Week 19: October 3-14, 2022
The final week is upon us! There's not much up for grabs, but Mighty Oaks still have not fully clinched their third consecutive title, holding an 8-game lead with 10 games to play. Similar story at the bottom of the table; there's a 6-game gap between 17th and 18th place, so the relegated teams appear to be Nokelto Scouts, Hokrof BC, and Mithazni BC, but only Mithazni is guaranteed to drop.
Round 37:
.....Keleri 4-1 Sitache - 3-0, 4-1, 3-8, 9-1, 7-5
...Mithazni 1-4 Nokelto - 5-7, 3-8, 3-4, 4-5, 5-3
.....Tsapna 5-0 Cheshek - 8-3, 3-2, 3-1, 5-3, 7-6(13)
....Fampalo 2-3 A.Spirits - 4-3, 3-6, 3-5, 3-1, 2-5
...Westline 4-1 Lutrul - 3-4(10), 6-3(11), 9-2, 6-0, 3-2
.....Kupore 3-2 Akashemo - 2-0, 3-7, 5-3, 3-1, 7-10
.....Kepmem 2-3 Hokrof - 3-5, 5-6, 8-6, 6-3, 3-4
Mighty Oaks 3-2 Amnanache - 11-5, 7-2, 0-8, 0-1, 8-1
...National 4-1 Sh.Eagles - 4-2(10), 9-1, 5-3, 4-1, 1-3
Otahel City 1-4 Pasataki - 2-5, 3-0, 3-7, 1-3, 4-5(10)
BK Kepmem 6, Hokrof 3: With this loss, Hokrof were mathematically relegated with six games remaining. As the only EL team from their area of Lokasi, they had carried the banner for the prairies for the past few years. Unfortunately for them, there's a high-flying team from the same state coming up to replace them... but more on that later.
Keleri 9, Sitache 1: Part of a six-homer outburst for Keleri,
RF Shatso Reseke, 21, had his first career 3-homer game tonight. Quite a nice overall season for him, with 43 bombs and a .338 average. He should be a down-ballot MVP vote-getter.
Mighty Oaks 8. Amnanache 1: Having failed to clinch in the third and fourth games of the series, the Oaks' lineup had a bit of frustration to deal with in this series finale, but here on October 8, they jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead after 3 innings and held quite easily. So, I can finally say:
Mighty Oaks BC are the 2022 Elite League champions! This is the 7th title for the pride of the Oak City, pulling them even with Semyof BC for the second-most all time, behind Keleri's 12 championships. All of the Mighty Oaks championships have occurred since 2008, so this is definitely their age (though Keleri still have five championships in that time as well!).
Round 38:
...Pasataki 3-2 Kepmem - 3-6, 4-6, 6-1, 5-2, 12-4
.....Hokrof 1-4 Keleri - 1-12, 11-5, 1-6, 1-8, 0-15
..A.Spirits 2-3 Otahel City - 4-9, 3-1, 3-10, 6-4, 8-10
....Cheshek 3-2 Mithazni - 4-0, 8-3, 3-1, 2-5, 3-7
..Amnanache 3-2 Westline - 2-4, 3-2, 5-2, 3-4, 8-6
..Sh.Eagles 2-3 Tsapna - 2-5, 9-6, 4-5, 2-4, 5-1
...Akashemo 3-2 Fampalo - 0-3, 9-8, 3-12, 6-0, 10-5
....Nokelto 3-2 Mighty Oaks - 3-2, 5-7, 6-2, 1-5, 4-2
.....Lutrul 1-4 National - 4-13, 5-6, 1-5, 2-6, 1-0
....Sitache 2-3 Kupore - 6-3, 0-5, 2-3, 0-5, 5-3
Keleri 12, Hokrof 1: Not to be outdone by his teammate Raseke,
Keleri SS Poem Solicha also tacked on a 3-homer game in this final week. The 3-time Gold Glover is much more known for his acumen in the field, but has hit over 400 professional home runs to boot. He's about to be a pretty highly-sought-after free agent, I would think. Pretty poor contact skills but you'll take whatever you can get offensively with that good a shortstop.
Otahel City 10, Aroketsil Spirits 3: With this win, Otahel becomes the 17th and final team to secure their continued place in next year's Elite League, condemning the Nokelto Scouts to relegation.
October 14: On the morning of the season's final game, the Pasataki Galaxy announce that they've agreed to a 7-year, $101-million contract extension with star
2B Apia Lela. You might recall (might) that Lela went unsigned all last offseason, only to re-sign with the Galaxy three games into the season. This turned out to be a perfect reunion, as he played 184 of the remaining 187 games for the Galaxy and was a spark plug in the leadoff spot for the league's best offense by far. Now, he will remain with Pasataki through his age-36 season.
Final Standings.....W..L
-- 
Mighty Oaks.132 58
-- 
...National.127 63
-- 
...Pasataki.116 74
-- 
.....Tsapna.113 77
-- 
.....Keleri.112 78
-- 
..A.Spirits.105 85
-- 
.....Kepmem.104 86
-- 
....Cheshek.101 89
-- 
.....Kupore..96 94
+1 
..Amnanache..94 96
-1 
....Fampalo..93 97
+1 
...Akashemo..91 99
+1 
...Westline..88 102
-2 
.....Lutrul..88 102
-- 
..Sh.Eagles..78 112
+1 
Otahel City..78 112
-1 
....Sitache..78 112
-----------------------------
-- 
....Nokelto..75 115
-- 
.....Hokrof..70 120
-- 
...Mithazni..61 129
-----------------------------
And that concludes the 2022 season, for the Elite League anyway. Before the full debrief, let's do a quick recap of the end of the promotion race and see who will be joining us next year:
1st: Shunna Municipal BC (127-63)
2nd: Meka BC (122-68)
3rd: Semyof BC (118-72)
4th: Tishmin BC (113-77)
5th: Ransu Shockers (112-78)
6th: Nokir BC (111-79)
I mentioned that Nokir would have a say in who got promoted, playing both Semyof and Tishmin in the last week while having a chance to pass both. That turned out to pretty much be the difference - Nokir lost 4 of 5 to Semyof, eliminating themselves in the process, but then swept Tishmin to ensure that they wouldn't make it either, and it's Semyof who will return to the Elite League (where, honestly, they do belong).
Plenty more to come, but congrats to these teams in particular.