Division Series 10-5-18

Bay Area 6, Green Day 4

The Dookies scored 4 runs in the second to take an early lead off Chris Mendez thanks to homers by Squirrel Nutkin Jr. and Cristobal Guillen.  Bay Area started chipping away with a solo homer in the 3rd by Preston Greenfield.  The got two more after Sam Suarez and Chad Richardson hit back to back doubles, and tied it in the 5th when Wily Ramirez singled home Ryan Jones.

Both Bullpens shut things down from there, and the score was still tied at 4 in to the 12th inning.  Darryl Brown came up with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the 12th, and singled off James Willits to give Bay Area a two run lead.

In the bottom of the 12th, Bruce Holland walked the leadoff batter but got the next 3 outs to send the Bandits to the MLCS.

Florida 8, New York 5

After reaching base only once in the first two games, Angel Garcia started the Penguins off with a single off Sylvanos Tonka.  After Garcia stole second Conn Barbarian walked, and the runners pulled off a double steal.  One out later Scott Meyer drove them both in with a double.

New York got one back in the bottom first thanks to a Chad White double, but Joel Camels was in command after that.  Camels took a 5-1 lead into the 8th thanks to a 3rd inning homer by Meyer.  In the bottom of the 8th Lee Thompson and David Jackson pulled off a double steal, with Thompson coming home on a throwing by catcher Kawasaki.  Florida reliever Darrell Tibbs retired Bear and White to strand Jackson on 3rd.

In the top of the 9th New York sent Todd McCarthy to the mound.  He got the first two outs, but then gave up a pinch homer to Bob Brady.  Angel Garcia reached on an infield hit, and everyone knew he was stealing.  That is, everyone except Conn, who instead of taking the pitch lined it down the left field line and over the wall, giving Florida an 8-2 lead.  New pitcher Barry Vasquez finally ended the inning by striking out Sean Fordham.

Bart Riley took over for the bottom 9th and immediately served up a homer to Chris Gruber.  Jeff Bowman singled, and one out later Luis Harris drew a walk.  After pinch hitter Carlos Ramirez struck out Lee Thompson singled to make it 8-4, and brought the tying run to the on deck circle.

That was enough to force Florida to bring in their closer, Grant Hansen.  David Jackson doubled, 8-5, and now Wellington Bear stood in representing the tying run.  Unfortunately for New York, their best hitter struck out on three pitches.

They still lead the series 2 games to 1.