The Spring 2014 Tournament grows by 3 teams teams from the 5 team entry in the Fall 2013 Tournament, but don't expect that to dilute the talent pool. In fact, this tournament is shaping up to be extremely competitive and closely contested. The Fall 2013 games had only 5 teams, one of which was just dreadful, basically guaranteeing the other 4 sides an automatic playoff spot. However, for Spring 2014, a playoff qualification won't come with such ease. The eight team field means that half of the teams will be sent packing at the conclusion of the round-robin. So there is not much room available for slip ups this go around. Each team will be playing 6 round-robin games in a effort to finish in the top 4 and make the playoffs. Obviously, winning all 6 of your games would be the best way to do this, however, that is somewhat unlikely. Winning 5 of 6 should be a safe bet for a top 4 finish. Four wins would give a team a fairly safe chance at a playoff spot as well. Anything less than 4 would certainly be playing with fire.
This spring the tournament is also adding a second field into the mix. To accommodate the expanded field of teams, allow for less time standing around, and to get in as many games as possible, it seemed like a necessary move to make. The new field, dubbed, The Pool field, will feature a quirky outfield fence. With an immoveable jungle gym out in right center field, the outfield fence is forced to make its way around the front of it, creating an unusual short porch out there. As such, expect to see some higher offensive numbers posted in games played at The Pool field. For this reason, the schedule was set up so that each team will play 3 games on each field.
Everything is set to get underway tomorrow, Saturday April 26th at 9:00 AM, rain or shine. The following games will get started as soon as the game before it has finished. Each game is expected to run for 30 to 40 minutes in length. ON the conservative side, this should take the round-robin play from 9:00 AM to around 4:00-4:30 PM. At which point the semi-finals would get underway, followed by a one game Championship Final. All in all, everything should be wrapped up at or before 6:00-6:30 PM. In the morning, please try and arrive at least 15-20 minutes before your teams first game, so 8:40 for the 9:00 games and about 9:10 for the 9:30ish games. Getting everything started on time will go a long way to ensuring that our schedule moves along smoothly. There will be a few tents set up as well, in case of some drizzles. No doubt it is going to be a long day but it should be a lot of fun. Good luck to everyone involved!
