Ballers Clinch Winning Season, Sit Atop Second Half Standings

Jason Burke | Aug 25, 2024

Oakland Ballers

The Oakland Ballers wanted to build a winner, and in their inaugural season, the team is at the very least guaranteed of finishing with a winning record. They're also an extremely hot team, so there could even be more in store with the postseason around the corner.

At the beginning of last week, we said that the next two series would play a big role in determining the fate of the Oakland Ballers' season. After dropping the first three games against the Boise Hawks, Oakland came back and won the next three, splitting the series with the top team in the second half of the season.

This week the Ballers rolled into Northern Colorado and just continued to have the Owlz's number. In two series against NoCo in the past month, the Ballers have gone 5-1 in each series, 10-2 overall. This is particularly impressive when you consider that the Owlz have a 17-19 record in the second half, putting them in seventh this half. They are 15-9 against teams other that Oakland.

Oakland has two series remaining, one against Idaho Falls at home, and another against Yolo on the road to close out the regular season. The Ballers overall record sits at 50-34, the second-best mark in the PL, and their 23-13 record in the second half ranks first, meaning that if the season were to end today, the Ballers would secure a postseason berth along with Boise, joining the Missoula Paddleheads and the Glacier Range Riders from the first half.

The Ballers have not faced Missoula this season, and they are the one team with a better overall record at 57-26, giving them a 7.5 game lead.

The way the postseason works is that the season is split into two halves. The top two teams in the first half get playoff bids, and the top two teams in the second half also get a spot in the postseason. Things can get a little tricky if one team dominates both halves and is a top team in each, in which case a wild card winner is crowned, and that team would be whomever has the best overall record.

That is where things could potentially get interesting for the Ballers. While they're in first for the second half heading into the final two weeks, one of the teams on their heels is the Yolo High Wheelers, sitting 1.5 games back. The two clubs also play six games against each other to finish off the season, so a 2-4 week from Oakland would currently be enough to swing the pendulum to Yolo getting a postseason berth.

Boise is also just a half-game back, and if Oakland falters just a little, the Hawks could swoop in and take over the top spot, while the High Wheelers will have a chance to take that second position. All of that is a very realistic possibility at the moment. What is also a possibility is that the Ballers miss the postseason entirely, and still finish with the second-best overall record this season, with the club currently holding a 2.5 game lead over third-place Boise.