By Justin Lada
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — With less than a week in the New York Collegiate Baseball League regular season remaining, the Syracuse Salt Cats are on the ledge of a playoff spot, trailing the Sherrill Silversmiths by a full game for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Division.
With seven games left to play, including two more with the Silversmiths, the last week looks to be full of tension and drama, with the team playing the loosest likely ending up playing a step closer to a championship.
A doubleheader in Sherrill this Saturday looms for the Salt Cats. They trail the season series 4-2 right now to the Smitties. Should the Salt Cats and Silversmiths end the season with the same exact record, the first tie breaker is head to head. To not lose that tie breaker, the Salt Cats are forced to sweep the double header this weekend at Sherrill.
The second tie breaker is run differential, which isn’t in the Salt Cats favor either, because of being on the end of a few blowout losses and not blowing anyone out, the doubleheader this weekend forces the Salt Cats into a World Cup sort of scoring issue.
The Salt Cats will throw their two best arms, Corey Mingin (Oklahoma State-Pandhandle) and Sean Williams (Oklahoma State-Panhandle) on Saturday will have to break out some lumber in both games, needing to beat Sherrill handily in both games to start gaining some traction in the run differential column, in case of a final record tie, but needing two win regardless in Sherrill to begin with.
Making things tighter, the Salt Cats will play back-to-back doubleheaders to end the regular season. After being the only team in the East to not have a rainout all season, mother nature washed away a double header last Sunday against the Adirondack Trailblazers, forcing the Salt Cats and TBlazers to make up the twin bill on Monday July 23rd.
The reason that makes things tight, is that a season ending double header with the Syracuse Jr. Chiefs was already on the bill on Tuesday July 24th. Having used Williams and Mingin on Saturday, the Salt Cats will have to rely on starters Mike LaLonde (Hiram College), Maso Cotton (Virginia State University) and Joe Riley (St. Lawrence) over the final four games to push them into the post season.
The Geneva Red Wings look like they are starting to collapse out of the race for the final playoff seed but still remain. The Salt Cats will have to see the Red Wings on the road today and will play host to the Utica Brewers on Sunday, a team that is responsible for two of the worst losses the Salt Cats have had this season. The Salt Cats will have seven games over the season’s final four days, really forcing the team to declare that they are indeed a playoff team.
A couple of different scenarios enter play now.
According to NYCBL playoff rules, the Salt Cats (who trail the season series to the Silversmiths 4-2 heading into this weekend) in the event of a tied record at the end of the season, the Salt Cats must not only beat Sherrill both times on Saturday, the next tie breaker after head-to-head record is run differential. In six games the Silversmiths have outscored the Salt Cats by eight runs, meaning in the two wins, the Salt Cats must win by a combined nine runs to order to win the second tie breaker.
Should the Salt Cats split that double header, they also need a win today at Geneva and then would have to win their final five games and Sherrill would need to lose at least two times.
Geneva also keeps them in the picture with the win, but with a win by the Salt Cats today, they put themselves in a small cushion of two games. They also end the year with five home games in their last seven and don’t have a doubleheader, where as the Salt Cats and Silversmiths both have multiple.
Nonetheless, right now for the Salt Cats, every game is a playoff game, where losing any game sets them back and means they would need help to reach the playoffs.
It’s full steam ahead if the Salt Cats want to play beyond July 24th, a double header, deciding the Salt City rivalry with the Jr. Chiefs. All hands need to be on deck, and by the way things are looking, everyone will have to be available on that final Tuesday
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