Mad Dash To The Finish

Tuesday night's Big East baseball results have made a jumbled mess of who is going to make the playoffs and who will not.  All we know for sure right now is Southern Nash will not make the playoffs.  Everybody else is still alive with most having three games to go starting tonight.  Five are alive but only four will play beyond May 3rd.

Rocky Mount beat Hunt 3-1 and Hunt  remains a top of the standings due to the fact that Fike lost to Nash Central 4-1.  Northern had to win against Southern and did so 5-0. If these scores tell you one thing about Big East baseball this year is that the hitting is not as good as it has been in the past.  Most teams have average to good pitching but nobody has what aI would consider on a scale of 1-10 great pitching.  Most at best are 7.  If that is true then you would think that teams would be having 10 run games but nobody is.  Hunt stands at 5-2, Rocky Mount 5-3, Fike 5-3, Nash Central 4-3, Northern Nash 3-4 and Southern 0-7.

Everybody has a shot still to win or get a share of the Regular season top spot and with the way the schedule is yet to play out Northern Nash could still capture first place as long as they win out and get some help from others.  That applies to every body except Hunt who if they win out all three of their remaining games they are the champs.  The way this season has gone so far it is very hard to vision anyone winning all three for those who have three left.

Hunt controls their own destiny and they have Southern Nash Tonight, then next Tuesday travel to Nash Central and they finish up hosting Fike.  They could lose two of their last three.  Rocky Mount has only two left  and they travel to Southern Tuesday and they have to win that game.  They finish up hosting Northern on May 3rd.  You would think that the Northern game is the only one they could lose but I tell you right now.  Any team that allows themselves to be beaten by Southern will not make the playoffs.  So Southern becomes the spoiler for those still hoping for the playoffs.

Fike only has two left and they host Northern on Tuesday and travel to Hunt the last game.  Both of those games are tossups and could easily determine making the playoffs or not.  Nash Central is at Northern tonight.  Tuesday they host Hunt and they finish with Southern on May third.  If the Bulldogs beat both Hunt and Northern they will be sitting pretty by the end of next week.

Northern has no options but to win and see what else happens. They host Nash Central tonight. Travel to Fike and travel to Rocky Mount next week.  They probably have the toughest of all the schedules remaining but should they run the table they are in the playoffs no question.

Do I see anyone from the Big East making it all the way to the Eastern Finals ?  I doubt it,but this brutal schedule makes everyone playoff tested because if you think you can make the playoffs then you had better not lose the rest of the way which is exactly the way the playoffs are.  Lose and you are out.