Sidewalk reached the finals for a fifth year in a row by defeating the Seapoint Restaurant in four grueling one-run games. Sidewalk's Tommy Connolly decided the fourth and final game of the series in extra innings when he connected for a two-run homerun in the eleventh. Sidewalk Café finished in first place with a 14-4 record but two of the four losses came to the Quiet Man Pub.

Quiet Man Pub is in the finals for the first time in their two-year existence. They also had a rough ride to the finals as Quality Painting pushed them to the brink before falling 3-2 in the fifth and deciding game. Quiet Man finished in second place with a 13-4-1 record. Now lets recap the first two games of the series.

In game one of the series, Quiet Man Pub shutout Sidewalk 3-0. Manny Arruda pitched six scoreless innings before handing the ball to Joey Magee who struck out the side in the seventh for the save.

Quiet Man opened the scoring in the first inning with back-to-back hits by Joe Pano (2 hits) and Chris Neff (2 hits). The 1-0 lead would stay that way through the next four innings as pitching and defense took over the game.

In the top of the fifth inning, Terry Flaherty and Brad Morrill reached base on two costly Sidewalk errors. Flaherty scored in the inning when Neff delivered his second hit of the game. Steven Muldowney then delivered Morrill from second on a blooper hit to center field giving Quiet Man a 3-0 lead in the fifth.

Sidewalk then threatened to score in the fifth when the first two batters reached base but both were left stranded. By games end, Sidewalk would leave ten runners on base.

Joey Magee was brought in to pitch the seventh inning an immediately fell behind in the count and walked the first batter. For a moment it was looking like Sidewalk was about to pull off another come from behind win. But Magee stayed focus and struck out pinch hitters Harry John and Pat Egan. Dennis Lynch then singled and Sidewalk had the tying run at the plate. Again Magee focused on the task at hand and went to work against Brian Shaughnessy. On a 2-2 count, Magee fired a fastball past Shaughnessy for strike three to end game one.

In game two of the series, the Sidewalk Café's offense came to life as they scored three runs in the first inning and cruised to a 7-3 over Quiet Man to even the series at 1-1.

With a run already across the plate, Steve Fabian delivered two more for Sidewalk when he lined a single to right field in the first inning to put sidewalk up 3-0. Quiet Man answered with a run in the first when Chris Neff tripled to left field and scored when Steve Muldowney hit a sacrifice fly.

The 3-1 Sidewalk lead would stand until the fifth inning when Tommy Connolly was hit by a Joey Magee pitch. Mark Senna then singled to right field with Connolly taking third on the hit. Senna drifted a bit too far away from first base on the hit as Quiet Man's center fielder Joe Pano alertly threw behind Senna, which forced a run down. Senna remained in the run down long enough to allow Connolly to score what turned out to be the game-winning run.

Sidewalk added three more runs in the sixth inning to chase pitcher Joey Magee from the game. Dennis Lynch and Jason O'Connell struck the big blows for Sidewalk in the inning.

Trailing by six runs in the seventh, Quiet Man saw an opportunity to sneak back into the game. John Young started the inning with a hit to center and was followed by a walk to Joe Pano. Sidewalk then got the next two batters on groundouts before Manny Arruda walked to load the bases. Mario Perella was next and he came through in the clutch for Quiet Man. Perella's single to right scored Pano and Terry Flaherty to make it a 7-3 game. With runners on first and second, Brian Linehan bounced out to the second baseman for the games final out.

If the rain holds off during the week then tonight would be game six of the series. With the way the playoffs have been closely contested, it's pretty certain that a game six and possibly a game seven will be needed to determine a new champion. Starting time is 7:30 pm tonight and tomorrow if needed. I hope to see all of you at the park.