2001 WORLD SERIES GAME THREE

Burks’s Blast Leads Tempers Past Severn

 SEVERN-The Tempers were nearly finished. They were down 6-4 to the Express, about to fall to a 3-0 series deficit. The Severn crowd was cheering loudly, thinking of the possibility of repeating as World Champions. Then the ninth inning began.  The trouble began for the Express when pinch-hitter Jeff Conine led off by whistling a Tom Davey pitch past Jeff Kent for a single. Davey was able to get Jeff Bagwell to pop out, but was pulled in favor of Mike Myers. The first batter he faced, Tim Bogar, was walked, placing the tying run on first. Tempers outfielder Larry Walker flew out harmlessly to center field, bringing Tempe to their final out. Myers next faced slugger Barry Bonds, but lost him to a base on balls. This brought designated hitter Ellis Burks to the plate with the bases loaded. After fouling off a couple of pitches, Burks swung at a hanging curveball and powered it over the fence in dead center field. The grand slam gave the Tempers an 8-4 lead and stunned the Severn faithful. Tempe would hold the lead through the bottom of the inning to take their first victory of the series.  “This is what you dream about as a kid,” said Burks. “You’re in the World Series, two outs in the ninth, bases loaded, and BAM, there it goes, grand slam. To win this game the way we did, it just brought the energy right back to our team.”  As in the first game of the series, neither starting pitcher was very effective. Severn’s Kevin Brown gave up four runs in five and two-thirds innings, while Tempe’s Randy Johnson was pulled after only two innings. He had given up five runs off of three home runs, including back-to-back shots by Rafael Palmeiro and Raul Mondesi and a leadoff homer in the third by Miguel Tejada.  Reliever Lou Pote picked up the win for the Tempers, while Keith Foulke got the save. Mike Myers was the losing pitcher for the Express.

 Game Notes: The Tempers had their running shoes on for tonight’s game, going 4-5 in stolen bases…Tempe pitcher Randy Johnson, the National League Cy Young Award winner, has had two poor starts so far. His ERA now stands at 12.15 … The grand slam by Ellis Burks is the first ever to be hit in the MWBL World Series.