BNN Report
News from the CBO, Minors, BCAC, and CYL
by Nat Wright-Kawolski
4 April 2311
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Harvard, Holy Cross Predicted for College Series
The 2311 predictions are in for the Commonwealth Collegiate Baseball League, and PAM sees the Harvard Crimson and Holy Cross Crusaders meeting for the 2311 College Series. PAM believes that the Crimson will win their third-straight title.
Harvard is picked to win the BCAC North Division, Mass Bay University is picked to win the BCAC South Division, the Crusaders are picked to win the newly-added Masscon Western Division, and Mass Atlantic University is picked to win the Masscon Eastern Division. Masscon stands for the Massachusetts Conference. Right now, divisions are separated. Future seasons may see all teams of a single conference in a single "division."
Some of contenders as top hitters are 3B Finnan Hunt, FR, Stonehill College; 3B Donovan Mackey, FR, Northeastern University; LF Juan Johnson, FR, Holy Cross University; and CF Brandon Brown, FR, Holy Cross.
For top pitchers, contenders are SP Em Babbage, JR, Harvard University; SP Frank Heart, JR, Mass Bay University; SP Jafar Khassanov, FR, Mass Atlantic University; and SP Bladder Phillips, FR, Nuka University.
As mentioned, Harvard University has won the past two championships in three seasons of the college league. Last season, the Crimson defeated Mass Bay University in the College Series. This season, though, the playoffs will change to a format that mirrors the old "College World Series" format. The top eight teams with each of the division winners and four more wildcards will advance to a double-elimination tournament. Then, the final two teams remaining will play a three-game series with the first team to two wins being declared the college champions. The CYL has adopted a similar format with the winners of the North Region and South Region tournaments no longer being guaranteed to meet in the Commonwealth Youth Series.