Postseason sim - LCS games 3

After an off day for travel, the league championship series travel to the underdog's homes: Hickory and Maui.

In our first game today, the heavily-favored Seattle Monarchs, who lost home field advantage to the Huskers, had Bruno Talamantez on the mound against the veteran Donald Hunnicutt, who shut out the Monarchs in the top of the first. An Aaron Hampton single brought in Cale Page in the bottom of the frame, whipping the hometown fans into a frenzy for their Huskers.

The score remained 1-0 until the 4th, when the Monarchs struck. John Hukill led off with a double, the first of five straight Monarchs to reach base against Hunnicutt. All told, Seattle took a seemingly-commanding 4-1 lead in the inning, and stretched it to 5-1 with a solo homer by Hukill in the fifth.

In the bottom of the sixth, George Labarre hit a two-run shot to cut the lead in half. It remained 5-3 until the next inning, as Talamantez was relieved by Gregg Fiala, a former closer who was converted to a starter this season. However, his late inning success apparently is only good for the 9th, as he got rocked, giving up 4 runs as Hickory completed the comeback and took a 7-5 lead. A two-run double by Cisco Castro was the killer shot by the Huskers.

Seattle fought back against reliever Colt Allen in the 8th, getting first and third with just one out before veteran lefty Patrick Beene got Ivan Castillo to hit into a pretty 6-4-3 doubleplay to kill the rally.

Julie Delvalle took the mound to close it out in the top of the 9th. However, like all good closers, he nearly gave his manager a heart attack after getting two quick outs to start the frame. Third baseman Pedro Campos booted a potential final out ground ball by Bas Bijkerk. That clearly unnerved Delvalle, as two pitches later, he plunked Roberto Perez, and then walked Lucio Muniz to load the bases.

So, Seattle was down by two, down to their final out with the bases loaded in the ninth, and superstar catcher Steve Jones was up. Jones, who was 1-for-5 coming into the ninth, looked at two pitches, a strike and a ball, before finally swinging at the third.

He swung and missed. Then, he swung and missed again to strike out to end the game. Hickory is halfway to the upset, and takes a two games to one lead on Seattle.

Now, for the other team everyone wants to win their series, the Brooklyn Wolves traveled to Maui with a couple of convincing victories at home. Would the sun and surf, not to mention the jetlag from the nine and a half hour flight, slow down the Wolves? Let's find out!

Both teams scored twice in the first, but the visiting Wolves added a single run in the fourth before scoring thrice in the fifth for a 6-2 lead. Maui's James Dodd made it a 6-4 game in the seventh with a two-run home run. Brooklyn scored three more times in the ninth to win (again!) decisively (again!), 10-4 (again!).

Brooklyn takes a commanding 3-0 lead in the LCS. Will they complete the sweep? Will Seattle flex its muscles and tie their series with Hickory? Stay tuned, as two very exciting games 4 will be simmed on Sunday night!