The Tucson Golden Aces split their doubleheader at the Men's Senior Baseball (MSBL) World Series today in Phoenix, setting up a must win game on Thursday against the Red Deer Snowbirds out of Alberta, Canada.
The Aces knocked off Team America, 7-4, in the early game behind another complete-game performance from pitcher Brad Buchan, who recorded his second win of the series, In the second game, the Aces lost 5-3 to San Antonio, Texas. The split left the Aces with a 3-2 record, which may be good enough to make the six-team playoffs at the MSBL World Series on Friday, but a win over Canada tomorrow will assure another day for the Aces. A loss will set up a tiebreaker to decide the remaining contenders. The tiebreaker rule goes by the won-lost record first and then goes to the total runs allowed by each team. If the Aces win tomorrow and move to 4-2, they can avoid the numbers game.
Currently, two teams -- Red Deer and St. Paul -- are 5-0 and have already qualified for the playoffs. The San Antonio team and the El Paso Diablos are 4-1, while the Chicago Grays are tied with the Aces. The five games in three days has taken a toll on the Aces' players. Five players are either nursing knee problems or have hamstring pulls. The Aces are thin on pitching with just three starting pitchers -- Al Delgado, George Gafner and Buchan -- involved in the rotation. Tomorrow, the Aces will be forced to go with shortstop Arnold Mares who has yet to pitch in the series. The Aces hope to get as many innings out of Mares as possible. If the Aces make the playoffs, they will need to win two games on Friday to make the championship game to be held at Tempe Diablo Stadium on Saturday.
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