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.

The Schmidt hits the fan

Another fine outing from Honolulu's Jason Schmidt yesterday. The Sharks provided plenty of run support, scoring seven runs in the first inning and another two in the second. Vegas starter Anthony Reyes surrendered all nine runs in his 2.2 innings pitched. Reyes, whose ERA keeps rising and rising is now standing at 8.13 - almost Brett Myers territory. Schmidt, on the other hand, pitched six shutout innings, allowing only six hits and one walk, while striking out six. Schmidt improves to 9-2 on the season, becoming the first nine-game winner in the DMBL.

The Sugar Bears pounded away on Hoboken again last night. Leading the way, none other than Marlon Anderson. Anderson was 3-4 with 4 runs and 7 RBIs. This marks the third time in four tries that the Sugar Bears have scored more than ten runs against the Cutters. Hoboken has now lost five in a row and has fallen one game below .500.

Sardine City's Josh Barfield has been sitting on the disabled list all weekend, waiting to be activated. The team doctors have pronounced Barfield fit to play as early as Saturday, but ownership has not activated him yet. Maybe it has something to do with Julio Lugo heating up over the last few games. Lugo is now batting .293 during his stint with the Straphangers. Barfield only hit .255 so far this year. "If they want to keep Julio, then cut me, man!" said an irate Barfield in an interview yesterday. But clubhouse officials are mum about the reasons for keeping Barfield on the DL. "We're not taking any chances with Josh, especially not when our club is hot" said second base coach Willie Randolph. When reminded that the team is actually in a three-game skid and lost six of seven, Randolph retorted "whatever, we got too many coaches on this team anyway."