Compton’s emotional win over Lakewood last week threw the last week of the season into chaos. What had felt like a long predictable march towards a Poly/Millikan/Lakewood finish in the Moore League has now opened up to a likely three-way tie for the league’s final guaranteed playoff spot. All three of Friday’s games will have an impact on the standings, so we will start with making some assumptions.
If Long Beach Poly beats Lakewood, the Jackrabbits will clinch another Moore League title, and Lakewood’s league record falls to 3-3. If Millikan beats Wilson, the Rams will finish the league schedule with one loss (to Poly) and clinch the second seed out of the Moore League. A reversal in either of those results would mean some major changes to the standings, obviously.
If Compton beats Cabrillo, and the above two games go as expected, we would end up with a three-way tie for third-place in the Moore League at 3-3, between Jordan (who is on a bye), Lakewood, and Compton.
Moore League tiebreaker scenarios call for an envelope draw, which in this case will happen at Veterans Memorial Stadium after the games are done. League secretary Lisa Ulmer will have three envelopes, one with each of the names of the teams in the tie. One envelope will be drawn--that teams has been eliminated from the tiebreaker. The winner of the head-to-head matchup between the two remaining teams will win the tiebreaker and receive the league’s third and final guaranteed spot.
So:
If Compton’s name is drawn, Compton would be eliminated and Lakewood would be the league’s third playoff team because of their win over Jordan.
If Jordan’s name is drawn, Jordan would be eliminated and Compton would be the league’s third playoff team because of the win over Lakewood.
If Lakewood’s name is drawn, Lakewood would be eliminated and Jordan would be the league’s third playoff team because of their win over Compton.
It’s worth noting that Jordan is looking good for an at-large bid because they finished with a .500 record. We feel that the Panthers are probably in the playoffs regardless of what happens in the tiebreaker.
We will have live coverage of the games Friday as well as the envelope draw. Playoff brackets will be released Sunday morning.
St. Anthony is the other team playing for its playoff life here, and their formula is simple: if they beat Harvard-Westlake at home Friday night, they should be in the playoffs. If they lose, they still have a good chance of getting in at 5-5 overall, same as Jordan.
