect to the No. 5 overall prospect, batting .325/.374/.522 with 21 homers and 44 steals while climbing three levels.
Alex Jackson, Atlanta's No. 16 prospect, was 2-for-4 with two RBIs, and Austin Riley -- ranked No. 10 in the Braves system -- made a diving play at third base to rob the Cubs' Charcer Burks of a hit to start the fifth inning.

"Whether they come out swinging hard or put some runs on the board, we're confident we can stick in it," Riley told MLB.com. "After that first inning there wasn't even a thought into our head that we weren't going to come back, put the ball in play, make things happen and we were able to."
A couple of Toronto prospects were also instrumental in the Peoria win. Leading off for the Javs, J.D. Davis scored three times, going 1-for-3 with a triple.
No. 5 Blue Jays prospectT.J. Zeuch earned the victory, holding the Solar Sox to two runs on eight hits while picking up two strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings.
"Winning a championship is always a blast," Jackson told MLB.com. "We're going to enjoy it. We worked hard and it definitely paid off."
Mesa, which went 16-13 to take the East crown, got a 3-for-4 game out of Jaycob Brugman (Cubs), and top Washington prospect and No. 2 overall prospect Victor Robles singled twice and scored a run.

Josh Jackson is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow and interact with him on Twitter, @JoshJacksonMiLB.