Three National Softball League events down and two to go in 2015, and the Pioneers are beginning to pull away at the top of the NSL standings.
In games that counted towards NSL placings during round-robin play at the British Airways Tournament, held on the weekend of 20-21 June at Imperial College’s Heston Venue, the Pioneers managed to play seven games and win six of them, with the seventh game an 8-8 draw with Chromies.
The defending national champion Chromies, who now sit 2.5 games behind the Pioneers in second place, played only five games that counted towards the NSL standings, winning three, drawing with Pioneers and losing a tight 4-3 game to this year’s surprise team, Slammers, who are now up to third place in the standings and trail the Chromies by only a single game.
Slammers couldn’t quite manage to beat both Chromies and Pioneers on the same day on Sunday, losing 5-3 to Pioneers, but they are a game ahead of H2O in the standings and a game-and-a-half ahead of Blue Steel.
The squeezed middle
The remaining places in the top eight (with only eight out of the 14 NSL teams due to qualify for the Premier Nationals) are filled by H2O, Blue Steel, newcomers Bristol Bees, Windsor Knights and Maniacs.
But the teams filling places 9-13 – LNZ, Thunder, Legends, Greensox and the Leeds Terriers – are all within three games or less of eighth place.
Only the Warriors, with just two wins and a draw, and seven games away from the final Premier Nationals spot, look out of the running.
So there will be some crucial games, and possibly changes in the mid-table standings, at the two remaining NSL events – the MLB Tournament on 18-19 July and Diamond Series 3 on 8-9 August, both at Farnham Park.
NSl table
The National Softball League table after three NSL events is:
| TEAMS | Won | Lost | Tie | GB | RF | RA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pioneers | 19 | 4 | 1 | --- | 271 | 139 |
| Chromies | 15 | 5 | 1 | 2.5 | 233 | 150 |
| Slammers | 14 | 6 | 1 | 3.5 | 210 | 163 |
| H2O | 14 | 8 | 0 | 4.5 | 214 | 153 |
| Blue Steel | 12 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 183 | 135 |
| Bristol Bees | 10 | 10 | 1 | 7.5 | 172 | 200 |
| Windsor Knights | 10 | 11 | 1 | 8 | 212 | 255 |
| Maniacs | 7 | 9 | 0 | 8.5 | 161 | 135 |
| LNZ | 6 | 8 | 1 | 8.5 | 114 | 153 |
| Thunder | 8 | 12 | 0 | 9.5 | 170 | 195 |
| Legends | 9 | 14 | 0 | 10 | 194 | 210 |
| Greensox | 4 | 10 | 2 | 10.5 | 129 | 201 |
| Terriers | 5 | 13 | 3 | 11.5 | 163 | 204 |
| Warriors | 2 | 18 | 1 | 15.5 | 115 | 248 |