The four remaining teams vying for the coveted league championship are the Sidewalk Café, Quiet Man Pub, Quality Painting, and the Seapoint Restaurant. Sidewalk and Quiet Man both led their best of five series two games to one at press time.

Except for game one of the Quiet Man/Quality Painting series, all of the games have been close in the scoring and well played. Amazingly, all three games of the Sidewalk/Seapoint series have been decided by one run.

In game one, Seapoint led 4-0 entering the bottom of the sixth inning only to watch Sidewalk rally to score three runs. In the seventh, Sidewalk had the tying runner on third with one out but couldn't plate him as Seapoint's pitcher, John Kenney, stayed calm under pressure and managed to get the next two batters to ground out to put an end to an exciting and well played contest.

Game two of the Sidewalk/Seapoint series featured all the aspects of a classic M Street softball playoff game. Clutch hits, good pitching, great defensive plays, and a two-out game-winning comeback were just a few of the memorable highlights of the game.

Seapoint led 6-3 in the last inning and were looking to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the series when Sidewalk rallied for four runs. If that wasn't enough excitement for one game there was even more in the bottom of the seventh when Seapoint loaded the bases with two outs. Sidewalk managed to escape with the win to even the series at a game apiece. First baseman Steve Fabian delivered the games big hit when he roped a 2-2 pitch to right center that scored the game tying and game winning runs for Sidewalk.

Game three of the series was very similar to game two accept the roles were reversed. With Sidewalk Café leading 6-3 entering the top of the sixth inning Seapoint dawned the rally caps and began their comeback. Michael Whitney singled in the sixth and Derek Basciewicz, who has been having a tremendous series at the plate, delivered a hard single up the middle to cut the lead to two runs.

With Sidewalk holding on to a two run lead, Seapoint put the tying runs on base to lead off the seventh inning. Sidewalk then had to face Seapoint's top of the order in Timmy Malley, Pat Sullivan, and Jimmy Burgio. Malley grounded into a fielder's choice that advanced a runner into scoring position. With runners on the corners Sullivan grounded to second baseman Dennis Lynch who flipped to shortstop, John Oliviera for the second out of the inning. Jimmy Glynn scored from third on the play making it a 6-5 game. With a runner on first and his team's hopes riding on his shoulders, Jimmy Burgio stepped into the batters box.

Burgio had been in this position in the past and often came through for his team. But this time it wasn't to be as he chased a 2-2 pitch that produced another ground ball to Lynch who flipped to Steve Fabian at first to end another exciting game in this closely contested series.

One thing is for certain; whichever team comes out on top in this series would certainly be battled tested for the finals. These three one run ball games have really tested the nerves of all of those involved.

In the other semi-final series, the Quiet Man Pub was leading two games to one at press time. In game one of the series, Quiet Man Pub flexed their muscles when they sent fourteen batters to the plate in the first inning and scored twelve runs. Quality Painting never caught their breath as the onslaught of hits and runs continued through the first three innings.

By the end of the game, Quiet Man had collected 18 hits and 19 runs. Manny Arruda, Tommy Cherry, Greg Conlan, Joe Pano, and Robbie Rogers were just a few of the hitting stars for the Quiet Man Pub who won easily 19-1. Joey Magee Jr's pitching performance could not go unnoticed either as he limited Quality's offense to four hits and only one run. Many thought that game two would be a carbon copy of the first game. Many were proved to be wrong.

After licking their wounds and nursing their hurt ego's, Quality Painting proved that the first game of the series was a fluke as they rallied for a 10-6 victory in game two.

It wasn't looking good for Quality early on when the Quiet Man Pub scored four runs in the top of the first inning. It got even darker for Quality when Steven Muldowney doubled home Chris Neff in the second inning increasing Quiet Man's lead to 5-1.

Quiet Man added another run in the third on Mario Perella's sacrifice fly. Up until this point, Quiet Man was in complete control of the game and it looked as if their offense was just too much for Quality's pitcher Ruben Alicea. But Alicea got tough when he needed to and kept Quiet Man scoreless for the remainder of the game. While Alicea was doing his part, Quality's bats came to life in the fourth and fifth innings as they scored nine runs. Steven Pascantilli connected in the fourth for a two-run double that was followed by Ralph Terrazano's triple.

The score was tied at six in the fifth inning when Billy Collins came to the plate with runners on the corners and one out. Collins hit it down and hard as he advocates and Quality had their first lead of the game. Collins would later score in the inning on Jeremy Bragg's (3 hits) two-run single to right.

The fifth inning proved to be a costly one for Quiet Man as Alicea only allowed one hit through the last three innings of the game to snag the well deserved win and more importantly, to tie the series.

In game three of the series, Quiet Man Pub used an early offensive attack again and got great pitching from Larry Lucas and Joey Magee as they cruised to a 7-2 victory.

Joe Pano led the game off with a triple and would later score on an infield error. That error would be a telltale sign of what was to come for Quality Painting as their defense played poorly throughout the game. Quiet Man added two more runs in the second on Terry Flaherty's deep drive to center that fell for a triple. Tommy Cherry followed with a sacrifice fly to plate Flaherty from third. Chris Neff then singled home Pano, who had reached second via an error. Another two runs were scored in the fourth when Steven Muldowney drove in Tommy Cherry and Brad Morrill to increase Quiet Man's lead to 7-0.

Quality scored two runs in the fifth as they tried to climb back into the game. But Quiet Man's coach, Michael Duffley, wisely made a pitching change and young Joey Magee was brought in to relieve Larry Lucas, who had pitched very effectively up until this point. Magee finished with two strikeouts in two innings of work as Quiet Man earned the win and the 2-1 series lead.

By the time this article hits the newsstands on Thursday both of these great series would have concluded. A special recognition and congratulations should go out to all of those teams and players who gave it their all this year in hopes of playing softball late into September. The Boston Beer Garden, Murphy's Law, Sam Moran Club, and Mirisola's all had great seasons and deserved to be recognized. Finally, a special hello goes out to my friend Mildred Ballou, who is a regular reader of the South Boston Tribune and this column.