Conner Is Still In After a Sail-Off : America’s Cup: He staves off elimination by leading Kanza from beginning to end.

With apologies to Ernest Lawrence Thayer. . . . It looked extremely rocky for the Cupville crew on Monday.

But Dennis Conner and the Stars & Stripes sailors got one last at-bat, swung from the heels and knocked Kanza out of the park, and maybe out of the America’s Cup.

Conner doesn’t know which of Bill Koch’s boats he will be facing in the best-of-13 defender trials starting Saturday--probably America 3, which has won five in row--but after three months he brought the odds down to one on one.

“Gosh, this was a big one,” Conner told ESPN moments after the finishing gun signaled his 2-minute 12-second victory in the sudden-death sail-off of the semifinals.

It may not mean Stars & Stripes forever, just for at least seven more races. But when the prospect of seeing the defender finals reduced to a testing program for Koch was erased, the collective sigh of relief among Cup organizers, supporters and followers was enough to blow Stars & Stripes all the way back into port.

“I’ve always said, ‘Don’t count Dennis out,’ ” Koch said afterward.

The weather forecasts were for northwest winds building from 8 to 15 knots, meaning that Stars & Stripes’ best chance was to take a big early lead, then hang on when the stronger winds kicked in for Kanza, a boat built for fresher air.

That’s about the way it worked out--except that the winds never did get past 11 knots before fading back to eight.

“I wish I had Dennis’ luck and my money,” Koch said. “The wind today was right in his window. Dennis nevertheless sailed a beautiful race, and he knows how to handle these San Diego conditions.”

In the pre-start maneuvering, Conner fought for the right side and won it after a long drift up to the line, with starting helmsman Dave Dellenbaugh steering Kanza to his left. Conner was away to the right at the start, with Dellenbaugh tacking slowly from the left end of the line to follow him. Then Conner tacked back and secured his advantage quickly--2 1/2 boat lengths when they crossed the starting line.

It was the perfect game plan, and it may have won the race right there. “We expected the wind to go left as the sea breeze filled in, but we heard from our weather sources that there was more wind on the right side of the course,” Conner said. “So . . . we wanted to go left but stay to the right of the competition. That seemed to pay off.

“(Tactician) Tom Whidden and (strategist) John Bertrand did a real nice job keeping me in phase with the wind shifts and in control of the race.”

Stars & Stripes led by 4:09 at the first, windward mark--the largest lead anyone had had in the defender trials at that point.