DOUBLE DAY DAILY
These Louisville Colonels have made a habit out of winning impossible-to-win series. In a performance that echoed Louisville's triumph after being down 0-3 to the Durham Tobacconists in the season-two NLCS, the Colonels once again won four straight, this time capping off the greatest World Series Double Day has ever seen.
The Louisville Colonels bested the Albuquerque Dukes in a riveting seven-game series to win their third championship in the past four seasons. This is the same ballclub that was an afterthought in Double Day's preseason rankings after having lost in the NLCS to Durham a season ago.
The Colonels had to weather a frerocious early storm, as the Dukes took the first three games, which included a pair of 4-3 nailbiters. In game one, it was Albuquerque's explosive offense that took control of the series, with a seven-run third inning. Phil Maxwell, Mickey Price, and Quinn Street combined for the team's 8 RBIs on the evening, and it appeared as if the Dukes' offense--the only club to score 1000 runs this season, a feat they've achieved every season--and the big bats of slugger Billy Meyers and rookie Quinn Street achieved timely hitting in games two and three.
After game three, the Dukes' offense went horribly cold, scoring a mere ten runs in the final four games.
It would be fantastic pitching performances that helped Louisville climb back into this series: 25-year-old Erick Shannon, on the heels of a breakout, 21-win season, took the hill in game four and delivered a gem of a performance, to the tune of eight scoreless innings.
Game five, which ended up being a 9-2 drubbing, saw Bono Stone notch his third win of the postseason. And despite three K's, Brett Hinske went 2-for-5 with three RBIs off of a three-run homer in the fifth frame to all but seal a second consecutive Colonel victory.
Dukes fans probably envisioned their team's collapse-to-be after a heartbreaking game six. With a one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth and one out, a shakey Jackson Neagle walked Les Cloud to load 'em up; Albuquerque's closer, Sherman Dalrymple, was given the task of stopping the bleeding. Yet Dalrymple walked in the tying run when he pitched away from Alberto Rodriguez, who was hitting .241 in the series and had drawn only 51 walks in comparison to 101 strikeouts on the season.
Of a three-run ninth in which Louisville evened the score, no runs came off of hits (they were, instead, off of two walks and a groundout).
Later, in the early hours of the morning, Henry Klaus drove in the game-winning run, opening the door for a seventh game a World Series first here in Double Day.
It was another game, another victory for young phenom Erick Shannon, who pitched five innings and gave up one run. After a collective faux-defensive effort in game one, in which Shannon gave up seven runs--none of them earned--the starter rebounded to win two elimination games. Shannon pitched 19 innings in the World Series, giving up one earned run.
Shannon (2-0, 0.47 ERA in the World Series) has thus been nominated by this "reporter" as the first-ever DoubleDayDaily World Series MVP:
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Congratulations to the Louisville Colonels, Double Day's first dynasty, for winning its third World Series in our four seasons. Congratulations also to the Albuquerque Dukes, the American League's marquee team, for winning their second American League Championship and being involved in our first-ever seven-game World Series.
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