31 July 2008

Cardinals on verge of East title

By Matt Rice
REGIONAL —

Entering the final week of the Cape League regular season, the Orleans Cardinals are in full control as they head toward their first East Division title since 2005, when the team went 30-14 (60-points) and won the Cape League championship over Bourne.

Since then, the Cardinals have been on the outside looking in for the playoffs finishing in third or worse the last three years.

But with a playoff berth already in hand, the Cardinals, up by 10-points over the second place Harwich Mariners and 14-points ahead of both Brewster and Chatham, are now focused on the playoffs as the real race in the East has become for the second and final playoff spot.

Harwich seemed to have it wrapped up, but a five game losing streak has temporarily unhinged their playoff plans and has them scrambling for every point they can muster with only one week of games left.

Up by only a pair of games, the Mariners will play Brewster and Orleans both twice in the final week.

The Whitecaps defeated Harwich on Tuesday night to end their losing streak and set up the final week of games. Brewster is 3-7 in their last 10 games, but have a somewhat easy schedule the last week, as they play last place Wareham tonight and a struggling Cotuit team tomorrow night.

Chatham is also still alive as they are tied with Brewster in third place behind Harwich and Orleans.

After hosting the Cape League All Star game last Saturday, the A’s defeated Orleans in walk-off fashion as they won their second straight game, pulling them back into the race for the second playoff spot. 

As with Brewster, the A’s have a somewhat easy schedule moving forward.

Following a rematch against Orleans at Eldredge Park tonight, the A’s will play the two last place team in the league as they play Wareham and YD on back-to-back nights.

They’ll face Brewster next Wednesday before wrapping up their regular season against Orleans next Thursday.

The divisional playoffs start next Saturday as the top two teams in each division battle in a three-game series for a spot in the Cape League championship series, which is also a three-game series and starts on August 11 or 12.