Pastime Baseball League
Northern League Championship Series Review
at 
Game 3: The series moves to New York tied at 1. Jay Hughes (15-7, 3.83) takes the hill for the Brigade against Outstanding Pitcher candidate Jim McCormick (24-12, 3.35).
The Heroes didn't miss injured star Roger Connor in Game 1, when they put up 10 runs. But Game 2 was a much different story, mustering only a single run. Connor's replacement, Aaron Miles, is hitting .300 for the series but hit .196 in 46 ABs in the regular season.
In the bottom of the first, Fielder Jones led off the game for the Heroes with an absolute bomb, a 448-foot shot to right-center on a 1-2 fastball, putting New York up 1-0.
That's how things stayed until the top of the 6th, when Wichita got singles from Frank Chance and Mike Moynahan to start things off. George Davis hit a sac fly to score Chance from third and tie things up at 1. A two-out single from Oyster Burns would get Moynahan to third, where he would be stranded when David DeJesus flied to center.
New York pulled a Wichita hallmark, answering back immediately. Dick Higham slapped a 1-out single, scoring on a 2-out double into the gap from Jesse Burkett to put New York back in front 2-1.
Hughes was good, but McCormick was better through 8 innings. Still, McCormick came out, having thrown 126 pitches, and closer Jonathan Papelbon came in to try to close it out.
Oyster Burns singled to left to start the inning for Wichita, coming out for the fleet Hub Collins. But Collins was erased when DeJesus hit into a force. Eric Byrnes pinch hit for the struggling Ollie Beard - last year's PBL Championship Series MVP. Byrnes would fly out to shallow right. Sammy Strang flew out to medium right to end it, putting New York up 2-1 in the series.
New York 2, Wichita 1 (New York leads series 2-1)
Game 4: Down 2-1, Wichita refuses to temp the fates, sending Al Orth back out there on three days rest. New York counters with Bill Byrd, also on short rest, as they look to put Wichita in a tough hole.
As they had in Game 3, New York struck in the first. Fielder Jones led off with a double, moved to third on Irish Meusel's one-out single and scored on Jesse Burkett's sac fly.
Byrd, meanwhile, retired the first 10 to face him. Frank Isbell reached on an error by Ed Mckean with one out in the fourth, but was thrown out stealing. Frank Chance singled, but was stranded.
The Heroes would tack on another in a 4th inning in which they would make Orth throw 29 pitches, starting with Jesse Burkett's leadoff walk. David Wright singled before Jim Viox popped out. Ed McKean followed with a single to score Burkett. With Grady Sizemore up, David Wright tried to steal third but was thrown out. Sizemore would pop to second to end the inning.
George Davis doubled to lead off the fifth, and moved to third on a wild pitch. Byrd struck out Luis Terrero, but walked Oyster Burns on four pitches to put first and third. He would strike out David DeJesus before getting Ollie Beard to ground to Wright to end the inning, and the threat.
In the fifth, Fielder Jones and Dick Higham hit back-to-back singles, with Jones moving to third. That enabled him to score on Irish Meusel's groundout to give New York a 3-0 lead.
Byrd gave out a one-out double to Frank Isbell in the 6th, but stranded him at second. In the bottom of the innings, the Heroes got back-to-back two-out hits: a single from Ed McKean and an RBI double from Grady Sizemore, to put New York up 4-0.
Byrd allowed a leadoff single to George Davis in the 7th, but struck out Terrero, Burns and DeJesus in succession. He would strike out two more in the 8th and another in the 9th to close it out, setting Wichita aside and putting the Heroes one game from the PBL Championship.
New York 4, Wichita 0 (New York leads series 3-1)