SANTA CLARA, Calif. — As summer collegiate baseball enters the homestretch in 2015, four Santa Clara Broncos are in their league's respective playoffs, three more are near clinching playoff berths and one more is fighting for a playoff spot. Here are the postseason outlooks as of Wednesday, July 29:
Aldie Senators (Jake Brodt, Jason Seever): Aldie (21-21) and the Strasburg Express (21-21) tied for second place in the Valley League North Division, and began the playoffs with a best-of-three series Tuesday; Strasburg hosted and won the opener 6-2. Game 2 is slated for Wednesday night (hosted by Aldie) and Game 3 (if necessary) is slated for Thursday night (hosted by Strasburg).
UPDATE 7/29/15: Strasburg defeated Aldie 8-2 Wednesday night to win the series and bring Aldie's season to an end.
Bend Elks (Evan Haberle): Bend (31-11) owns the best record in the West Coast League and leads the South Division by 7.5 games. The WCL regular season concludes August 9, and three division winners alongside one wild card team qualify for the postseason.
UPDATE 8/4/15: The Elks clinched the South Division with a 2-1, walkoff win over Kitsap on August 3. WCL Playoffs begin August 11.
Harwich Mariners (Stevie Berman): The Cape Cod League regular season ends Sunday, and Harwich (17-20-2) trails fourth-place Yarmouth-Dennis (19-20-0) by two points (win = two points, tie = one point) for the East Division's final playoff spot. Each team has five games remaining.
UPDATE 8/2/15: Harwich finished the regular season with 42 points, two points out of a three-way tie for third place and three points out of an outright playoff berth. The Mariners went 6-3-1 in their last 10 games, and did not qualify for the postseason.
Kelowna Falcons (Grant Meylan): Kelowna (27-15) owns the second-best record in the West Coast League and leads the East Division by 6 games. The WCL regular season concludes August 9, and three division winners alongside one wild card team qualify for the postseason.
UPDATE 8/4/15: The Falcons lead the East Division by five games with six days remaining in the WCL regular season.
UPDATE 8/5/15: The Falcons clinched the WCL East Dvision. League playoffs begin August 11.
Lima Locos (Mitchell White): The Locos host a three-game series against the winner of Wednesday's play-in game between the Southern Ohio Copperheads and Licking County Settlers. They earned the No. 1 seed and a bye by finishing with a Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League-best 28-7 record.
UPDATE 7/29/15: Licking County defeated Southern Ohio 6-3 on July 29. The Locos and Settlers begin a three game series Thursday night.
UPDATE 8/4/15: Lima defeated three-time defending champion Licking County 5-1 on July 30 and 6-3 on July 31 to reach the GLSCL championship series. Lima defeated the Hamilton Joes 2-0 on August 2 to take the lead in the best-of-three series. After a rainout on Monday, the Locos and Joes will play a doubleheader August 4 — Lima needs one win and the Joes need two wins for the championship.
UPDATE 8/5/15: Champions! The Locos fell 7-1 in Game 1 of the doubleheader and bounced back with a 5-4 walkoff victory in 10 innings of Game 2. It is the fourth GLSCL championship in team history.
Newport Gulls (Michael Bono): With four days of regular season play remaining, Newport (26-11) leads the New England Collegiate Baseball League's Southern Division by 2.5 games over the Mystic Schooners (25-15). The Gulls own the league's best record and are in a good position to clinch their division's No. 1 seed heading in the postseason. Newport will finish in either first or second place by the regular season's end this Saturday. Former Bronco Jose Vizcaino, Jr. won the NECBL Championship with Newport last summer.
UPDATE 8/4/15: Newport finished with a league-best 27-15 record and earned the No. 1 seed in the South Division Semifinal. The Gulls fell in Game 1 of the best-of-three series against the Ocean State Waves 6-5 August 3, and face elimination on August 4.
UPDATE 8/5/15: Newport won Game 2 of the series 8-4 to force a decisive Game 3 August 5 at their home venue, Cardines Field.
UPDATE 8/7/15: The Gulls defeated Ocean State 8-5 to advance to the Southern Division Championship series, where they fell 4-1 in Game 1 against the Mystic Schooners. Newport faces elimination Friday night.
Southern Ohio Copperheads (Joe Becht): The winner of Wednesday's GLSCL play-in game between the Copperheads (22-17) and Settlers (21-17) will begin a three-game series at the top-seeded Locos on Thursday.
UPDATE 7/29/15: Southern Ohio fell to Licking County Wednesday night by a final score of 6-3, bringing its season to an end.
Go Broncos!
Check back with SantaClaraBroncos.com as well as Twitter for postseason updates.
