opposing team's articles: newsok.com/article/1612905/ Game 5 loss finishes RedHawks' season By Bob Hersom The Oklahoman NASHVILLE - This year's RedHawks season ended just like last year's RedHawks season, with some good news but too much bad news. The good news: The RedHawks are one of only three Triple-A teams to make the 2004 and 2005 playoffs. The bad news: The RedHawks have lost two straight playoff games each year, after being one win from the Pacific Coast League finals. Nashville, by beating the RedHawks 7-3 Sunday night at Greer Stadium, scored one more run than the RedHawks had in three games here. The Sounds will play in the PCL Championship Series this week against Sacramento or Tacoma. "It was the same old story as last year," RedHawks manager Bobby Jones said. "Our offense went south. Good pitching's going to stop good hitting, and they have good pitching over there and we just didn't do anything." All of the RedHawks' runs scored on home runs -- a 450-foot, solo shot by Chris Richard and a two-run homer by Keith McDonald, his second homer of the playoffs. The homers cut Nashville's lead from 4-0 to 4-3. Richard, a former Oklahoma State star, ended the season with a 12-game hitting streak and .462 batting average in September. "We had a great year, but we played a good team and we just didn't get the bats going because they pitched well," Richard said. McDonald, who played for Nashville last year, led the RedHawks with five RBIs in the playoffs. "Timely hitting didn't come for us during the series, but they did a great job pitching us," said McDonald, who plans to have knee surgery and retire from pro baseball. "Not scoring runs hasn't been characteristic of our team." RedHawks pitcher R.A. Dickey, whose hometown is Nashville, saluted his teammates after finishing his sixth season with the Oklahoma City team. "It was a great ride. We put ourselves in position to do something pretty special, and we were just two hits away or two pitches away from doing it," Dickey said. "The constitution of the people representing the clubhouse is really one of the best I've played on from a chemistry standpoint. To even get into the playoffs was a real tribute to Bobby and the guys in here." Nashville knocked RedHawks starter Michael Tejera out of the game with two out in the third inning. Tejera, in his third start after spending all season the bullpen, was rocked for eight hits and four runs (three earned) in 22/3 innings. The Sounds' starting pitcher, Mike Meyers, allowed only three hits in 41/3 innings. But two of those hits were the home runs by Richard and McDonald. The RedHawks' only other run off Meyers was scored by Will Smith, who reached on a full-count walk. In Nashville's two-run sixth inning, the Sounds loaded the bases on a hit batter, walk and perfect bunt -- the only hit off reliever Matt Roney. Roney was replaced by Steve Rowe, whose first three pitches struck out Steve Scarborough. But Rowe's fourth pitch was wild, allowing Nelson Cruz to score from third. And Nashville scored on a sacrifice fly moments later, for a 6-3 lead. The Sounds added an unearned run in the eighth inning. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Story line: Nashville, after being one loss from elimination, won the final two games of its best-of-five PCL American Conference series with the RedHawks. Star of the game: Nashville third baseman Chris Barnwell was 3-for-4 with two RBIs. Turning point: Chris Barnwell's perfect bunt between third base and the mound, the only hit off Matt Roney, loaded the bases in the sixth. Nashville went on to score two runs on a wild pitch and sacrifice fly for a 6-3 lead. Noteworthy: Former Westmoore and Oklahoma star Corey Hart played for the first time in the five-game series. He started at second base, batted third, and had a walk and double in four trips. ================================================== www.oklahomaredhawks.com/news/?id=843 Monday Sep 12, 2005 Nashville opened a 4-0 lead through three innings Sunday night and went on to beat the RedHawks 7-3 in the fifth and deciding game of the American Conference Championship Series at Greer Stadium. The RedHawks, one victory away from taking the series after Friday's thrilling win, dropped the final two in Nashville for their first series loss since late July. The Sounds will host Tacoma on Tuesday in game one of the PCL Finals. The RedHawks' offense went silent during the final three games in Nashville, managing just six runs on 15 hits in the last three games, one of them a 2-1 win on Friday. Oklahoma, which had won 12 straight series finales and nine straight series going back to early August, was unable to come back from the early 4-0 deficit. Chris Richard belted his second homer of the series in the fourth to make the score 4-1. Keith McDonald, who said during the season he's leaning toward retirement, hit a two-run homer in the fifth to close the gap to 4-3. But the Sounds scored two runs in the sixth while hitting just one ball out of the infield to add insurance. They tacked on an unearned extra run in the eighth. Michael Tejera, making his first start of the series, took the loss while Gary Glover earned the win in relief. Glover also won game one as a starter. http://www.oklahomaredhawks.com/upload_images/action_mcdonald_k_03.jpg In what might have been his final game, catcher Keith McDonald went 2-for-4 with a two-run homer Sunday in Nashville. Kyle Nosal photo.