Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff
Despite what happens this week in Philadelphia, the Riptide officially have a rival in the Philadelphia Force.
One game separates the two teams heading into this week’s four-game regular season-ending series. Both squads are among five teams still in the running for the three remaining spots in the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) playoffs.
The Force was the team that filed the grievance with the NPF that resulted in three forfeit losses for the Riptide. Without the losses, New England’s record would be 24-16, which would be good enough for second place, heading into this week.
Instead, New England (22-18) trails the Philadelphia, Rockford Thunder and Arkon Racers (each 23-17) in the standings.
Philadelphia was awarded two forfeit wins while New England had two wins turned into losses because of a ruling regarding the failure to activate a player on the Riptide’s roster.
New England also forfeited a game to the Michigan Ice, but they recovered a game through filing a grievance of their own which resulted in a forfeited victory from the Rockford Thunder.
* Riptide win three of four against Philadelphia this week.
* Chicago sweeps all four games against Rockford
* The Michigan Ice win three of four against Akron
In the case of a tie, the first tiebreaker is comparing records against NPF teams (this excludes play against national teams and the Michigan Ice). The second tiebreaker is head-to-head meetings between the tied teams.
Picked off
Rookie outfielder Shanel Scott’s run at the NPF single season stolen base record isn’t helped by the forfeited games. The stats from those games were also wiped off the books, eliminating a pair of stolen bases and dropping Scott’s total to 28 (as opposed to 30). She needs to steal five bases in the last four games to tie Kristen Zaleski’s record of 33 in 2005.
Coming back to bite them
Philadelphia’s top run producer Kellie Wilkerson is no stranger to the New England Riptide. She was a member of the Riptide in 2005, but her time was divided between the NPF season and Team USA. Wilkerson hit four home runs and drove in 15 runs while batting .435. Last season she was on the Connecticut Brakettes that fell to New England in the NPF championship game. This season she is hitting .344 with team-high 18 RBI and five home runs.