The Duluth Huskies are in the thick of the second half playoff picture with a mere seven games to play on the season. Due to that, we thought it would be nice to introduce the Huskies’ Path to the Playoffs, to be updated periodically throughout the last week of the season, to simplify what needs to happen for the Huskies to make the postseason.
Entering play on Sunday, the standings in the Great Plains East division are as follows:
T-1) Duluth (16-12)
T-1) Eau Claire (16-12)
3) Thunder Bay (15-13, -1.0 GB)
4) Rochester (14-14, -2.0)
5) Waterloo (14-15, -2.5)
These five teams are all in the running for the second half crown, and all five teams need it in order to qualify for the postseason and take on La Crosse in the first round.
So, who should Huskies fans be rooting for? Let’s dive into it, in order of importance for the Huskies.
The first one is pretty simple. Sunday at 5:05 pm CST, the Huskies take on the Bucks. Root for the Huskies to take down Waterloo, of course, and deliver a near-fatal blow to the Bucks’ chances at the division. Currently, the Huskies do control their own destiny. Win out, and they’re in.
Unfortunately, baseball is a funny game and that is likely not going to be the case. The next situation is super important, but pretty tricky. Eau Claire and Thunder Bay, the two teams closest to Duluth, play each other on Sunday. They will do so four more times following the game tomorrow. This is a tough, pick your poison, kind of deal. In a vacuum, a split between the two teams benefits the Huskies the most. If that’s your preference, root for the Border Cats to finally take one at Carson Park to keep the pattern going since the Express took the series opener on Saturday. That scenario would give the Huskies the lead in the division.
However, there are two important things to keep in mind. First is that the Huskies hold the tiebreaker over the Express, meaning that if the two teams finish the season with the same record, the Huskies would be the ones to go through to the postseason by virtue of their 8-4 head-to-head record against Eau Claire. The other is that the Express finish the season on the road at the Madison Mallards, who have been one of the best teams in the league all summer. Thunder Bay finishes with an easier matchup, taking on the Bucks, who may or may not be out of the race by then. Furthermore, Duluth lost the season series against Thunder Bay, so they do not hold the tiebreaker there. If you trust the Mallards can beat the Express at the end of the year and are worried about the Border Cats tying Duluth at the end, root for the Express to defend home field against Thunder Bay on Sunday. But regardless of which outcome you prefer, root for each team to lose at least twice over the course of the remaining five games in the series. Thunder Bay winning more than three games in the series would be a big issue for the Huskies. The ideal situation would be to root for the Express to take four out of six, then get swept by the Mallards. That result would also give the Huskies the tiebreaker over the two other teams if all three finish with the same record, assuming Duluth takes down Waterloo at least one more time in the three remaining matchups. Note: if all the why’s behind the tiebreaks bores you, skip the next paragraph.
Here is the why behind that. Defeating Waterloo one more time would guarantee the Huskies the best winning percentage against the Bucks, the next best team behind the top three by overall record, among the three teams. In the event of a three-way tie, the first tiebreaker is the record of each team against the other two. Currently, the Huskies are 13-11 against the other two combined. Both of the other two teams are 9-10 against the other two. If one of the other two teams matches the Huskies record in the event of a three-way tie, it goes to the team with the best win percentage of the team with the next best overall record, which is likely going to be Waterloo (3.5 games up on La Crosse). With one more win, the Huskies would win the season series with the Bucks. Neither Eau Claire or Waterloo can say that. Here are all the tiebreaker rules.
As for the Honkers, they have two days off, including Sunday, as they get ready to host the Huskies on Monday and Tuesday for the two biggest games of their season.
This one isn’t quite as important . . . unless the Huskies make the postseason. Whatever team makes it will face off against the La Crosse Loggers, who have really struggled in the second half. The team with the best overall record in the division will have home-field advantage in the best-of-three playoff series. In the Northwoods League, that means playing Game 1 on the road then hosting Game 2 and a Game 3, if necessary. The Huskies currently own a 3.5 game advantage over the Loggers in that department. La Crosse is in action against the Fond du Lac Dock Spiders on Sunday. In order to help keep that advantage, root for the Dock Spiders to take down the Loggers.
In order to help you keep track of all the scores, a link to the Northwoods League Scoreboard is at the top of this post. To join the crowd for the final four games of the regular season, tickets can be found here.