Several top teams falter in playoffs as battle for No. 1 comes to a head

The chase for No. 1 in Perfect Game’s weekly ranking of the nation’s Top 35 summer-league teams has largely been a two-team affair throughout the 2011 season. The Cape Cod League’s Hyannis Harbor Hawks occupied the top spot most of the first half of the summer, while the Coastal Plain League’s Edenton Steamers has held steady at No. 1 for the last four weeks.

Both teams entered post-season play in their respective leagues on a high note with Hyannis (29-15) easily posting the best overall record during the regular season in the Cape, while Edenton (44-11) was an impressive 25-3 over the second half of the Coastal Plain schedule.

Tuesday, each team suffered a critical loss—to a much lesser opponent, no less.

Hyannis’s 5-2 setback to the upstart Falmouth Commodores was enough to knock it right out of the Cape Cod playoffs as the Commodores won the opening-round, best-of-3 series, two game to one. Falmouth had limped into the eight-team Cape playoffs with a lowly 19-25 record.

Edenton’s 7-4 loss to a 29-27 Wilmington team wasn’t quite as costly as it squared their best-of-3 semi-final series at a game apiece, with the deciding game set for tonight in Edenton.

But the No. 1-ranked Steamers haven’t been as dominant in the playoffs as they were in the regular season in the Coastal Plain League. They squeezed by the eighth-seeded Peninsula Pilots in the opening round of the playoffs by coming from behind both times to win two hard-fought, extra-inning games—10-8 in 10 innings and 7-6 in 14 innings. And Wilmington has given Edenton all it can handle.

With Hyannis effectively eliminated from the chase for No. 1 and Edenton not proving as invincible as it was earlier in the season, it has opened the door for other contenders for the designation of the nation’s top summer-league team. The obvious beneficiary appears to be the Cal Ripken League’s Bethesda Big Train, which has already completed its 2011 season.

The Big Train (36-9) ran through the regular season in the Cal Ripken League and clinched its third straight league title with a playoff sweep. It moved from No. 3 a week ago to No. 2, supplanting Hyannis. Edenton continues to hang on to the top spot.

The West Coast League’s Wenatchee AppleSox has also positioned itself for a run at No. 1. The new No. 3-ranked Sox (39-14) have dominated that league all season, and would become a significant challenger for an unofficial national champion if it should go on and win its third straight West Coast League championship—most likely, though, only if Edenton should falter in its drive to a CPL championship.

Besides Hyannis, several other pretenders for the No. 1 spot fell from contention over the last week with unexpected playoff losses. Among the casualties were Newport of the New England Collegiate League and Harrisonburg of the Valley League, and even Orleans of the Cape League. Newport and Harrisonburg had posted the best records in their respective leagues, while Orleans had finished first in the Cape’s Eastern Division. All slipped up against sub-.500 opponents.

The No. 1 team will be announced once all summer-league playoff rounds are complete. The Northwoods League will be the last league to wrap up its schedule as its regular season doesn’t even conclude until Sunday, with two rounds of playoffs to follow.