2006 DIVISION SERIES HIGHLIGHTS

For Immediate Release
October 5th, 2006

Buffalo vs. Virginia – Buffalo at Virginia

Gm.1 VIR 5-1 W-A.Pettitte L-R.Tejeda
Cy Young candidate Andy Pettitte pitched the Sluggers to victory in the opening game of the series. Going the distance, Pettitte scattered 4 hits and only allowed one run on S. Green’s 4th inning home run. The Sluggers lived up to their name as they slugged 3 home runs among their 9 hits. Todd Helton had a two run shot and Aramis Ramirez went yard twice.

Gm.2 BUF 13-11 W-T.Jones L-C.Spurling
Where oh where did the pitching go? 30 hits in the game…17 by BUF and 13 by VIR. It looked, at first, that VIR would run away with this one as they scored 5 in the 1st 2 in the 2nd and 1 in the 3rd to lead 8-1 after 3. It was 8-3 after 4 as the Braves scored 2 on an Adam Everett error, and then the Braves erupted for 6 runs off B.Colon in the 5th to forge ahead 9-8. In that inning BUF started their scoring with a 2-run homer from J.Burnitz that made it 8-5. With 2 outs, Rafael Palmeiro connects to cut the lead to 8-6. After a Walker single, Lieberthal walks and then…
“* J. JONES facing B. COLON, T 5th, 2 Outs, 1st and 2nd, Behind 6-8 This one has a chance … high, deep and hard … GUERRERO is just a spectator this time … see ya! Jacque trots around the bases … he loves a trip downtown … he claps his hands he’s greeted at home plate … congratulations all around.
BRAVES 9, SLUGGERS 8″
Mike Cameron’s double in the bottom ofthe 5th ties it for VIR. It stays tied till the 8th when BUF scores on a 2-run double by T.Walker. VIR answers with 2 of their own in the bottom of the 8th …
* A. RAMIREZ facing T. JONES, B 8th, 2 Outs, Runner on 1st, Behind 9-11 The pitch … a big fly to left … JONES backpedals … still drifting back … look out now! it’s outta here! … JONES thought he had a play … but the ball carried just beyond his reach home run for Aramis … and two runs score
BRAVES 11, SLUGGERS 11″
After 9 innings the scored remained 11-11 and the two teams went to the 10th. Shawn Green triples in the 10th for the Braves and Burnitz gets a base on balls. Green scores on a Joe Randa double and Burnitz on a SF by Lieberthal. Braves take the lead 13-11.
In the bottom of the 10th Todd Jones faces the Sluggers’ 4-5-6 of Helton, Ramirez, and Guillen…and strikes out the side to win it for the Braves.
So, now the series goes to Buffalo tied at 1 apiece.

Game #3:
Guerrero scores in the 1st on a Helton RBI single. Cameron goes deep in the 2nd. 4-0 Virginia. Braves score 2 in the 3rd to make it 4-2 Sluggers. A two run homer by Burnitz ties it in the 6th 4-4! Virginia scores one in the 7th on a sacrifice fly to make 5-4 Sluggers. Ramirez homers in the 8th making it 6-4 Virginia. The Braves score one more in the bottom of the 9th and that was it. The final score VIR-6, BUF5! Sluggers take a 2-1 lead in the series.

Game #4:
Biggio leads off with a solo shot giving Buffalo an early 1-0 lead. Everett leads the way for Virginia with a homer giving the Sluggers a 3-1 lead in the 2nd. Guerrero homers and Guillen adds 2 more for an easy 8-1 Virginia win. Sluggers now lead series 3-1!

Game #5;
The Buffalo Braves have their backs against the wall! Wally calls on old timer Tim Wakefield and he comes through big time. Tim throws a complete game 5 hit shutout to keep the Braves alive. Buffalo scores three runs with walker hitting a two run shot. The final: Braves:3- Sluggers 0!
The series returns to Virginia with the Sluggers holding on to 3-2 series lead!
Buffalo at Virginia
Yonge Streets opponent has been decided…
Down 3-2, the Braves come to Virginia for the final two games of the series.

Gm.1 VIR 4-1 W-B.Colon L-P.Byrd

The Virginia Sluggers move on to the League Championship series behind the arm of Bartolo Colon. Colon went 8.2 scattering 5 hits, striking out 8 and allowing only one run on Rich Aurilia’s 3rd inning homer. The Sluggers scored 2 runs in the 1st as Cameron singled, stole 2nd and scored on Guerrero’s single. After Vlady stole 2nd, he scored on Helton’s RBI single. Virginia added another run in the 2nd on Olivo’s RBI single driving in A.Everett. The final run for the Sluggers came on Aramis Ramirez’ 5th home run of the series.

Congratulations go out to Wally and his Buffalo Braves for a fine season.
If it’s any consolation Wally, I think it probably didn’t matter which one of us won…we’re only going to be so much fodder for the Stalkers :)~

Some of the Stars:
Co-MVPs- Aramis Ramirez 10-24 .417 BA 5 HR 8 RBI
Andy Pettitte 2-0 1.20 ERA 1 CG 10 K’s

Others-
Virginia
Mike Cameron 9-21 .429 1 HR 4 RBI
Vladimir Guerrero 7-20 .350 2 HR 6 RBI

Buffalo
Rafael Palmeiro 8-21 .381 1 HR 1 RBI
Todd Walker 5-16 .313 1 HR 4 RBI
Jeremy Burnitz 5-21 .238 2 HR 5 RBI

Tim Wakefield 1-0 0.00 ERA 1 CG 1 SHO

TEAMS

Hitting:
BUF .224 BA .266 OBP .395 SLG 46 HITS 25 RUNS 8 HR 4 SB
VIR .270 BA .349 OBP .520 SLG 55 HITS 34 RUNS 12 HR 12 SB

Pitching:
BUF 5.60 ERA 1 CG 1 SHO 39 K’s 26 BB’s
VIR 4.00 ERA 1 CG 0 SHO 40 K’s 9 BB’s

The Sluggers move on to face Yonge Street for the AL Championship.

Severn vs. Yonge Street – Come along for the ride, it was a fun series.

Game 1 was a Homer-fest that saw Roy Halladay start off by retiring the side in order in the first. Ryan Freel led off the bottom half with a HR off SEV starter Jon Garland. Yonge Streets 1-0 lead was quickly erased by an Emil Brown 2 run HR in the 2nd. Brian Schneider followed with a 2 run shot of his own in the btm of the 2nd to give YSS as 3-2 lead. Richie Sexsons 2 run HR in the 3rd gave YSS a brief 5-2 lead. An A-Rod solo HR in the 4th cut the lead to 5-3, but was offset by another Sexson HR in the 6th. YSS held a 6-3 lead heading to the 8th. Miguel Cabrera stroked a 2 run HR in the top half, but was followed in the bottom half by a Jonny Gomes 2 run blast that ended the scoring. Joe Nathan got the final 4 outs for the save. Thats 8 homers (5 for YSS and 3 for SEV if you’re scoring at home)
YSS 8
SEV 5
W – Halladay
L – Garland (saddled with 4 of the 5 YSS HR)
SV – Nathan

Game 2 saw YSS open up quickly, scoring 3 runs in the first on an RBI single from Edmonds and a 2 run single from Gomes. A Moises Alou solo shot gave The Express a glimmer of hope in the 3rd, but YSS added 2 runs on a throwing error and a Sac Fly in the bottom half that opened up a 5-1 lead. A-Rod added a usless 2 run HR in the 5th to shave the deficit to 2 runs, but 3 innings of flawless relief from Speier and Nathan sealed the victory.
YSS 5
SEV 3
W – Carrasco
L – Zambrano
SV – Nathan

Game 3 was “kind of” the Pitchers duel we were expecting. The series shifted to Severn and Chris Capuano and Chris Carpenter threw up zeroes thru 4 innings. Jonny Gomes scored the first run in the 5th inning on a single and a 3 base error. Severn struck back the next inning with back to back doubles from Alou and A-Rod to tie the game at 1 after 6. A Jonny Gomes error allowed the winning run to score in the 7th. Chris Capuano worked around 5 walks, but only allowed the ONE hit to Gomes that was butchered into becoming the only run that YSS would score. The tough luck loser Carpenter went the distance allowing 5H, 2BB, and 2 ER while K’ing 8. There were 7 errors in this gem, 4 from YSS and 3 from SEV.
SEV 2
YSS 1
W – Capuano
L – Carpenter

Game 4 was another back and forth affair. Brandon Webb hit # 2 hitter Nick Johnson and # 3 hitter David Wright in the 1st inning and they both scored via a Richie Sexson double. Matt Holiday cut the lead in half by leading off the home half of the first with a solo shot. An RBI double by Nick Johnson in the 3rd and an RBI single by Freel in the 4th put YSS up 4-1. A-Rods 2 run HR in the btm half brings SEV back to within 1 run, at 4-3. A Gomes RBI single in the 5th stands up until the 8th. Cliff Lee allows a walk and a double to start the 8th inning. SEV scores a run on a Cabrera sac fly, but Alou is gunned out trying to tag up to 3rd base for the second out. A-Rod is erased on a CS for the final out in the 8th with SEV still trailing 5-4. YSS adds an insurance run in the 9th on an error and a sac fly.
YSS 6
SEV 4
W – Lee
L – Webb
SV – Valverde

Game 5 turned out to be the finale. YSS shot out quickly to a 6-0 lead after they batted in the top of the 6th. After a lead off 2B from A-Rod in the bottom of the 6th, I decided to walk Cabrera. Emil Brown promptly jacked a 3 run HR and Matt Holiday added an RBI single to slice the lead to 6-4 after 6. The only other scoring was the result of a Jim Edmonds single in the 7th. Brandon Medders pitched 3.1 innings for the save.
YSS 7
SEV 4
W – Patterson
L – Garland
SV – Medders

The Express squad fought like champs, but came up short. Congrats on a great season, Mike.

YSS waits patiently for it’s next opponent.

Midland vs. Tempe – MWBL Division Series – Midland Mud Hens vs Tempe Tempers (Played via logmein on 9/16/06)

Here’s how the starting lineups matched up.
G1 – Randy Johnson vs Roger Clemens
Clemens was impressive going 7 INN with 8 SO and a No-Hitter. Brian Shackelford pitched a hit-less 8th and scoreless 9th. Brian Roberts was able to break up the no-hitter with one out in the 9th but that was the only offense for Midland.
W – Clemens, L – Johnson, S – Shackelford, HR TEM – Griffey, Clark
Tempe 3 – Midland 0

G2 – Erik Bedard vs Pedro Martinez
Tempe took a 2-1 lead into the top of the 8th before Midland tied it up with a lead off double by pinch hitter Orlando Palmerio, a bunt, and then an infield fielder’s choice. In the top of the 9th Carlos Beltran hit a solo shot off Shackleford to put the Mudhens up 3-2. Huston Street came on and recorded a nervous save. Tempe stranded a runner at 3B.
W – Hensley L – Shackelford S – Street HR MID Teixeira, Beltran, TEM Clark, Young
Midland 3 – Tempe 2

G3 – Roger Clemens vs Adam Harang
Tempe jumped off to a 4-0 lead with homers from Chavez and Manny. Clemens had a 4-2 lead in the sixth before Jhonny Peralta took him deep for a 2 run HR. In the top of the 7th Matsui led off with a homerun and Jason Varitek added a pinch hit two run double. Tempe added two more in the 9th.
W – Clemens, L – Harang, HR MID – Peralta, Crede, TEM – Ramirez, Matsui, Chavez
Tempe 9 – Midland 4

G4 – Pedro Martinez vs Gustavo Chacin
In the 2nd, Chacin got a little rattled after a 2 run homer from Varitek and single by Pedro so he intentionally beaned Manny. The umpire surprisingly issued warnings to both teams against retaliating. In the bottom of the 4th with a 4-0 lead Pedro accidentally hit Mark Teixeira and was thrown out of the game. The loss of Pedro energized the Mudhens and they manufactured 5 runs in the bottom of the 5th to take the lead. In the bottom of the 6th Brian Roberts added another run with an rbi single. In the top of the 8th Tempe loaded the bases with no outs. Midland brought in Street but he wasn’t able to get out of the inning without giving up two runs. With the game tied 6-6 in the bottom of the 9th Jhonny Peralta came up big with an rbi double.
W – Riske, L – Reyes, HR MID –Crede, TEM – Varitek
Midland 7 – Tempe 6

G5 – Kevin Millwood vs Randy Johnson
Midland jumped out 2-0 lead in the 1st on 2 BB and a single. Crede hit a solo homerun in the 2nd to put Midland up 3-0.   Tempe loaded the bases in the top of the 3rd with two outs. The fact that this was a 7 game series wasn’t the only thing keeping the Tempe management at bay when late season acquisition Tony Clark went deep for a grand slam. Randy Johnson imploded over the next two giving up 6 more runs as Tempe won easily behind 4 more homeruns and strong relief from Brett Myers.
W – Myers, L – Johnson, HR MID – Reed TEM – Matsui 2 hrs , Clark Grand Slam, Chavez, Matheny
Tempe 11 – Midland 4

G6 – Roger Clemens vs Erik Bedard
Michael Young hit a 3 run homer in the 1st to put Tempe on the board. Clemens dominated for five innings and he was removed for pinch runner when Tempe had the option to add some insurance runs in the bottom of the 5th. Tempe added two more in the inning and six more runs in the 7th as their pen kept the shutout.
W – Clemens, L – Bedard, HR MID – Reed TEM – Young, Matsui, Clark, Varitek
Tempe 11 – Midland 0

Series MVP –
Roger Clemens 3-0 2.00 ERA 18.0 INN, 6 Hits 20 SO

Runners up –
Tony Clark – 304 avg 360 obp 826 slg 4 HR 11 RBI
Hideki Matusi 478 avg 538 obp 1.087 slg 4 HR 5 RBI

Congratulations again to Phil on a great season and a tough series.

Camarillo vs. Kentucky –

Game 1
CAM 3 6 0
KEN 0 5 1

W: D. Davis 1-0
L: Contreras 0-1
SV: none
HR: Tracy (1)

It was all Doug Davis in this one — Kentucky had no response. Davis pitches a masterful complete game shutout for the Quest.

Game 2
CAM 4 9 1
KEN 10 12 2

W: Sheets 1-0
L: Suppan 0-1
SV: none
HR: Shelton (1), Ichiro (1), D. Lee (1), Glaus (1)

Kentucky woke up in a big way with 6 runs in the 3rd inning on way to a 10-4 vitory. Back to back tirples in the 3rd inning by Lee and Giles opened it up. On to Camarillo for games 3, 4 and 5.

Game 3
Kentucky – Jose Contreras (20-8, 2.83)
Camarillo – Livian Hernandez (20-10, 3.02)

Kentucky struck first with one in the first, however Camarillo comes right back in the bottom of the first when Chad Tracy connected on a 3-run home to take an early 3 to 1 lead. Tracy again and She Hillenbrand would add RBI singles in the 2nd inning to pad the lead to 5 to 1 heading into the third.

Camarillo management needed to get at least 5 innings out of Hernandez, who struggled the second half of the year, and then turn things over to their esteemed bullpen. Their relief staff carried a 2.69 era during the regular season and is lead by Dustin Hermanson and his team record 42 saves.

Things didn’t start off good in the second innings, as Hernandez walked Contreras and gave up a single to Ichiro, however he was able to get out of it when Mark Grudzielank grounded into a double play.

Not much happened in the middle innings, so we entered the 7th inning with a score of 5 to 1 and Camarillo starting to go to their bullpen. Camarillo’s bullpen held them in check until the 9th inning when Kentucky got 2 aboard for David Eckstein. Eckstein hit into an infield fly and then Jason Giambi was brought in to pinch hit…. facing Hermanson …. boom … 3 run shot and we now have a 1 run game! 5 to 4. Up comes Ichiro with 2 outs in the 9th… but Hermanson gets him to fly out to end the game. Wow!

Camarillo now takes a 2 games to 1 lead in the series.

Game 4
Kentucky – Derek Lowe (17-9, 3.86)
Camarillo – Matt Morris (10-9, 3.78)

Kentucky, again, jumps out early in the first with 2 runs and then adds 2 more in the 3rd with a Gary Sheffield 2-run shot to take a 4 to 1 lead.

We would head to the 7th with Kentucky up 5 to 2 and starting to go to their bullpen. They first bring in Dan Wheeler and he retires the Quest in order. In the 8th, they go with Cliff Politte who doesn’t allow much.

So on to the 9th… in comes their closer Chad Cordero… he gets the first out, but then gives up a home run to Shea Hillenbrand to cut the lead to 5 to 3. Stairs and Belliard fly out in succession to end the game and Cordero notches the save and ties the series at 2.

Game 5
Kentucky – Tomo Ohka (10-4, 4.03)
Camarillo – Doug Davis (12-10, 4.00)

Although Kentucky scored a run in the first, this game was a pitching duel for the first 5 innings. Davis and Ohka were mowing through batters… until the 5th when Brian Giles homered to put Kentucky up 2 to 0. Camarillo threatened in the 6th, but couldn’t plate a run.

In the 7th, Camarillo put runners on the corners with 2 outs and brought in pinch hitter Todd Hollandsworth … who promptly ground out against Dan Wheeler to end the threat.

In the 8th, Camarillo was on the bases again. With a run on second, Chad Tracy came up. Kentucky went to their bullpen and brought in Jamie Walker to face Tracy. Camarillo countered and pinch hit for Tracy with Kevin Youkilis. Youkilis doubled in the run and the crowd roared, “Youuuuuuu….”. Vizcaino was brought in to run for Youkilis, however Walker got the next to get out of the inning.

So on to the 9th … down 1 run. Belliard walks and Juan Uribe bunts him over to second. Toby Hall flies out to center. Chris Shelton is then brought in to pinch hit for the pitcher, but Kentucky issues the free pass to him to face veteran Jason Michaels. The move was a good one as Michaels flied out to end the game.

Kentucky takes a 3 to 2 series lead.