Sugar Bears advance to Series

The Newark Sugar Bears made it a clean sweep of the Honolulu Sharks after a 13-7 victory yesterday. The Sharks actually had a chance at this one though. The Sugar Bears took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning on a two-run Gregg Zaun homer. But the Sharks held the Sugar Bears in check and Brian McCann showed up his counterpart in the third with a three-run homer to give the Sharks a 3-2 lead. The Sugar Bears tied it up in the fifth, but a two-run Jermaine Dye homer gave the Sharks a 5-3 lead. In the seventh inning, however, everything fell apart for the Sharks. After the bullpen relieved Jeff Francis with one out in the inning, the Sugar Bears rallied for four runs, taking a 7-5 lead on the Sharks. The Sharks tied it up in the bottom half of the inning on another well-timed homer from Adrian Gonzalez. But the Shark bullpen could not stop the Sugar Bears at all, surrendering six runs in the final two innings of the game. Cla Meredith then shut down the Sharks for the final two innings - obviously the Sharks had run out of home run power at this point.

Hard to give an MVP to just one Sugar Bear. The team batted .398 against the Sharks and scored 47 runs in the four games. Marlon Anderson seemed to stand out with a .600 average (9-15) and a 1.855 OPS! He also led the team with 10 RBIs and 4 doubles.

The Sugar Bears now await the winner of the Marietta and Philadelphia series, now tied at two.