Down the stretch they come

Just seemed like a fitting title with the Kentucky Derby today.

It might be that you're trying to plan your next three weeks. Or maybe you're just one of those people who fills out eight different NCAA Tournament brackets and likes knowing all the possibilities. Either way, we wanted to take a look at the standings with two games remaining in the regular season. There are two key links for this exercise:

The current West Raleigh Minor League standings through 12 games

The postseason bracket

So far, the seedings look this way:

No. 1 seed: Bees or Mudcats.
Mudcats could be 1 seed if: They win out, or they win one game and Bees lose out.

No. 2 seed: Bees/Mudcats/Lookouts
Mudcats could be 2 seed if: Bees win out and Mudcats beat Riverdogs

No. 3 seed: Lookouts clinch at least the 3 seed with a win over Bulls OR Scrappers
Mudcats could be 3 seed if: Lookouts win out, Mudcats lose out, and Mudcats lose a yet-to-be-determined tiebreaker.

No. 4 seed: Bulls/Scrappers/Thunder

No. 5 seed: Bulls/Scrappers/Thunder

No. 6 seed: Bulls/Scrappers/Thunder

No. 7 seed: Likely Bats/Riverdogs

No. 8 seed: Bats/Riverdogs

So the most likely slots for the Mudcats are the 1 seed or 2 seed. The 1 seed faces the 8 seed on Monday, May 13, at 5:30 p.m. The 2 seed plays Tuesday, May 14, at 5:30 p.m.

You can rule out playing in the 4-5 game on Thursday, May 16, but there is always the chance that we could have a practice that day.

So I'm certain all of you now know this by heart and will have this committed to memory before practice tomorrow.