Stars, Brian Kaat advance

Game 7 featured Springfield's ace Steven Hyde, and Miami's surprise hero Ed LeRoy, who threw a 1 hitter in game 3.

In the first Brian Kaat singled, stole second, and scored on a 2 out Matt McCoy double. In the second Mike Solar singled and moved to 3rd on an error by 3b Ryan Kashiwada. Keith Johnson singled to tie the game before LeRoy got out of the inning on a double play grounder. The took the lead in the top of the 3rd when Tigatron single, stole 2 bases, and scored on a groundout.

Miami took the lead back with a 2 run Damon Nkik homer and tacked on 2 more on a 2 run double by Bobby Hoffman. Mike Solar cut the lead to 5-4 in the 4th with a homer. Miami got the run back next half inning as Brian Kaat singled for his 3rd hit, stole second, and scored on a Damon Nkik single.

Miami ran into trouble in the 6th. After a leadoff single by Bobby Barrios, RJ Duke went to his bullpen, bringing in lefthander Matt Burke to face Adama Dunn. For the second time in the series, Dunn homered off Burke to make it 6-5. Two outs and two baserunners later, Miami brought in righthander Don "the Poet" Thompson to face Lonnie Webb. After falling behind in the count, Webb crushed a ball over the head of CF Brian Kaat. If it didn't leave the ballpark, it would have been at least a double and given Springfield the lead. No human could have made the catch.

Luckily for the Stars, Brian is no human. Opting for extra speed, he transferred his glove to his mouth and broke into four paw drive. The cat raced back to the wall, lept, putting the glove back on his right paw mid-air, and brought the baseball back from beyond the fence, ending the inning.

Thompson struck out the first 2 in the 7th before allowing a single and hitting Dunn with a pitch. RJ Duke again went to his bullpen, for righthander Joel "the Scott Shields of Miami" Shapiro. Joel got Mike Solar to ground harmlessly to Bubba Lewis. In the 8th, Shapiro got Glen Porter to fly out and then struck out DJ Werden and Keith Johnson on a pair of wicked in-shoots.

The Stars failed to add any insurance. The pressure was building in south Florida like yet another hurricane. RJ Duke called to the bullpen one more time for K-Bob, Bob Belardi, who set a franchise record with 51 saves. Springfield brought in pinch hitter Eric Hollins to get the left-right matchup. K-Bob struck him out looking.

The catcher position was up, and Springfield has weak hitting catchers. They went to the bench once again, for rookie Larry Mo Pena. Pena has trouble making contact but tremendous power and the ability to tie the game with one swing. He took three - and missed them all.

The last batter for Springfield was leadoff hitter Tigatron. K-Bob got ahead of the count 1-2 on fastballs clocked at 100 MPH. Then he broke off a sharp slider in the dirt. Tigatron tried to check his swing, but couldn't. Strike 3.

And the Stars will face the Sluggers in the postseason for the first time ever.