The Ultimate Cubs Lineup Tournament is off and running, where each Marquee Sports Network analyst gets a chance to put their team to the test.

Up today, we had a matchup of two former Cubs pitchers in Ryan Dempster and Rick Sutcliffe. Plus, a battle of reporters between Taylor McGregor and…yours truly.

All matchup simulations were run by Strat-O-Matic, the market leader in sports simulations.

Dempster vs. Sutcliffe

FINAL: Sutcliffe 5, Dempster 4

A day of walk-offs began with Sutcliffe rallying from down 4-1 to pull off a thrilling victory. Sutcliffe’s Sluggers scored twice in the bottom of the 8th and twice more in the bottom of the 9th.

Ryne Sandberg collected the walk-off hit, a 1-out double to drive in Kris Bryant. One batter earlier, Bryant doubled to drive home Bob Dernier, who began the inning with a triple off Dempster closer Kerry Wood.

In the 8th, Mark Grace hit a 2-run homer to set the stage for Sandberg’s heroics. Ernie Banks hit a solo homer to account for Sutcliffe’s other run.

Dempster, meanwhile, received a 2-run shot from Aramis Ramírez, a sacrifice fly by catcher Geovany Soto and a solo homer off the bat of right fielder Jeromy Burnitz.

Jon Lester went 8 solid innings for Team Dempster, permitting 3 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks over 126 pitches. Fergie Jenkins allowed 4 runs (3 earned) in 7 innings as his error in the 4th inning account for an unearned run.

Sutcliffe now moves on to the second round of the Ultimate Cubs Lineup Tournament, which will begin Monday, June 8.

McGregor vs. Andracki

FINAL: Andracki 5, McGregor 4

This was a wild one.

Neither team scored until the 6th inning and they took a 2-2 tie into extras.

In the top of the 10th, Team McGregor plated a pair of runs on a Ryne Sandberg single and a 2-run shot off Ernie Banks.

But in the bottom of the 10th, Team Tone Zone took over.

Sammy Sosa led off with a single, Banks flied out and then Mark Grace walked. My version of Sandberg doubled, driving home a run before catcher Gabby Hartnett stepped up to the plate and drilled a 2-run, walk-off single.

That saddled McGregor’s Lee Smith with the loss, while the other version of Smith picked up the victory in 2 innings of relief. Jake Arrieta allowed only 2 unearned runs in 8 innings of work for Team Tone Zone, but did make an error that led to those runs.

McGregor tabbed Greg Maddux as her starter and he gave up only 3 hits in 9 innings, but 1 of those knocks came in the form of a 2-run double by Hartnett in the 8th inning.

Team Tone Zone moves on to the second round of the Ultimate Cubs Lineup Tournament, which begins next week.