American League Postseason Preview

The 2022 ORWBL Postseason begins on Sunday with our new look playoff format! All eighteen teams will be in action as the #8 and #9 seeds in each league will square off in the Play-In Game. There will then be eight different Wild Card Round Best of 3 Series', with the winners advancing to the Divisional Series (Best of 3) which will take place on Sunday, August 7th. Let's take a look at each playoff matchup on the American League side of the bracket.

Play-In Game: #9 Warren Desparados @ #8 Crown Point OTF (Hosted by Truffle Butter)

The American League Postseason kicks off with the play-in game as the winner of this one will advance to the Wild Card Round to take on the top seeded Truffle Butter. These two teams met up all the way back on Opening Day just as the Leprechauns and Sluggers did on the NL side. Crown Point was able to pick up their first ever series sweep as they won all three against Warren to start the season.

Crown Point then went on a 21 game losing streak before taking two out of three from the Godfathers in a surprise series win. OTF is hoping to carry over some of that momentum from the Godfathers series into the postseason. Crown Point kept battling all season long despite losing David Ooms to a knee injury early on in the year.

With David going down, it was Andrew Ooms who stepped up with 18 HR as he represented OTF in the All Star game. OTF’s Parker Hurtle developed into a quality pitching option as he ended up leading all of ORWBL with the lowest ERA in the league at 4.50. It will be interesting to see whether OTF opts to start Hurtle or Tumpane on the mound.

As for Warren, they will now shift their attention to the postseason where they will hope to find their first win as a franchise. After getting swept by Flat Rock to close out the season, Warren became just the 2nd team in ORWBL history to go winless, joining Phat Dong.

Despite a tough season, the Desparados continued to show up and give it their all as they had a few opportunities to win some tight ballgames that just didn’t end up going their way. They were able to get a lot of younger players some valuable playing time and it will be interesting to see what their playoff roster is able to do. One thing is for certain which is that one of these teams will be picking up their first postseason win in franchise history.

Wild Card Round (Best of 3) Desparados/OTF Winner @ #1 South Bend Truffle Butter