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THE ISLANDIAN TIMES
Thursday, October 9, 2042
2042 IPA LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES - Game Seven
Tycobbian Union
SEXTON HR SENDS SOUTH FORK TO IPA FINALS
Paul Sexton has hit 186 homers in his IPA career, none bigger that today's big blast in the top of the seventh inning that gave South Fork an upset win over favored Hartsdale 6-5 in the seventh-game finale of the Tycobbian Championship Series... the Stallions will now advance to the IPA Pro Cup Finals against the Ruthlandian champion Colfax for the Islands' baseball crown.
South Fork, the seventh pick in the Pro Cup poll, stormed to a 5-0 lead with one run in the opening inning, another in the third and three in the fifth... with their ace Jay Murphy on the hill, victory looked like a cinch, but third-rated Hartsdale didn't give up... they fought back with five big runs in the bottom of the sixth to even it up at 5-all... only to lose it on the Sexton heartbreaking home run.
Murphy (3-3/3.94) still got the win though it was a rocky road... the Hellcats racked up five runs and 11 hits in his eight and one-third innings... Gary Golden (0-0/0.00) relieved Murphy after he hit C Frank Penn (.325) and put the tying run on... Golden easily got the final two outs on groundouts for his third save of the playoffs... the loss went to reliever Barney Hathaway (0-1/1.42), who worked the final three innings... he permitted only one run on two hits... the crucial one was Sexton's game-winning blast... Hellcat ace Freddie Whitaker had a poor outing... South Fork slammed him for five runs and eight hits in six innings.
Paul Sexton (.327) powered the Stallions with two homers... he now has four in the playoffs... SS Jess Wilkerson (.352) also homered for the winners... LF Marv Shaw (.353) smacked two out of the park to spark the Hellcats... Shaw topped them with four RBIs.
Stallions manager Blackie Terranova, who pitched 15 years for them, never made the playoffs, despite sporting a 273-203 record with a 3.56 ERA... ironically, the year after he retired, South Fork won its only Pro Cup in 2025, when they beat the Middlefield Roosters in a scintillating seven-game series.
He commented on the Stallions surprise win over powerful Hartsdale, "We're just a gritty bunch of guys that play hard, hustle and do whatever it takes to scrounge out a win... we beat two very solid ball clubs, Kenwood and Hartsdale, the number two and three picks... so that should say something about us... the experts may not give us much of a chance against Colfax, but we'll show up at game time and see what happens."
Hartsdale manager Jud Turchin bluntly said, "Plain and simple the Stallions are a darn good club and they beat us... I don't buy that underdog stuff... they whipped a pretty good Kenwood team in the first round... and they beat us for the Tycobbian title... and we're a pretty good team, too... I wouldn't be surprise to see South Fork take it all... they hit better than I thought... that's what turned the tide in the series."
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