Honolulu advances

And so, just like the previous series, the higher seeded Sharks won three straight after losing the opener to the Cutters, to advance to the next round.

The Cutters took the early lead when leadoff hitter Hanley Ramirez hit a solo homer off starter Jeff Francis. The next batter, Josh Bard, hit a single and Sharks fans thought they were in for a long night. However, except for a Greg Norton walk in the second inning, Francis did not allow any other baserunners for the rest of the game. That's right, Francis retired 24 batters in a row in one of the most dominant starts in DMBL post-season history.

The Cutters sent out Scott Kazmir on three days rest and Kazmir pitched well, but ran out of gas after three innings. Kazmir gave way to Wes Littleton and that was the beginning of the end for Hoboken. Littleton started the inning off by surrendering four hits and a hit batsman before recording the first out. A wild pitch made the score 4-1. Boof Bonser came in to relieve Littleton in the next inning and surrendered four more runs in the next four innigns to make the score 8-1 in favor of the Sharks.

It's hard to pick an MVP for the Sharks series, as a lot of the offense was spread out, but we'll give it to Adrian Gonzalez. Sure Jermaine Dye's numbers appear gaudier, but most of his production came in the Game One loss to Hoboken, so how can we give it to him? Gonzalez is a worthy candidate though, hitting .556 in the four games (10-18) with a 1.190 OPS. Gonzalez had the game winning RBI in the second game as well.

The Sharks now face the daunting task of taking on the powerhouse Newark Sugar Bears. Honolulu was 4-9 against the Sugar Bears this season with all four wins coming in Newark. Honolulu has twice faced Newark in the playoffs, both in the second round. They are 4-8 lifetime against the Sugar Bears, losing a close 4-3 series in 2004 and then getting dominated 4-1 in 2005. It will be hard for the Sharks to pull off the upset and the lone bright spot is their success against the Sugar Bears in the Cereal Bowl.