"It's not over yet," Tom Glavine exhorted his teammates, "We haven't won anything yet. Now the work begins."

The Grassy Skirts, perennial cellar dwellers in the Australian Baseball League East Division, had just swept the Stawell Stasteps three straight games. The finale, a dramatic doubleheader in which Grassy won both games in their final at-bat, gave Grassy a seven-game winning streak and left them tied with Stawell for first place.

With six games remaining for all four East teams, here were the standings of the Australian Baseball League East Division.

Grassy Skirts 30-24 ---
Stawell Stasteps 30-24 ---
Gympie Legs 28-26 2
Cooktown Sharkbait 26-28 4

On Monday, Tim Raines hit a pinch-hit home run in the top of the 7th to tie the game and Jeff Bagwell socked an rbi double in the same inning to put Grassy on top to stay as they defeated Gympie 7-5 for their 8th straight win. Grassy led the East by a half-game.

On Tuesday Paul O'Neill cracked a two-run home run off Jamie Moyer in the bottom of the 8th to send Gympie to a 4-3 victory. But Greg Maddux and Cooktown clobbered Kerry Wood and Stawell 13-2. It was the Stasteps' sixth straight loss and kept them a half game back. Gympie trailed by 2, Cooktown by 3 1/2.

On Wednesday Grassy beat Gympie 3-1 as Terry Mulholland outpitched Gympie's ace Pedro Martinez. Jeff Kent knocked a 2-run triple. Meanwhile, Stawell just looked snakebit. Brian McRae made a stunning wall-crashing catch of a Gary Sheffield drive to the wall with the bases loaded and 2 out in the 7th, and Cooktown took an easy 8-1 win. Seven straight losses for Stawell and things were getting desperate.

On Thursday Andy Ashby completed the Stawell humiliation with a 4-0 3-hitter.

With only the weekend to go, the East looked like this:

Grassy 32-25 ---
Stawell 30-27 2
Cooktown 29-28 3
Gympie 29-28 3

What would the weekend bring?