Saturday night lights is a timeless SASL tradition where the last playoff seed and the team just on the cusp of making it battle it out for that final playoff spot. In a ruthless winner-take-all sudden death matchup, the two teams play a single 7 inning game to determine the final playoff seed. With such high stakes, teams give it their absolute all with complete disregard for the matchups they may have the following morning, with no ounce of energy spared to get to that next round and die another day. We’ve seen these matchups go to 30+ runs each as with Ducks vs Empire, we’ve seen them come down to the absolute final pitch/out such as with Troopers vs TSFE, and we’ve also seen the default outcome of the higher seed advancing due to rainout. Lame. In what is usually a thriller that turns out many spectators and players from the other teams, some with the purpose of scouting their next round opponent, we expect this year to be just as exciting.

This year we have two teams that found themselves on the short end of the stick before the season even began, where vital pieces of each team were taken to form a third team to even out the league, Legion, which managed to squeak out of the SNL matchup only in the final week of the season. Talk about a competitive season.

Lets break this year’s matchup down by position.

Little Giants (4) vs Semipro (5)

The single regular season matchup between these two teams resulted in a sweep by Little Giants, with the first game going 7-6, and the second game going 13-2. The caveat here is that Semipro were without some of their star players Amby Cruceta, Dennis Moskowitz, and Waqas Ali, while Little Giants played with most of their main players. We would have expected a more substantial victory in both games by Little Giants given the Semipro attendance, but Semipro showed their characteristic grit and kept the first game quite close before the wheels fell off the wagon. We will expect that in this do or die matchup this Saturday evening at Eisenhower Field #1 at 6:30PM, both teams will bring their top players.

Let’s break this matchup down by position:

Catcher: Binu Nair vs Adrian Polanco
Binu AKA The Indian Charlie Murphy is a veteran that has seen many positions in the field over the years, including this year. He provides good infield utility, and a good eye in the batters box that’s not afraid to go 0-0 in 10 at bats in a series. While he has struggled this season hitting around the .350 mark, playoff softball is where the veterans can come alive and even your highest performing players can disappear if they don’t have at least a little bit of ice flowing through their veins to withstand the high pressure situations. He also brings a sense of calm to a dugout that can have a few loud voices at times. His counterpart Adrian Polanco has struggled this season as well by his own standards, hitting in the .450s, with only one home run on the season – very uncharacteristic. Adrian also provides good utility within the infield, but with a roster that has many strong options at the infield positions, Adrian finds himself catching. Defensively, we can count on them to both make a close play at home, although we might give an edge to Binu here, particularly to continue being alert with a live ball even after a close play at home. We all know when Adrian gets a hold of a pitch, it can clear some of the further outfield fences in the league’s field rotation. All it takes is one pitch – and so:

This matchup goes to Adrian for the higher offensive floor as well as higher upside.

Pitcher: Adeel Ahmed vs Tariq Siddiqui
Adeel has taken on the pitching position and has done quite the respectable job over the season. If he had more than 7 players behind him more often, he would no doubt have additional wins under his belt and a lower ERA. Tariq on the other hand, is a veteran pitcher with more experience and ability to hit the spot that he wants to behind the plate with a pitch. He also literally pitches with the other hand, which may throw some players off a bit from the right handed pitching they are used to in the league. He has also been pitching well for Semipro as of late. He is no slouch with the bat either, hitting a respectable .448 on the season.  Adeel’s bat has more capability, with higher power numbers than Tariq.

We have to give this matchup to Adeel. His advantage on offense, we think, may be a bigger factor than Tariq’s edge with pitching/defense.

1b: Prince Panicker vs Amby Cruceta
Offensively, there is no question as to who you would rather have in the batter’s box. Amby is having one of the best seasons of his career, quite possibly a top 5 offensive performance in the whole league. It’s a shame we’ll be losing such a talent at the end of the season. On the other hand, father time has shown its effect on Prince’s bat. Where he was once a high average bat hitting in the 600’s to all fields, he has struggled this season in comparison, with inconsistent attendance undoubtedly playing a factor. Unlike his last name would suggest, he carries a calm demeanor in the dugout, the intangibles and IQ, as well as knowledge of other’s propensities and weaknesses that can help with accumulating outs through the innings. Defensively, Amby can be found at most positions in the field, from the infield to outfield, and can play them all at a very respectable level. Just imagine if he had never injured his leg, that you could have added additional speed to his existing talent. It would surely bump his OPS a few hundred points. Prince is the better pure first baseman in this matchup by a margin.

We give this matchup to Amby as his offensive edge makes him a decisive favorite.

2b: Omar Hernandez vs Ankit Ramchandani
Omar has struggled tremendously this season compared to the Omar we have become used to in the field. He has been playing the outfield, the infield, and pitching at a high level for many years now, but this is truly a down season for him offensively. When his legs aren’t injured in one of many ways, shapes, or forms, he is a 5 tool player. Similarly, Ankit is known to be far more capable than just the 12 singles that he has mustered on the year. He can play multiple positions within the field, and has speed on the bags as well as a strong and accurate throwing arm. With significant down seasons for both of them this year, Omar still carries the higher floor and the higher ceiling. 

We give this matchup to Omar.

SS: Nick Karalekas vs Naeem Bhalli
There’s no question who wins this matchup. Nick carries the edge offensively as well as defensively, with the ability to make spectacular plays on both ends. Naeem has seen days where he was among the top tier talents both offensively and defensively, but has seen his statistical performance decline relative to the Naeem of old. When standing toe to toe with arguably the best two way player in the league right now, its hard to compete. For Semipro, they will need to count on Naeem making all of the routine plays and hopefully turn back the clock to make some of the defensive web gems that he was known for. The other team will need Nick to continue being their biggest Little Giant at the plate as well as on defense, and help motivate others to stay hungry and play hard.

Nick wins this matchup.

3b: Chris Mui vs Waqas Ali
Chris Mui was once one of the top 5-10 players in the league, and occasionally he will still hit a ball so far and so hard that you remember the Chris he once was, but his offensive numbers have certainly declined since those days. The starting shortstop position that he used to command is now a starting third base glove that remains solid. Waqas shares a similar history, once one of the more dominant players in the league at the SS position, with a power bat and good speed on the bags, a solid glove with range and a good throwing arm. Also similarly, however, his numbers this year tell a bit of a different story. Given that it is do or die playoff style softball, we’re going to count on both players to be able to turn back the clock and potentially dominate and be an X factor for their respective teams.

This matchup is too close to call, we will call it a tie.

OUTFIELD
Nick Kozlowski, Peter Santos, Kyle Vizza, Obaid Farooque (Little Giants)
Frank Teta, Mike Liang, Mauris Rodriguez, Asad Haque (Semipro)

Semipro carries the best overall two-way player among the eight listed above, but we could argue that the next four highest ranked go to the Little Giants, in no particular order. The remaining Semipro outfielders are not slouches by any means. They carry sure handed gloves and strong IQ knowing the propensities of other players and where they like to hit, and are able to shift accordingly. The most glaring disparity is the power bats that Little Giants have in the outfield, and their ability to hit all over the field. In comparison, Semipro’s bats will need to be sharp to keep up offensively. What could be interesting is how the dimensions of Eisenhower field 1 play into the game. Mauris and Asad have far more experience commanding the right side of this field’s outfield, relative to Pete and Obaid. Will the teams switch up where their stars usually play? The biggest winner in this matchup will certainly be the fans that come to spectate the chess match and slugfest.
Overall, given the superior offensive firepower and capability as a whole, we are inclined to give this matchup to Little Giants, but given Mike’s ability to historically play almost two outfield positions at a time, if Tariq pitches a masterpiece that keeps Little Giants flying out to Mike Liang – we could see the tide turn very quickly, particularly in a sudden death seven inning game where there is very little time to establish a rhythm or brush off any rust. We have also seen Frank aka SASL’s Izzy Zapata play a high level in the outfield with good range and a steady glove. If the lefty Tariq pitches to induce fly balls to the left side, we could again see a very different outcome despite a clear winner in just this head to head matchup on paper.
While we would not be surprised given the grit and hunger of these veterans in the Semipro outfield to pull off an upset, if we bet by the numbers and pure talent, this is a win for the Little Giants.

Assuming attendance will not be a factor for both teams, we see this matchup not being a very clear win for either team. While everything on paper suggests Little Giants should take this one, Semipro has the historical grit and pesky nature to chip away, stay in the game, and come back to win when the game is on the line with last licks.

The overall amalgam of talent disparity forces us to go with Little Giants taking this one by a surprisingly small margin – 13 to 9.