Schilling vs Halladay

Opening Day at the Cave saw a capacity crowd brave the wind and cold
temps (40's) to see a red hot pitching matchup. The newly aquired ace of
the Caveman staff, Roy Halladay, against the Pelicans' Schilling.
Ken Griffey Jr. put the visitors on top early with a 1st inning rbi
double that scored Jeter. The Cavemen struck back in the bottom of the
third. Gary Sheffield singled home Halladay with a clutch (no thanks to
Mike C.) 2 out rbi single. Pat Burrell then untied the game in the top
of the 4th with a mammoth solo shot over the centerfield wall. With
the neanderthals trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the 6th, up stepped Tino
martinez. Runners at first and second, one out, and BAM ! 3 run Homer
over the rightfield wall and Collin County had taken a 4-2 lead. Halladay
seemingly couldn't stand prosperity as he allowed an rbi single to
Burrell in the top of the 8th and then walked Ventura to load the bases.
Manager Toby Harrah had seen enough and called on Sasaki to save the day.
Sasaki did retire the next 2 batters, but allowed Jason Kendall to hit
a deep fly ball that brought home Griffey Jr. and the game was tied at
4. Both bullpens did their job and it was on to extra innings. G!
riffey Jr. lead off the 10th with a line drive single to center, which
Kingsale over ran and suddenly Griffey was standing at thirdbase with
no outs. Pat Burrell hit a sac fly and the Pelicans were up 5-4. Esteban
Yan retired the Cavemen in order to preserve the Pelicans 5-4 victory.

Pelicans 100 100 020 1 5 9 0
Cavemen 001 003 000 0 4 6 2

Pelicans Data
Pitching -
Schilling 6, Mecir 1, Hasegawa 1/3, Plesac 1/3, Reames 1/3, Yan 2 (w)
Catching - Kendall 10
SB - Kendall, Suzuki
CS - Suzuki
HR - Burrell
Inj. - None
Ejections - None
Limits Used - None

Cavemen Data
Pitching - Halladay 7 1/3, Sasaki 1 2/3, Koplove 1 (L)
Catching - Hernandez 9, Stinnett 1
SB - Rollins, Kingsale
CS - None
HR - Martinez
Inj. - None
Ejections - None
Limits Used - None

Pelican's Ineligible - Inge, Jensen, Mulholland, Suppan, and Wigginton

Cavemen Ineligible - Broussard, Davis, Dempster, Santana, and Walbeck

Vazquez vs Zito

Game 2 was played under a warm ptly cloudy Texas sky as the temp soared all the way to the mid 70's. The Collin County faithful could only hope the Cavemen bats would heat up too.
Gary Sheffield got the offense rolling with an rbi double in the bottom of the 1st. Meanwhile Barry Zito was able to fight through some early inning control problems and keep the Pelicans scoreless. Damian Jackson doubled in David Bell in the 4th to make it 2-0 Cavemen. Jimmy Rollins doubled home Kingsale in the 5th to make it 3-0. The Pelicans finally got on the board with a 6th inning solo homer off the bat of Derek Jeter. With the score 3-1 in the bottom of the 8th Collin County tacked on 2 more runs with the help of 4 singles and a Jason Kendall error. The Pelicans put 2 men on base in the 9th, but Zito was able to retire Halter and Suzuki to end the threat and ballgame. Cavemen 5, Pelicans 1

Pelicans 000 001 000 1 8 1
Cavemen 100 110 02X 5 12 0

Pelicans Data
Pitching - Vazquez 6 (L), Mecir 1, Reames 1
Catching - Kendall 8
SB - None
CS - Suzuki
HR - Jeter
Ejections - Jeter (this game only)
Inj. - None
Limits Used - Merloni 2 Ab's vs L

Cavemen Data
Pitching - Zito 9 (W)
Catching - Hernandez 9
SB - Kingsale
CS - None
HR - None
Ejections - None
Inj. - None
Limits Used - None

Ortiz vs Hudson

The rubber game of the series was played under cloudy skies with temps in the 80's. Would the warm muggy weather produce big offense or would pitching prevail ?

In the top of the 2nd inning the Pelicans threatened. Ventura lead off with a single. After hason Kendall flied out Sean Casey legged out an infield single. With 2 on and 1 out Hudson induced a hard ground ball off the bat of Jay Bell and the neanderthals worked a critical 6-4-3 dp to end the threat. Raul Mondeesi lead off the bottom of the 2nd with a double. Ortiz then retired Martinez and Rollins and was 1 out away from escaping trouble. Ramon Hernandez drew a walk and now it was up to (gulp), Tim Hudson. A fastball got away from Ortiz and hit Hudson in the thigh. Bases loaded, 2 out, and Kingsale was at the plate. Amazingly, Ortiz lost control of another fastball and pinged Kingsale in the foot to bring in Mondesi. David Bell then grounded out to end the inning, 1-0 Cavemen.
Over the next 6 innings the pitchers dominated. Hudson allowed only 1 Pelican to reach base and Ortiz was able to wriggle out walk induced jams. The score remained 1-0 Cavemen heading into the 9th. After retiring Suzuki on a routine grounder Hudson was just 2 outs away from victory. Manager Toby Harrah was taking no chances as he had Rincon and Sasaki warming in the pen. Jeter lined a single to center and Griffey Jr. followed with a single to right. Harrah opted to stay with Hudson, until Pat Burrell walked to load the bases. With the bases loaded and only 1 out it seemed certain that Sasaki would get the call. Nope, not this time. Ricardo Rincon was called on to face Robin Ventura with the bases loaded, 1 out, and the game hanging in the balance. Throwing his patented slider, Rincon induced a game ending groundball, 6-4-3 ! Cavemen 1, Pelicans 0

Pelicans Data
Pitching - Ortiz 7 (L), Hasegawa 1
Catching - Kendall 9
SB - None
CS - None
HR - None
Ejections - None
Inj. - None
Limits Used - None

Cavemen Data
Pitching - Hudson 8 1/3 (W), Rincon 2/3 (S)
Catching - Hernandez 6, Stinnett 3
SB - None
CS - None
HR - None
Ejections - None
Inj. - None
Limits used - None