It has been a banner year for the Cubs farm system, packed with breakout campaigns and a lot of winning.

Both of those facets came together this week with South Bend, as the Advanced Class-A squad took home the championship behind the performances of some of the Cubs’ top prospects.

The South Bend Cubs and Lake County Captains met in the Midwest League Championship this week in a best-of-3 series. After Pete Crow-Armstrong helped lead the Cubs to victory in Game 2 Tuesday night, it set the stage for a winner-take-all contest in the shadow of Cleveland…on a Wednesday night.

“The greatest game ever played was on a Wednesday in Cleveland.”
– @obvious_shirts 🫶🏼 pic.twitter.com/kePtqGVd8d

— South Bend Cubs (@SBCubs) September 21, 2022

The Cubs jumped out to an early 3-0 lead thanks to a homer by Owen Caissie, the No. 5-ranked prospect on Lance Brozdowski’s midseason rankings update.

PIMP. IT. OUUUUUT. OC. 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/apwZ3yUbWJ

— South Bend Cubs (@SBCubs) September 22, 2022

South Bend ended up winning the game 7-4, taking home the championship.

PUMP IT UP 💪🏼💪🏼 WE ARE MIDWEST LEAGUE CHAMPS🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/KACsKZJWxQ

— South Bend Cubs (@SBCubs) September 22, 2022

In addition to Crow-Armstrong and Caissie, South Bend was home to a bunch of the Cubs’ top prospects at one point this season.

Both Matt Mervis and Alexander Canario began the year in South Bend and Brennen Davis also had a 5-game stint on injury rehab. Shortstop Ed Howard played 23 games earlier this spring before a hip injury ended his season prematurely.

On the pitching front, southpaws Jordan Hicks and D.J. Herz were in the Opening Day rotation before being promoted to Double-A Tennessee. And reliever Jeremiah Estrada started his year in the South Bend bullpen and moved all the way to the big leagues (before he was optioned back to Triple-A Wednesday afternoon).

Buoyed by that star power, the South Bend Cubs — managed by Lance Rymel — tallied a 73-58 record in the regular season.