GROVE CITY — A Grove City-based custom screen printing company is working extra innings to help satisfy demand for apparel celebrating the Chicago Cubs' World Series victory.

The moment the game's final out was called — at 12:47 a.m. Thursday, after a seesaw 10-inning contest that included a rain delay — presses at Ithan Global on North Broad Street started humming. They haven't stopped since, as the company works to produce tens of thousands of shirts celebrating the Cubs' historic, curse-breaking championship.

The company, founded in 1980 by Butler native Chris Ithen and his wife, Joanna, prints for national brands like Panera Bread and Absolute Vodka. More recently they've made a splash doing “hot market” printing for sports teams in the region.

Those jobs revolve around creating apparel for championship games. That Stanley Cup Championship shirt you got last hockey season, celebrating the Penguins' win? Ithen's work.

Chris Ithen says the company has emerged as a hot commodity in the field — it had contracts with both the Cubs and Cleveland Indians to print championship shirts, and printed the Indians' ALCS championship gear as well — because of its technical excellence.

“We found our way into the sports market because of how fast we could respond,” Ithen said.

The company acquitted itself so well during the ALCS apparel rush that it has snagged a more desirable assignment for the World Series: producing apparel for the League's online outlet, MLBShop.com. That task is much simpler because it only requires Ithen deal with one shipping procedure: a truck that will take the shirts to Lousiville, Ky.

It also has freedoms other hot market printers don't get, after receiving a superior performance rating in 2009. Most companies — there are 35 printers currently producing the Cubs' championship apparel — are required to turn over control of their shops to “chaperones” from MLB.

Ithen is allowed to print without oversight — something that actually slightly eased the burden of what Chris Ithen called “the unique scenario,” he's ever seen in hot market printing, as control of the World Series finale swung back and forth between the teams and a rain delay lengthened the wait.

Now, with the company about 28 hours into another hot market print rush, Ithen said the focus is on maintaining their high performance and standards. The effort takes about 20 people to pull off.

“it's a rough, brutal (thing). These guys have to work so hard,” he said. “It's not something your normally staffed to do, and you have to get the absolute best.”

The numbers change dramatically depending on who ends up winning a championship, especially in this case. Ithen said that if the Indians had won, projections put demand for championship apparel at about 300,000 units.

Instead, the Cubs smashed a 108-year-old curse and sent the projections skyrocketing to an expected 2 million. Ithen said it's not clear how much of that demand his company will participate in filling. They're currently under contract until Nov. 15, but part of the challenge of hot market printing is remaining flexible and productive while the market evolves.

“This will be big. But it's just hard to say exactly how big,” Ithen said.