I'm actually pretty sad to tell you this, but the second season of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League is nearly over. It's been pretty awesome being able to turn on the TV and watch softball pretty much every night through the week. The good news is, the little league world series and softball world series should be kicking into gear pretty soon. That might be a decent replacement. The regular season for the AUSL finished up this past weekend, and now today we start the playoffs.
Given the fact that there are only six teams in the league, the playoffs are a bit unconventional. At least compared to what most people are used to with a huge field of teams in the hunt. Instead, the Utah Talons clinched the top spot in the playoffs. They sit and wait for the play in games to finish up between the Chicago Bandits, and the Portland Cascade. Meanwhile, the Oklahoma City Spark, Carolina Blaze, and Texas Volts are on the outs.
It's not too surprising that Texas didn't make it, they were struggling most of the season, but towards the end they were finally starting to string together a decent number of wins. Unfortunately, it was too little too late.
Oddly enough, when you look at the numbers, it doesn't seem like Utah should be at the top. They have the same win percentage as Chicago, but only 95 runs scored and 76 runs scored against them. I guess this is just proof that defense can win games. When you look at Chicago, they have a massive 139 runs scored on the season, but they also gave up 103 runs. Finally, the Portland Cascade scored 105 runs, but also gave up 110 runs. Suddenly that 76 runs against for Utah has a bit more perspective doesn't it?
I'm not sure who their starting pitchers are, but they have to be absolute aces to put them at the top of the pack with so many fewer runs scored against them.
Today at 9:00 PM EDT, the Cascade and Bandits go head to head to see who will face off against the Utah Talons starting on July 25th.
While today is a one and done format game, the finals are a three game series spread across Saturday, Sunday, and Monday if necessary. You might be surprised to find out that the first two games of the finals are already sold out. It's pretty awesome to see softball getting so much attention.
I'm camping this weekend, but you better believe if I have decent cellular service I am going to be doing my best to keep up with all of the games!
I'm not going to make any wild predictions, but personally, I wouldn't sleep on that Chicago team.
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