MacLean-Ross Cup Preview
/ GPLS.ca | 1:15PM
MacLean-Ross Cup Preview
The MacLean-Ross Cup is up for grabs across three divisions in Girls Prairie League Softball this weekend in Sherwood Park, as the A Division enters their Championship Weekend with a full slate of games on the schedule and 30 teams in action across the U16, U14 and U12 Divisions. The playoffs are double elimination, so there is always a chance to get back to the Championship Game on Sunday afternoon.
U12A Division
The St. Albert Angels are the only team to get a first round bye in the U12A Division, as they finished as the division’s top seed with a 14-1 record during the regular season, edging out the Calgary Kaizen who shared the same record. St. Albert will wait for the winner of No. 4 seed Lloydminster Liners 06, who finished 7-8, who will take on the Sherwood Park Storm, who finished 5-10. Sherwood Park took both meetings with the Liners this season, winning in Opening Weekend 12-6, and again in the final game of the regular season 8-6.
Calgary, who secured the second seed, will take on the Lloydminster Liners 07, who finished 3-10 this past season. Calgary won both meetings this season against the younger Liners squad. The winner of that game will take on the winner of the No. 3 seed Red Deer Rage versus the No. 6 seed Battleford Bandits. Red Deer finished 9-6, while the Bandits were 5-10. Red Deer also won both meetings during the regular season.
Lloydminster has won two of the last three U12A Division MacLean-Ross Cups, with the Lloydminster Blues doing so in 2015 before the organization merged with the Lloydminster Rebels, while the Liners organization are the defending champions from 2017. Sherwood Park won in 2016.
U14A Division
The top four teams in the U14A Division will have to wait for their opponents to play on Friday night before they hit the field on Saturday morning.
The Calgary Kaizen 04 took top seed in the division with a 13-2 record in the Sonnenberg Division. They will face the winner of the No. 8 seed Red Deer Rage versus the No. 9 seed Lloydminster Liners 04. Red Deer finished 7-6 this past season, while Lloydminster was 6-9. In their only meeting this season, the Liners took the victory 7-1. Calgary, meanwhile, defeated both the Liners and Rage this season in one meeting with each.
No. 2 seed Sherwood Park Storm finished on top of the Nichols Division with a 12-2 record, and will play the winner of the No. 6 seed Calgary Adrenaline, who finished 8-6, who take on the No. 11 seed Edmonton High Park, who finished 3-12 in a Nichols Division matchup. Calgary won their single meeting during the regular season, while Calgary also defeated Sherwood Park 6-0 during the All-Star Weekend.
Edmonton Rivercity finished the season with a 12-3 record and earned the No. 3 seed and will play the winner of the Battleford Bandits, who finished 8-7 and earned the No. 7 seed, and the Calgary Kaizen 05, who finished with the No. 11 seed, and a 5-8 record. The Bandits won the early season meeting between the two, but lost to Edmonton as well during the Opening Weekend.
Finally, the St. Albert Angels finished 11-4 for the No. 4 seed. They will play either the No. 5 seed Prince Albert Aces, or the No. 12 seed Lloydminster Liners 05. Prince Albert was just a game behind St. Albert in the Sonnenberg Division with a 10-5 record, while Lloydminster was 2-13. The Aces won their single meeting with the Liners, while they also defeated the Angels 9-1 during the Opening Weekend.
Prince Albert also entered as the defending champions, while Sherwood Park have been the runners-up for the past two seasons.
U16A Division
Three team won’t know their first game of the U16A Division Playoffs until after Friday night, as the top Seeded Prince Albert Aces, the No. 2 seed Calgary Kaizen and No. 3 seed Red Deer Rage, each earned byes.
Prince Alberta, who finished 13-2 in the Cumpstone Division, will play the winner of the No. 8 seed Sherwood Park Storm 02 and the No. 9 seed St. Albert Angels. Both teams finished 4-11 in the Cumpstone Division, while Sherwood Park won the only meeting between them in the first game of the season, 11-3. Prince Alberta earned victories over both.
The No. 2 seed Calgary Kaizen will take on either the No. 7 seed Olds Pistols, who finished 7-9, or the No. 10 seed Elnora Eagles, who finished 3-12. Elnora took the only matchup of the season 19-2 during the Opening Weekend games, while Calgary lost to Olds 8-0 during Pink Sox Weekend, and just got by the Eagles with a 10-9 victory during the Opening Weekend.
The No. 3 Red Deer Rage will wait for the winner of the No. 6 Lloydminster Liners versus No. 11 Battleford Bandits game. The Liners finished 9-6, including a victory over the Bandits, while the Bandits finished 2-12. Red Deer edged the Liners in their only meeting, 5-4, while also defeating the Bandits earlier in the season.
The only second round game that is known at this point is the No. 4 Calgary Chaos taking on the No. 5 Sherwood Park Storm 03. Both teams finished 11-4, in a three-way tie for first in the Lawrick, however, Red Deer won the top spot with victories over both of them. Against each other, the Chaos and Storm split their season series, with the Storm taking the first game 8-7, while the Chaos took the second game 10-5.
A new champion will be crowned in U16A, as Edmonton Rivercity were last year’s champions, defeating the Prince Albert Aces, who were the 2015 champions as well.
