Pittsfield Playing for Top Seed Today at World Series
GLEN ALLEN, Va. — The path for the Pittsfield Babe Ruth 13-year-old All-Stars at the World Series today is clear: Win and it is the top seed heading into bracket play with a first-round bye into the champiionship semi-finals.
Lose, and things could get really complicated, really fast.
All five teams in Pittsfield's pool have at least one win, and could, in theory, all end up tied at 2-2 when pool play concludes today.
All five teams in Pittsfield's pool are in action on Tuesday at Glen Allen Stadium, starting with an early morning matchup between the Pacific Northwest Champions (Oregon) and the Virginia State Champions (Manassas).
When that game is over, the Mid Atlantic Champions (Pennsylvania) face the Southeast Regional Champs (Winchester, Va.).
Finally, Pittsfield closes out the pool's schedule when it plays Oregon at about 2 p.m.
Pittsfield, the New England Regional Champion, and Pennsylvania each have a record of 2-1.
The Virginia State Champs and Southeast Regional Champs each are 1-2.
The Pacific Northwest Champion is 1-1.
If Pittsfield and Pennsylvania each end up 3-1, Pittsfield gets the tiebreaker for the No. 1 seed in the tournament's National Division because of Friday's win. Head-to-head competition is the first tie-breaker listed on the Baberuthleague.org website.
if Pittsfield loses today, it could end up tied with as many as four other teams, requiring league officials to go to subsequent tie-breakers, like fewest runs given up and run differential.
Getting seeded first out of the pool earns that team an off day on Wednesday and a date in the semi-finals in the winner of Wednesday's game between the National Division's third-place quarter-final and the American Division's second-place team.
The fourth- and fifth-place teams in each division drop out of the championship bracket and into the tournament's Diamond bracket, which will be filled out by the losers of Wednesday's games in the Championship bracket.
The lack of clarity on National Division seeds heading into the final day is partially due to Monday morning's rain, which pushed back all the games, including the Oregon-Manassas contest, which originally was scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m.
Fortunately, the weather looks clear the rest of the week. Pittsfield can do its part to keep the seedings equally clear with a win on Tuesday.
iBerkshires.com's coverage of the Babe Ruth World Series is sponsored by General Dynamics.
