BANNERS 5 SECRETS 2
It was a match-up of 19 game winners—Pushkin, with 5 shut outs and 328 strikeouts versus Virgil, with 4 shut outs and 280 strikeouts. Their clubs split the first two games in Boston, and now in Florence, game three was a must-win for both teams—the Banners may be the Wild Card team, but the Banners and Secrets probably have the two best pitching staffs in the game. Virgil brought his stuff and Pushkin didn’t. Virgil made a statement, striking out the side in the first inning. In the home half of the inning, Ben Mazer hit Pushkin’s first offering for a home run. (Mazer had 13 during the regular season). That set the tone, and Florence (with their fans making a lot of noise) never looked back, as Virgil finished with 18 strikeouts and a complete game 5-2 victory. Christina Rossetti and Friedrich Schiller added homers for the Banners, and Cole Porter, the hottest hitter on the Secrets right now, accounted for both of their runs. Boston will try and even the series tomorrow as Moliere goes against Leonardo da Vinci.
GAMERS 17 LAUREATES 1
The Gamers get their first playoff win, after dropping the first two in Dublin. They win big, as John Betjeman and Joe Green each slam 2 homers, with Charlie Chaplin notching the win—fanning 18 Laureates. Betjeman and Green each had 7 RBIs, and Dorothy Parker of the Gamers added 3 more. John Townsend Trowbridge doubled and scored on a single by Charles Dickens, for the visitors’ only run. The Dublin Laureates, looking to go up 3-0 in the series, sent Robert Louis Stevenson to the hill, who had a nifty 14-6 record during the regular season. But his fastball was kidnapped by Betjeman and Green, as Game Three was a treasure island in Los Angeles for the Gamers, who hope to tie the series with Woody Allen; he will face Samuel Johnson.
CRUSADERS 3 UNIVERSE 0
The “religious team,” the Madrid Crusaders, stop the Universe in Phoenix behind Thomas Aquinas, 3-0. Aquinas, 10-15 during the regular season with a 3.79 ERA, was hurt in late August—he was declared healthy just in time for the playoffs. Madrid’s starter fanned two and walked none, scattering eight hits as he went the distance. Raymond Carver, 12-8 with a 3.28 ERA, had a streak from late July into early September when the Universe won 11 out of 12 games he started. He pitched well enough for the Universe to go up 2-1 in the series, but Mary Angela Douglas took him deep twice. She made the difference offensively, and also was part of a nifty double play in the 7th, when the Universe threatened to score. Aquinas came off the mound, fielded a weak grounder, got the runner at second, and Douglas made an unexpected throw to Bradstreet at third to catch Galway Kinnell off the bag for the double play. Martin Luther King starts tomorrow for the home team against the Crusaders’ George Handel, who owns a 20-5 record.
Scarriet 
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