vs    

Game 1 Madiba at Sycamore
Randy Johnson vs Barry Zito

A stunning matchups between two premier lefthanders, but the veteran ran into serious control problems in the 4th inning. After a leadoff single by John Olerud, the Unit walked three batters to give Sycamore a 1-0 lead. Two strikeouts later, Johnson hit Zito with a pitch, bringing in the 2nd run, and Jason Kendall followed with a two run single. Four runs were enough for Zito, as he sailed through the first 6 innings. A hit and three walks made it 4-1 in the 7th and brought on Eric Gagne. He got pinchhitter Carlos Delgado to pop up, and the bullpen did the rest as Sycamore drew first blood.

               123 456 789     R  H  E
United         000 000 100     1  3  0
Sycamore       000 400 00x     4  5  1 
MAD - Johnson (L,0-1), Koplove (5), Looper (8); SYC - Zito (W,1-0), Gagne (7)(H,1), Donnelly (9), Rhodes (9)(S,1).  HR - none

Game 2 Madiba at Sycamore
Jon Lieber vs Mark Prior

Albert Pujols stroked a two run single in the 5th inning following an intentional walk to Chipper Jones as Sycamore broke a 2-2 tie. Jason Kendall and Jose Vidro got RBI hits in the sixth and Mark Prior coasted to a 7-2 win as Sycamore went up 2 games to none. Madiba managed only 8 hits over the two games at Sycamore.

               123 456 789     R  H  E
United         001 100 000     2  5  0
Flatlanders    101 022 01x     7 13  1
MAD: Lieber(L,0-1), Speier (8). SYC - Prior (W,1-0), Rhodes (8), Kline (9)  HR - MAD: Giles (1), Vanderwal (1); SYC: Wigginton (1).

Game 3 Sycamore at Madiba
Roy Halladay vs Al Leiter

The Flatlanders broke open a 2-2 tie in the 7th inning. Pujols doubled, and following an intentional walk to Burrell, Olerud doubled home a run. Two outs later, rookie Ty Wigginton, who had homered in game 2, doubled home two more.

              123 456 789  R  H  E
Flatlanders   000 200 302  7 14  0
United        100 010 100  3  9  0 
SYC - Halladay (W,1-0), Dotel (7)(H,1), Rhodes (8)(S,1), Donnelly (9) MAD - Leiter (L,0-1), Holmes (8). HR - Giles (2).

Game 4 Sycamore at Madiba
A.J. Burnett vs Cory Lidle

Madiba, down 3 games to 0, got a stellar pitching performance from Cory Lidle. After spotting Sycamore a run in the first, Brian Giles doubled home a run in the first and Jose Posada tripled home 2 more with 2 outs.

              123 456 789  R  H  E
Flatlanders   100 000 000  1  9  2
United        300 003 01x  7  8  0
SYC - Burnett (L,0-1), Kline (5), Borowski (6), Rhodes (7), Timlin (8) SYC - Lidle (W,1-0), Remlinger (7), Looper (7)(S,1), Neal (9). HR- none

Game 5 Sycamore at Madiba
Barry Zito vs Randy Johnson

 A rematch of game one, with Zito having the better stuff, but Randy was key when he needed to be. The Unit allowed 7 hits and 5 walks in 7 innings of play, but was able to strand 10 in those seven innings. His only bad inning came when it went double, single, double to lead off the 4th, and before it was over, a walk to John Olerud drove in a second run. That gave Sycamore a 2-1 lead, and Zito was throwing a no-hitter in the 5th.  But the in the 6th, Juan Gonzalez singled with one out and Matt Williams followed with a homer and the lead went back to Madiba at 3-2. Johnson got Olerud to pop up with the bases loaded in the 7th, preserving the lead. Koplove and Holmes finished and Madiba narrowed the series to 3 games to 2.

              123 456 789  R  H  E
Flatlanders   000 200 000  2  8  1
United        010 002 00x  3  3  0
SYC - Zito (L,1-1), Donnelly (8) MAD - Johnson (W,1-1), Koplove (8)(S,1), Holmes (9)(S,1). HR- Williams (1)

Game 6 Madiba at Sycamore
Jon Lieber vs Roy Halladay

The intentional walk came back to haunt Madiba in game seven. In the 4th, Joey Cora followed an intentional walk to Pat Burrell with a double to give Sycamore a 2-1 lead. Madiba brought the infield in. That didn't work either. Kendall grounded to Alomar, whose throw home was late. Halladay bunted, but Posada forgot to pay attention to Burrell, who scored to make it 4-1. One out later, Vidro singled to make it 5-1, and then Chipper homered to make it 7-1. Halladay, pitching on three days rest, threw 75 pitches in 4.1 innings, and gave way to Steve Kline. Geoff Blum greeted him with a 2 run homer, and three singles in the 6th narrowed the lead to 7-4. Juan Gonzalez came up to hit for Madiba, and Sycamore went to Octavio Dotel. Dotel struck out Gonzo and Stewart to protect the lead. That was Madiba's final hurrah. 8 of Madiba's final 11 outs were strikeouts as Sycamore went from worst to first.

               123 456 789     R  H  E
United         000 121 000     4 11  2
Flatlanders    100 600 12x    10 11  1
MAD: Lieber(L,0-2), Neal (5), Looper (6), Holmes (8). SYC - Halladay, Kline (5), Dotel (6)(H,2), Borowski (7)(W,1-0), Donnelly (8), Rhodes (9).  HR - MAD: Blum (1); SYC: Vidro (1), C.Jones (1), Pujols(1).

Series stuff: MVP: Chipper Jones, who went 10-24 with 7 RBIs, leading in both categories. He had 2 hits in games 2 through 6, and had the key 2RHR to cap the defining 6 run 4th inning in game 7. . . Intentional walks: Madiba 1, Sycamore 12.  Sycamore got three of their game winning hits following intentional walks. Only 2 intentional walks were to bring up the pitcher. After the other 10, the Flatlanders went 3-10 with 5 RBIs, and scored 13 runs in the innings following the intentional walks. Notsogood. . .  Pat Burrell had 2 singles in 19 at bats in the series, but managed to pick up 4 intentionals. . . Madiba batted .209 as a team. Brian Giles had a rough series, going 3-20. Two of his hits were home runs, but weren't particularly important.