The Madison Mallards clinched the first half title in the South Division Thursday with a pair of wins at Battle Creek against the Bombers. The Mallards took game one 8-2 and followed that with a 7-2 victory in the second game. Madison needed the sweep. Wisconsin beat Waterloo 3-2 leaving the Woodchucks a 1/2 game out in the first half race. La Crosse lost at Brainerd 6-5 in extra innings to finish two games out in the South. Madison has now claimed a playoff berth in five times in the franchise’s eight seasons with all five coming the last six years. Twice they’ve advanced to the championship series with their lone Northwoods League title coming in 2004. Madison won nine of its last eleven games to overcome Wisconsin’s big lead in the division. Thanks in part to a ten-game winning streak the Woodchucks opened the season 15-2. But Wisconsin finished 5-9 down the stretch to let their lead slip away.

In the North Division, Mankato lost 10-2 to Thunder Bay a day after backing into the playoffs. The MoonDogs didn’t play well down the stretch winning only two of their final nine games of the first half. Their 14-3 start to the half proved to be just enough to coast to the title as they finished one game ahead of second place Thunder Bay. Mankato advances to the postseason for the first time in the city’s 10 years in the Northwoods League.

Beginning today all 14 teams will be 0-0. The second half schedule is built for another 34 games but several teams will have rained out and suspended games tacked on to their second half record once they’re completed. The teams with more than 34 games to play this half: Alexandria (35), Brainerd (37), Eau Claire (35), Green Bay (35), La Crosse (35), Madison (35), Rochester (35), and St. Cloud (35). Of Brainerd’s three extra, one is a doubleheader against Rochester with the other two being suspended games against Alexandria and St. Cloud. Eau Claire’s extra game will be a suspended game at Green Bay. Madison has to play a doubleheader at La Crosse. Brainerd and Waterloo are both short two additonal games on the first half because their entire series in Waterloo was cancelled due to the flooding.