Top two seeds locked, rest still to be decided in final weekend
DAIRYLAND LEAGUE
The shortened Dairyland League baseball season has reached its final weekend of the regular season with at least four games expected to be played to finalize seeding for the two-weekend league tournament.
With their 4-3 win at Marshfield in Sunday’s clash of the unbeatens, the Everest Merchants moved to 5-0 in league play and locked up the number-one seed for the tournament. Everest is scheduled to have the bye this weekend, but is still looking to make up a postponement with Merrill to complete its six-game docket.
The Marshfield Chaparrals fell to 4-1 with Sunday’s loss and is locked into the two-seed because of its head-to-head win over the Whittlesey Reds, who currently sit in third place at 3-2. The Reds pummeled Pittsville 12-3 on Sunday in a game that was moved to Whittlesey late in the week.
The Reds host the Minocqua Wood Ducks at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday in a game moved up a day from its original date. At 2-3, Minocqua could steal the third seed from Whittlesey with a win.
The Medford Moondogs will play twice this weekend, hosting Merrill tonight, Thursday, at 7 p.m. and Pittsville Saturday for the Medford Area Chamber of Commerce’s Take Me Out to the Ballpark night at 7:30 p.m. at the city diamond.
At 1-3, the Moondogs could forge a threeway tie for third place with two wins and a Whittlesey loss to Minocqua. In that scenario, the head-to-head tiebreaker would not apply as all teams would be 1-1 against each other. The second tiebreaker is runs allowed against the teams in the tie. If it gets to that point, Whittlesey was a 3-0 winner over Medford on July 3 and Medford was a 7-3 winner at Minocqua on June 28.
The Pittsville River Bandits fell to 1-4 with Sunday’s loss at Whittlesey. Merrill resumed play Sunday after a four-week break and fell to 0-3 with a 9-5 loss at Minocqua. The Rangers will be at Marshfield Sunday.
Tourney plan
The plan for the year-end tournament is for the top two teams to represent the Dairyland League in the Wisconsin Baseball Association Finals Aug. 14-16.
The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds are planned for the weekend of July 31-Aug. Dairyland
2. Everest has the quarterfinal bye, while Marshfield will host the seventh seed, the third seed hosts the sixth seed and the fourth seed hosts the fifth seed.
The four/five winner plays Everest in one semifinal, while the other two quarterfi nal winners meet in the second semifi nal.
The plan for the weekend of Aug. 7-9 includes consolation games as well as the championship.
