The Intercounty Baseball League is throwing a curveball into their playoff format for the 2014 season.
If The IBL season ended today, the top two teams would be settling in for a week off and the sixth and seventh place teams would be prepping for a one-game playoff to see which team was headed to the post-season.
The Hamilton Cardinals are currently in seventh place.
The new IBL playoff format is a great shift for the eight team league where in the past all eight teams made the post-season. Only when the league had nine teams did the last place team not make it.
The IBL has been an eight team league since the Ottawa Fat Cats ceased operations a few years ago.
Under the new format for 2014 the top two teams get a bye through the first round and the the sixth and seventh place teams play a one-game playoff. The loser will not make the post-season while the winner is in playoff picture.
Then the third-place finisher would play the winner of that game and the four and fifth-place finishers would face off in best of five quarter-finals.
The final four would consist of the two quarter-final winners versus the first and second place team. Those four teams would play best-of-sevens with the winners going to the final.
The Intercounty Baseball League has been a part of summer in Southern Ontario for 95 years now and for its 96th season in 2014.
Leave a Reply