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The Stars had lost 12 times in 16 meetings against Knoxville and this was the team they had to beat to go to the Championship Series. What was worse, they finished the regular season with a 7-game losing streak. Four of those games were against Knoxville, and they wound up finishing 3½ games behind the K-Jays in the final 2nd half standings.

The Stars had lost Game One of the Western Division Playoffs to Knoxville, 9-5, after losing three leads to make the streak eight straight, and Game Two wasn't getting off to a good start.

To backtrack, take a look at what happened in those final seven games:
   • On August 27, the Stars led Memphis, 7-2 in the 7th inning, and lost, 9-7
   • On August 28, the Stars led Memphis, 1-0 going into the bottom of the 9th, and lost to the Chicks, 2-1
   • On August 31 and September 1, the Stars drew first blood against Knoxville, but lost them both, 4-2 and 6-1.
   • On September 2, after the Blue Jays had eliminated the Stars from the pennant race --- the Stars led 3-2 after 6½ and lost 4-3.
   • The Stars committed a total of 13 errors in six of the final seven games of the regular season. In those, the opposition scored 34 runs, only 24 of which were earned. If this wasn't a choke, it was a good imitation.

Chris Johnston was seeing to it personally that Knoxville would take Game Two. He hit a 1st inning grand-slam HR to give them a 4-0 jump. The Stars came back with three in the 2nd, but Knoxville scored three more in the 5th, thanks to a 3-run home run this time by Johnston, giving them a 7-3 lead. Another run in the top of the 7th made it 8-4.

Then began what winning pitcher Randy Harvey said was "the best comeback I've seen in baseball."

A Rocky Coyle double and a Brian Guinn triple off Omar Bencomo highlighted a four-run inning to cut the gap to 8-7 in the bottom of the 7th. An unearned run put Knoxville on top 9-7 in the 8th, but it may as well have been 20 runs. The Southern League's Fireman of the Year, Luis Aquino was still waiting in the bullpen. The night before he had thrown two shutout innings to earn him a Game One victory. Then the inexplicable happened.

Shortstop Jose Diaz, a defensive replacement in the 8th, let leadoff man Ray Thoma's grounder go through his legs, then bobbled Rocky Coyle's routine grounder that should have been an easy double play. Instead, it put runners on first and second. Brian Guinn laid down a sac bunt, but pitcher Keith Gilliam couldn't find the handle on the ball, and the bases were now loaded. Knoxville manager John McLaren called in Aquino, but the spark had ignited.

Luis Polonia singled off Aquino, then walked Stan Javier and allowed Terry Steinbach to rip the double into left center that put the Stars ahead, 12-9. By the time the inning was over, Will Shanks was in, and the Stars had used three errors, two walks, three hits, another error, a sac fly, and a couple of wild pitches to not only change the complexion of the game, but the series, and the remainder of the playoffs for the Stars.

Everything had been going wrong for the Stars, and now, as it happens in baseball, everything was going right. Stars manager Brad Fischer: "It was just a matter of when... It was just whether or not it was going to be too late."

The next night, the Stars took away an early 2-0 lead from Knoxville in the 9th inning, when Luis Aquino walked Luis Polonia with the bases loaded to send the game into extra innings. In the 12th, Terry Steinbach, 7-for-15 with 6 RBIs in the playoffs, slammed a home run over the left field wall to put the Stars on top, leading to a 5-2 victory in Game 3. Tim Belcher pitched a 3-hit shutout in Game 4 to capture the title and the Stars went on to defeat Charlotte for their first championship in their first season in professional baseball in 55 years.

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