The Corvallis Knights clinched the WCL South first half last night with its 3-2 win at Gresham and Yakima Valley’s 11-5 home loss to Kelowna to earn a spot in the league’s postseason.

The North is still up for grabs with four teams contending; Kelowna, Walla Walla, Wenatchee and Bellingham. The Falcons sit in first place with a 16-9 record with the Sweets a game back at 14-9, the AppleSox a game and a half back at 14-10 and the Bells two games back at 13-10.

This is the second season the WCL has featured a split schedule with a first-half and second-half winner. Corvallis also won the first-half South last year. By doing so this season, the Knights will appear in the WCL playoffs for an eleventh consecutive year.

The race in the North should be a good one, and could go down to the final day of the first half. Below are the league’s playoff procedures for 2017, which include tie-breaker details.

FIRST HALF:

All positional rankings are based on winning percentage

In the event of a first-half tie:
1. Head-to-head record*
2. Winning percentage within the division
3. Head-to-head average run differential
4. Total run differential average based on half
5. Coin flip

* Head-to-head within a half does not apply unless at least 3 games have been played between the teams during the half (with the games in the same half for each team), except that head-to-head does apply if at least 2 games have been played and the same team won both games.

SECOND HALF:

All positional rankings are based on winning percentage.

In the event of a second-half tie:
1. Head-to-head record in second half*
2. Head-to-head for full season
3. Division record for second half
4. Head-to-head average run differential for the second half
5. Division record for full year
6. Won/loss full season
7. Total run differential average based on the full year

* Head-to-head within a half does not apply unless at least 3 games have been played between the teams during the half (with the games in the same half for each team), except that head-to-head does apply if at least 2 games have been played and the same team won both games.

First-half winners have seven days (from July 6, 2017) to decide if they would like to host game 1 or games 2 & 3 of the Divisional Series.

If one team wins both the first and second half of the season, then the team with the next best winning percentage for the entire season will earn its division’s other playoff berth. If there is a tie for the next best winning percentage then the second-half tie-breakers come into play.

Home field advantage for the West Coast League Championship Series will be determined by the best winning percentage. If there is a tie, the second-half tie-breakers will apply.

All playoff series are best 2 out of 3.

Divisional Series

Game 1: Tuesday, August 8th
Game 2: Wednesday, August 9th
Game 3: Thursday, August 10th

Championship Series

Game 1: Saturday, August 12th
Game 2: Monday, August 14th
Game 3: Tuesday, August 15th

ABOUT THE WEST COAST LEAGUE

The West Coast League is the premier summer collegiate baseball league west of the Mississippi. The 13-year-old, 11-team, professionally operated wood-bat league located in the beautiful Pacific Northwest features pro prospects from major conferences across the nation and an unparalleled history out west of great fan and player experiences in addition to the best summer weather in North America. 82 players with WCL experience were selected in the MLB 2017 June draft. In 2016, more than 230 WCL alums appeared in affiliated professional baseball including 28 in the major leagues, such as 2015 home-run leader Chris Davis (Baltimore), 2015 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up Matt Duffy (Tampa Bay) and rising star pitchers Matt Andriese (Tampa Bay), Matt Boyd (Detroit) and James Paxton (Seattle); and outfielder Mitch Haniger (Arizona, now Seattle). Overall member attendance was 379,611 in 2016.