Olbrich Park is prepped and the weather is perfect for the grandest of all softball events: an October Game 7. Harmony Sea Kittens (6-0) host Pitches B Trippin’ (5-0) at 8:15 PM on Field 4 tonight. At stake is the Title of “Champion of Madison East-side Wednesday Night Fall B-league Coed Recreational Softball.”
As Pitches B Trippin’ has a 7:15 warm-up game which will likely move its record to 6-0, Sea Kittens will have to quickly shake off three weeks of rust. The team hasn’t played since September 27, and scheduled batting practice was rained out Sunday. It’s a tough spot for the Cats, who are 1-2 in games after a layoff of two weeks or more in the past two seasons, but on the positive side, Los Gatitos lay claim to Olbrich 4 as their scratching post, as the team has won 12 consecutive games on that diamond, dating to June 22, 2016.
The teams are incredibly well-matched on paper. In games against their five common opponents to date, Sea Kittens have a 89-43 runs scored vs. runs allowed advantage, and Pitches B Trippin’ has an 88-44 run differential. Neither team has scored fewer than 11 runs in a game. Even with the wind blowing in hard from center field toady (expected 10-15 mph at game time), neither lineup is so reliant on the longball to expect a significant impact to offense. While Sea Kittens scraped out two one-run walk-off victories early in the season, Pitches B Trippin’ has won all five of its games by at least 6 runs.
