It’s a step away from a conventional post-season.
The Prince George Senior Men’s Baseball League (PGSBL) is in the mindset of ‘the more the merrier’ as they get set to enable a triple-knockout format for the 2019 playoffs.
In layman’s terms, lose three games and you’re done for the year.
According to PGSBL President Kalen Kirkpatrick, this decision is simply to get away from the ‘dry’ wildcard, best-of-five-series system traditionally used in the sport.
“We just thought mixing it up a bit would bring a bit more excitement to the playoffs,” he said to PrinceGeorgeMatters. “So far, from what I’ve heard, the feedback [from PGSBL teams] has been positive, but I guess we will see how it goes when it’s over.”
In a league of only five teams, one that includes the Prince George Surg Med Midget Knights, it appears trying to make things interesting has had its challenges.
Kirkpatrick says they tried the triple elimination format at the icebreaker event in May, to which the Knights prevailed, and claims it added more excitement to the games for all the clubs and fans that came out to watch.
He also eludes to the fact that doing a best-of-five series in the semis and championship final just made the season go longer than what it needs to.
“Our hope is that it will really test teams pitching depth and will speed the playoffs up a bit so we are not playing into mid-September when the temperatures start to drop,” said Kirkpatrick.
This year saw the Queensway Auto World Mariners come out on top with a 16-4 record, which is the team’s best record in PGSBL since going 17-3 in 2014.
The M’s went undefeated at 9-0 when they were the designated visiting squad at Citizen Field with a whopping 142 runs in the 20-game season.
Every other club finished below 500, including the defending-champion JRJ Construction Orioles, who are the fifth-place team going into playoffs as they had less offensive runs scored than the D.O.B Contracting Gladiators.
The final standings are as follows:
- 16-4 = Queensway Auto World Mariners
- 9-11 = Inland Control and Services Tigers
- 9-11 = Prince George Surg Med Midget Knights
- 8-12 = D.O.B Contracting Gladiators
- 8-12 = JRJ Construction Orioles
Playoffs begin tomorrow (Aug. 20) and this week is loaded with three double-headers to help kick off the new format.
Games tomorrow, Wednesday (Aug. 21), and Thursday (Aug. 22) will start at 6:30 and 9 p.m. each night, capping off the week with one on Friday (Aug. 23) at 7 p.m., all at Citizen Field.
A full post-season schedule is available on the PGSBL website.
The Prince George Senior Men's Baseball League put on quite the offensive clinic in Week 6 💥 58 scored runs in 4 games with 3 different teams reaching double-digits ⚾️ | https://t.co/swmCiZ5t1k #CityOfPG #PGSBL @PGMatters pic.twitter.com/iHXYZHPGRv
— Kyle Balzer (@KyleBalzer) June 28, 2019
