Blackburn Men's Fastball League Playoff Preview

from Shannon Borho via www.bmfl.ca

Playoff Preview

It went down to the wire but the Knights are the BMFL regular season champions and will face the Ball Bangers in the first round who finished the season on a high with a 6-2 victory over the Rogues. The Good Ol' Boys will take on Stan's Diner with the A's facing off against the Rogues.

The playoffs begin Thursday night (Sept 6) at the Blackburn Arena with the Blues taking on the Guzzlers, followed by the A's and Rogues. The other two series' begin Sunday night. Check out the schedule here. Here is the BMFL first round preview, all series' are best-of-three:

#1 Knights vs. #8 Ball Bangers
Key Pitchers
Bangers: Rob Elder
Knights: Jamie Blakely
Key Batters
Bangers: Brett Watt, Anil Hayne, Luther Campbell, Derek Dumond, Terry Hyland
Knights: Gerry Sancartier, Stefan Sklepowicz, Tyler and Ryan Cox, Brett Dugan

Look for this to be a closer series than expected as the Bangers are always tough come playoff time. If the defence can hold up for the Bangers, this could be a low scoring series that could go three games. Jamie Blakely brings his league leading 10 wins to the hill and runs will be tough to come by for a Banger squad that scored a league low 57 runs and a Knights team that allowed a league low 65 runs during the regular season. The Knights swept the season series 3-0 with two shutouts in the process.

#2 Good Ol' Boys vs. #7 Stan's Diner Draughts
Key Pitchers
Draughts: Pierre Lalonde
Good Ol' Boys: Gilles Roy, Andy Dunn
Key Batters
Draughts: Andrew Bruce, Derek Bergeron, Pierre Lalonde, Stephane Vinette, Ross Campbell
Good Ol' Boys: Steve Corry, Serge and Luc Potvin, John Tremblay, Rej Doiron, Norm Gascon

The Good Ol' Boys were a tough team to gauge this season as the sprinted out of the gate with 5 straight victories but then stumbled a bit. They still had a shot at the top seed but lost a close one to the Knights in the final regular season game. The always powerful offence can explode at any time and the team can hit the longball with 7 of their 12 regulars connecting for 13 team homers this season. Similarly, the Draughts have had an up-and-down season and were hurt by the injury to Pierre Lalonde mid-season. With Pierre on the mound the vastly improved Draughts will be a tough opponent for anyone. The Good Ol' Boys took the regular season series 3-1 but the Draughts were shutout in the final two games.

#3 Wally's A's vs. #6 Rogues
Key Pitchers
Rogues: Matt Cox, Chuck Musicka
Wally's A's: Will Lowe
Key Batters
Rogues: Barry Emerson, Rob Vanden Hoven, Brad Dishaw, Nick Desjardins
Wally's A's: Eric 'Pedro' Sanchez, Terry Jones, Will Mood, Denis McNicoll, Noel Hayes, Dave Millette

The A's lost out on a chance for first with a loss in their regular season finale against the Guzzlers but wind up playing a team they fared out well against during the regular season. The A's swept the regular season series with the Rogues 3-0 and outscored them 30-6 in the process but all three games were early in the season. The expansion Rogues stumbled out of the gate, dropping their first 6 contests but have played well since. A lot will depend on the Rogues defence as their pitching isn't dominating but they use the defence behind them well keeping the ball on the infield. The A's have a potent offence, they led the league scoring 158 runs this season.

#4 Guzzlers vs. #5 Blues
Key Pitchers
Blues: Shannon Borho
Guzzlers: Stew Shonfield, Jason Smith
Key Batters
Blues: Steve Walman, Norm Manns, Shannon Borho, Gary Larocque, Bill Blad
Guzzlers: Joe Allan, Steve Tsonos, Kevin Shonfield, Cliff Ells, Mike Napper, Rick Thompson

The Guzzlers swept the season series 3-0 over the Blues but two of the contests were close one-run games (with Steve Walman pitching the other game). Injuries really hurt the Blues team as Rob Searle, Andrew Branch and Tom Burchill all spent significant time on the DL with Burchill, the Blues other pitcher out for the season. The Guzzlers will be tough again in the playoffs as they are strong down the middle with Keith Bray and Kevin Shonfield in the middle infield and Joe Allan patrolling centrefield. Offensively they are led by Allan at the top of the order and Steve Tsonos in the middle who tied for the league lead (with Shannon Borho) with 5 homeruns this season.