Dan Falloon
The Sight & Sound Wolves have done their part.
It now comes down to what the Big Grassy Lightning do.
The Lightning and Sabaskong Cubs still have one make-up game to play to determine the final standings in the Rainy River District Fastball League heading into the playoffs.
As of press time, the teams hadn’t decided whether to play the game last night (Tuesday) or tonight (Wednesday).
The Wolves reeled off nine-straight wins to finish with a 13-5 record and currently sit in second place behind the regular-season champion Barwick Knights (15-3).
The Lightning, meanwhile, are 12-5 and already hold the runs-scored tiebreaker over the Wolves, having already crossed the plate 184 times compared to Sight & Sound’s 155.
As such, a Big Grassy win against Sabaskong would leave the Lightning in second place while Sight & Sound drops down to third.
Determining second place affects the Wolves’ playoff picture as teams seeded third through 10th will face off beginning next Tuesday (July 27).
The bottom four teams will square off (No. 7 vs. No. 8 and No. 9 against No. 10) while No. 3 will play No. 6 and No. 4 faces No. 5.
If Sabaskong loses, the Cubs drop to sixth place and would face the Wolves in their playoff opener.
Wolves’ manager Derek McKinnon wasn’t too worried about how Big Grassy’s make-up game plays out since rest isn’t much of a
factor given Sight & Sound doesn’t have any games scheduled for this week.
As well, he said that in the playoffs, the Wolves will have to win games regardless of the date, field, and opponent, so the team isn’t stressing over factors beyond its control.
“It doesn’t really matter. You’ve got to beat the best teams if you’re going to win in the finals anyways,” McKinnon reasoned.
“If we don’t have a game [Tuesday], we’ll try to have a full team practice and try to get everybody out and run some drills and just keep everybody sharp,” he added.
McKinnon generally has been pleased with his team’s play on the field on both sides of the ball.
Over the course of their winning streak, Sight & Sound has scored 88 runs while allowing just 21.
“Hitting’s coming around, and it seems like everybody’s coming onto the ball a little bit better,” McKinnon lauded.
“We haven’t been bad defensively,” he noted. “[There’s] the odd little mistake, but nothing that’s been costing us really badly.
“We haven’t been throwing the ball around or anything.”
