Morneau came in as the Minnesota Twins' organizational leader in RBIs with 97 at three different stops but appeared to have hit the wall in New Britain.

On Thursday night, he went over it.

Morneau socked a solo homer and drove in three runs to lead the Cats to a 4-2 win over the Norwich Navigators and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five Northern Division Championship Series before 4,192 at New Britain Stadium.

New Britain, which needs one more win to advance to the Eastern League finals for the second time in four years, starts ace Brad Thomas (10-3, 1.96 ERA) against Norwich lefty Alex Graman (12-9, 3.52). Game time at Dodd Stadium is 7:05 p.m.

"If (the Navigators) came out of here with a split, they would have had the upper hand," Cats manager Stan

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Cliburn said. "We had to win two games here to have any chance and we went out and did it.

"We had to play perfect and we did. We made good pitches and we didn't make any errors."

Morneau, who batted .158 in the Cats' final 10 games, was at the ballpark early to work with Rock Cats hitting coach U.L. Washington. The dedication paid huge dividends.

"In the last six pitches to him in extra batting practice, he hit balls over the fence," Cliburn said. "When he carried it over to the game, U.L. said, 'The great thing about that Morneau kid is he'll listen.'

"He made some adjustments. He moved his hands back and out a little bit. His swing was a little too close to his body. U.L. saw it (Wednesday) and straightened it out."

Morneau straightened out a 3-1 pitch from Navigators starter Randy Flores leading off the second inning that landed beyond the right-field wall.

"At first, you feel your way around, see how the league is and see how the pitchers are," said Morneau, a 20-year-old native of New Westminster, British Columbia. "If you're smart, you should start to learn. If you have the ability, you'll start to pick up on things."

Morneau was smart enough to wait for strikes after swinging at poor pitches the night before.

"I was taking until he gave me a strike; I was making him give me something to hit," Morneau said. "Eventually, he made a mistake."

Morneau delivered again in the third, yanking a two-out, two-run single into right field to give the Cats a 4-0 lead.

"I didn't put that good of a swing on it but I hit it off the good part of the bat," he said.

The rally began with two outs when Ruben Salazar rifled a single to right-center. Michael Cuddyer walked for the second time in two at-bats and Gabby Torres loaded the bases with an infield single. Flores uncorked a wild pitch that scored Salazar prior to Morneau's big hit.

"(Flores) struggled," Navs manager Stump Merrill said. "His location wasn't good. He couldn't command his cutter at all, which is a real big pitch in his repertoire. He went out and battled but (Morneau) got him."

Norwich got one back in the bottom of the third. Michael Cervenak was hit by a pitch, took second on a one-out single by Marcus Thames and scored on Scott Seabol's single off third baseman Cuddyer's glove.

Cats starter Peter Fisher, who allowed seven hits and walked none in 6Î frames, put out the fire by fanning Johnny Rodriguez and getting Donny Leon on a grounder.

Fisher, who struggled in Double-A last year (2-5, 6.88 in 15 games), continued to show that he's a new man in 2001.

"Fisher had to make some pitches in the middle innings," Cliburn said. "The old Pete Fisher would have cracked in that situation. He's a new guy. He got us through 6Î. He did his job."

With two outs in the Norwich fifth, an infield hit by Teuris Olivares and a double off the wall by Cervenak narrowed the Cats' cushion to 4-2.

Two-out hits by Brandon Jackson and Olivares in the seventh ended Fisher's night. Reliever Micheal Nakamura celebrated his 25th birthday by striking out Cervenak with the tying runs in scoring position.

Nakamura walked two in the eighth but pitched his way out of it to set the stage for closer Saul Rivera. Rivera walked Julio Mosquera for starters but retired the next three in order to put the Cats in a position to sweep the series.

CATS TALES: Cats pitcher Matt Carnes sang the National Anthem before the game, sounding all the world like country star Lee Greenwood. ... Morneau hit .356 with 12 homers and 53 RBI with low-A Quad City, and .294 with four homers and 40 RBI with high-A Fort Myers before his August 24 promotion to New Britain. He hit .402 with the Gulf Coast (Rookie) League Twins, one of only three to ever break the .400 mark in a season. The others were Salazar and Tony Oliva..Thursday's crowd was the largest in New Britain playoff history.