All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Breaking Down the Institute League
The Institute League is THE premier league of the 2299 season. With four of the top nine teams in the Power Rankings--#4 Fort Hagen, #5 Lexington, #6 Starlight, and #9 Abernathy--this league looks to be the most thrilling heading into the final stretch of the season. Sure, Concord (#18) and Sunshine Tidings (#23) are not in the competition, but a four-team race is one to be excited about.
In reality, the Silver Shroud are the class of the league in 2299, with the other three currently fighting for the coveted wildcard spot. If it were not for the success of Nordhagen Beach, the Shroud would easily cruise to the #1 seed in the North Charles Association. As it stands, they are likely to be at least the #2 seed. Fort Hagen is 2nd in runs (357) and runs allowed (251) with the top Starters ERA (3.20) and Defensive Efficiency (.692) in the NCA. Three starters have won 10 games: Mike Cartrette (10-3), Derek Green (10-2), and Matt Hope (10-3). Brent Hooker (8-3) is likely to reach that number, too. Fort Hagen is also enjoying the "Tiller-Miller Thrillers" in Jim Tiller (.350/15/51) and Mark Miller (.386/2/39) as one-two in batting average. Five players in all are hitting over .300, and three players have double-digit home runs. This team is stacked.
The Synths are the CBO's hottest team, having won nine straight, including consecutive league sweeps of the two bottom teams, to move them to just a game back of Starlight for the wildcard race. They'll have three consecutive weekend series against the Adamantium with 6 games in Lexington sandwiching 3 games at Abernathy Farms.
The Lady Killers have looked to be the team strongest of the three at this point in the season. In their last three league series, Starlight has won two series over the Adamantium and this past weekend over Fort Hagen. They are 8-4 in their last four series since dropping a weekend series to the Shroud four weeks ago. Including midweek games, the Killers last dropped a series to that Shroud team, going 13-5 overall in that time.
Abernathy is currently a game behind Starlight, but they are a 2298 playoff team, meaning they will have the drive to stay alive in the league. Like we mentioned before, they get Lexington the next three weekends, so that could be their chance to cool off the Synths and surge past the Killers.
