In a three-game championship series, if you lose the first one, you either win the second or pack it in and go home disappointed.
The Salt Lake Trappers are in just that position as they host their first Pioneer League Championship Series game - maybe the last game - tonight at 7 at Derks Field against defending-champion Great Falls.If it's needed, Game 3 is Tuesday at 7 at Derks.
Last year, the Dodgers swept Salt Lake 3-0 in the playoffs.
The Trappers had the best record in the league in the regular 1991 season, 49-21, had the best pitching staff (3.70) and almost the best hitting staff, falling .001 short of Idaho Falls at .302.
The Trappers easily took the season series with the Dodgers, five games to two, winning all three in Derks Field while Great Falls was amid its only slump of the season.
But the Dodgers, winners of the Northern Division at 46-24, paid no attention Saturday night, winning Game 1 of the playoffs in Great Falls 5-1.
Tonight's game is expected to be a matchup between Trapper pitcher Mark Stephens, who finished 6-3 and had the best ERA of any starter in the league, 2.43, behind teammate and reliever John Gilligan (1.71), against probably Great Falls' Ross Farnsworth, the winningest guy in the league at 8-3, 3.09.
Farnsworth, says Trapper Manager Nick Belmonte, throws offspeed stuff that frustrated those .300 hitters during the regular season. He won 9-2 and held Salt Lake to six hits in Great Falls Aug. 9.
Stephens has been the league's hottest pitcher the past month.
In his last three appearances, two of them three-inning stints last week to keep him sharp and the other an eight-inning outing in the game that won the Southern Division for the Traps on Aug. 23, Stephens has been overpowering. In those 14 innings, he's allowed a total of six hits, one unearned run and three walks. In 14 innings, he struck out 25. In the two three-inning appearances, he struck out eight and seven.
In just under 51 innings in August, he struck out 66 and went 5-0, throwing four complete games, while giving up a total of two earned runs and four unearned.