November 20, 2002 Holy Moreno, Robin! SALEM, NH - In front of yet another raucous capacity crowd at Salem's Sam Adams Stadium, the hometown Cowtippers won their third straight game, giving them the lead in this OL Championship Series against the Los Altos Undertakers. In yet another nail-biting back-and-forth tug-of-war, the Cowtippers and Undertakers were forced into extra innings, where the Cowtippers eventually prevailed thanks to the clutch bat of Robin Ventura. With ace Mike Mussina toeing the rubber for Salem, the Cowtippers jumped out to an early lead against Los Altos starter Octavio Dotel. Dotel, who has been an integral part of the Undertakers bullpen all season, was a surprise starter for today's game, getting the nod over the arm-weary Tom Glavine and spot starter Jason Marquis. An RBI double by Todd Helton brought home the first run of the game. Lance Berkman then stranded Helton at third by ending the inning with a whiff (one of eight on the day for Dotel.) The next inning, Salem's first two batters reached base via walk and single. Mussina bunted over both runners into scoring position, and Terrance Long drove them both home with a two-out base hit, giving Salem a 3-0 lead. In the fourth, the same two Salem batters started the inning yet again by reaching base on a walk and a double. But Dotel worked his way out of that jam, retiring the next three batters in order. In the Los Altos half of the sixth, former Cowtipper Jeff Bagwell ripped a one out triple off of his former teammate, Mussina. David Dellucci then delivered a two-out double to make it a 3-1 game. After seven spectacular innings in which he'd allowed just one run on seven hits and a walk, Mussina was removed after 110 pitches, and the game was handed off to the inconsistent Salem bullpen. Norm Charlton and Steve Karsay combined to retire the side in order in the eighth. Salem then got two quick outs in the ninth before David Weathers surrendered a seemingly harmless base hit to Craig Biggio. Pinch hitter Todd Hollandsworth followed with a double, putting the tying run in scoring position. "I considered walking Hollandsworth intentionally," admitted Salem manager Mike Glander, "even though first base was occupied. But it seemed silly to put the tying run on base intentionally." Danny Bautista, as he has done so many times throughout this series, then came through with yet another clutch two-out hit, plating the tying run on a single and forcing extra innings. With two outs in the 11th, Salem reliever Paul Wilson intentionally walked Hollands- worth. Hollandsworth was then picked off for the third out of the inning. It was the third pick-off executed by Salem this series. Los Altos supercloser Juan Moreno entered the game in the bottom of the 11th, given the task of retiring the heart of the Salem lineup and extending the inning so that the heart of the Los Altos lineup could have one more shot at Salem's weakest reliever. Moreno retired Todd Helton (now 1-for-17 this series) on a pop fly to left. Sammy Sosa then drew a base-on-balls, and Lance Berkman singled, putting runners at the corners for Ventura. "At that point," said Glander, "we had Jose Canseco available to pinch hit. Jose hit lefties extremely well in the big leagues last year, but hasn't done very well at all for us since we got him. With Moreno on the mound, I knew he was liable to strike out, though I also figured he was capable of flying out deep enough to score that run from third. In the end, I decided to stick with Robin, who's come through in the clutch all season for us, hits lefties pretty well, and is more likely to make contact and put the ball in play." The decision was a good one, as Ventura ripped a base hit back through the box, scoring the winning run of the game as the stadium rocked to its foundation.