How we fare in Wisconsin depends on which team shows up. If it's the same team that was wearing the Glory jerseys in New England, we will go 0-2. If it's the team that won 5 of the previous 6 games before New England, we'll have a shot at repeating.

Although the NPF story suggests that Sarah Pauly will be the ace for us this weekend, a strong case could be made that Taryne Mowatt has pitched even better in recent weeks. But that really won't matter if we continue to hit as poorly as we have lately, scoring just 4 runs in the last 4 games.

For most of the season, we've been near the bottom of the league in batting average. But we finished second in the league in runs, so at one point we were finding ways to score without hits. Even playing at Westfield, we failed to lead the league in HRs, so we can't count on the long ball this weekend. I think the most telling offensive stat is strikeouts looking. We didn't just lead the NPF in this category - no other team was anywhere close to us. We watched strike three go by 106 times, or about 9% of our at-bats. The 2nd and 3rd worst teams, neither of which is in the playoffs, did so about 6% of at-bats. I'm pretty sure we can't get hits if we don't swing the bat, right?

The pitching also dropped off this year, but was still excellent. We again were number 1 in ERA, but our 2.26 is 0.73 runs/game more than last year. Combine that with our lower offensive numbers, and third place is the result.

My prediction for this weekend is one I hope is wrong. I think the Bandits win it all, with the Force taking second.