#1 Nordhagen Beach Party Boys (79-29) vs #3 County Crossing Bloodbugs (59-50)
Season Series: Nordhagen Beach 6, County Crossing 6
May 17-19 @NB: CC 4-2, NB 4-3, CC 5-2
June 7-9 @CC: NB 9-1, NB 7-5, CC 13-5
July 5-7 @NB: NB 3-0, NB 8-4, CC 4-3
August 9-11 @CC: CC 11-9, NB 8-5, CC 7-4
Nordhagen Beach Home Page
County Crossing Home Page
Game 1 Matchup
Analysis
While this "rivalry" has been heavily slanted in Nordhagen Beach's favor, the County Crossing Bloodbugs found success in 2301. Finishing their season series 6-6, the Bugs come into this series with hope that they can pull off a major upset, something the Party Boys have experienced the past three seasons. County Crossing was one of two Brotherhood League teams to win a series with the Bloodbugs doing it twice. The other was fourth-place Easy Town, who also beat the Boys in two series. While this season series has been even, Nordhagen Beach has to be the clear favorite as an experienced playoff team and a killer pitching staff.
Nordhagen Beach had several players who stood out offensively versus the Bugs. C Mike Swift was 20 for 42 (.476/0/6), SS Pointie Shroud was 16 for 43 (.372/0/4), and RF Jonathan Angelou hit six dingers (.333/6/15). While no other regular players hit above .300 against County Crossing, four hit at least .250 in 30 or more plate appearances. The sole player to struggle was CF Maxx Murtagh (.188/2/8).
For pitching, the biggest surprise in the season series was that the reigning 2300 SCA Vim! Pitcher Award winner and likely 2301 winner in the NCA, Beachboy Nut was 0-2 with a 6.63 ERA versus the Bloodbugs. For context, he was 17-1 against the rest of the NCA. Other players fared better, but unfortunately for the Boys, the best pitcher against County Crossing was injured SP Julian Shed (1-0, 1.90) in 23.2 innings. Tommy Beach (1-1) and Chet Arthur (1-0) had wins but gave up a lot of runs to the Bloodbugs' hitters, having 5.03 and 6.63 ERAs, respectively. If County Crossing continues its success in the postseason as it did in the regular season, this series will be heavily in the Bugs' favor.
With the offensive success that County Crossing had, it is no wonder that there are some crooked numbers. most notably 3B Taygun Topaloglu (.442/3/12) and C Biter Trout (.435/0/7). Two other regulars, 1B Ajani Peacock (.333/3/8) and CF Long Hall (.311/2/5), also hit over .300. The one person the Bloodbugs will miss most is injured RF Babs Rooth, who batted .292 with 5 home runs and 7 RBI. His replacement, RF Ginger Rogers, who came to the Bugs from the Boys, batted .195 with 2 home runs and 4 RBI.
Two of the Bloodbugs' pitchers numbers look better than all three Nordhagen Beach starters' numbers. Gavin Everitts, expected to start Game 1 vs Beach, was 2-0 with a 2.97 ERA in 30.1 innings. Whip Lashley finished 2-1 with a 4.00 ERA in 27.0 innings pitched. The other expected started, Jared Zaccone, only started once, getting a no-decision and allowing a 7.04 ERA in 7.2 innings. Reliever Drama Miller was 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 3.1 innings, picking up the other two late wins for the Bugs.
Prediction
We expect the Nordhagen Beach pitching to be more dominant against the Bloodbugs' batters than they were in the regular season. Should they follow that pattern, they will take this series but not without scares. In this case, we are going to predict that the Boys squash the Bugs, but in seven games, taking the series 4 games to 3.