November 20, 2002

It's Now a Best of Three

SALEM, NH - With a raucous Sam Adams Stadium capacity crowd rocking the retractable
roof despite the absence of inflatable noisemakers (which are banned from the 
stadium), the Salem Cowtippers won their second game in a row of this OL Championship
Series to tie the series at two games apiece.  John Thomson, who was a last minute
addition to the Salem OLCS roster, provided five innings of quality work, earning
his second win of this post-season despite being limited to just five innings per
start by league rules.

Chan Ho Park got the starting nod for Los Altos, pitching on just three days rest,
and was immediately greeted by a two-run blast by Sammy Sosa in the first.

In the third, Tim Salmon began the inning with a walk, stole second, then advanced
to third on an error by Salem shortstop David Eckstein.  Craig Biggio, who reached
on that error, was then caught stealing for out number one.  In the first four games
of this series, the Cowtippers have nabbed six Los Altos base stealers, while the
Undertakers have stolen just five bases off Salem catcher Craig Wilson.

"Los Altos likes to run," said Wilson.  "So we've employed a lot of pitch-outs and
pick-off plays to try to keep them as close as possible.  So far, it's working 
pretty well."

One out away from escaping the jam, Danny Bautista connected for an RBI double,
cutting Salem's lead in half.

Salem got that run back immediately, however, on a Terrance Long double, a David
Eckstein single and a sac fly by Todd Helton (who is now 1-for-12 in this series.)

The Cowtippers loaded the bases with one out in the fifth, with Helton and Sosa due
up, yet somehow managed to end the inning without scoring a run.

"Story of the year," said Salem hitting coach Pat Tabler.

When Thomson was forced out after five innings due to league rules, Chad Fox entered
the game, worked his way into a bases loaded jam thanks in part to an error by David
Eckstein, then earned his team a little payback by leaving the bases loaded after
a ground-out by Shawn Wooten.

In the seventh, Norm Charlton was called upon to face the bottom third of the Los
Altos lineup and recorded two quick outs.  Pinch hitter Ramon Hernandez then continued
his hot hitting with a double.  When Undertakers manager Jeff Paulson called upon 
Pedro Feliz to pinch hit for Danny Bautista, Salem manager Mike Glander signalled
for David Weathers out of the pen.  Paulson then countered with Todd Hollandsworth,
who was then intentionally passed with Rich Aurilia (1-for-15 this series) on deck.
Aurilia popped out to center to end the inning.

Weathers, Randy Choate and Steve Karsay then slammed the door shut in the eighth and
ninth to seal the victory.

"Throughout this post-season, whenever we've gotten the relief pitching, we've won,"
said Glander.  "Today, we got it.  Who knows what tomorrow has in store."

"It feels great to tie this thing up and make this a best-of-three series the rest
of the way," said Thomson.  "With Moose going for us next game, we've gotta like our
chances to go ahead in this series.  It would be nice to be in the driver's seat 
after being down two games to none."

The Cowtippers nearly left Thomson off the post-season roster, but at the last 
minute, he was added in place of Steve Sparks.  Sparks, who went 15-7 for Salem this
season, with an ERA of 3.87, has yet to throw a pitch in the post-season.

"I feel bad for Sparky," said Glander, "but Johnny Thomson did a helluva job for us
this year, too, and we've only got room for four starters.  Johnny won all three of
his starts against Los Altos this year during the regular season, so we figured he
must be a good match-up against them.  The downside, of course, is that he can only
go five, but with Penny coming through for us last game, our pen was fully rested 
today and ready for action.  Johnny has pitched a couple of big games for us in the
post-season.  Hopefully, it won't be his last."