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League Changes for 2009 Season!!
The first Lake & Pine League meeting was held tonight and Aaron Funk was named the new South Division President. A variety of other changes also took place. First off, each team will play the other teams in their own division twice, and will only play the teams from the other half of the league once.
The Bagley Thundercats also joined the league, and Lakes Area will now be playing out of Nisswa. The leagues were also realigned based on the geographical location of the home field of each team. Although it will be strange for the Gnats to no longer battle against Red Eye and Huntersville for a South Division title, the changes should make for interesting chases for division titles in 2009. This is how the Lake and Pine divisions will look for the 2009 Season.
NORTH- Bagley, Huntersville, Wolf Lake, Midway, Red Eye
SOUTH- Sebeka, Nimrod, Verndale, Staples, Nisswa
A few other details were specified for the playoff system as well. At the end of the regular season, only the top four teams in each division will advance to the league playoffs. The regular season champion will have an automatic bid into the Region tournament. The league playoff will still occur in order to determine whether teams advance to Regions as the League Champion, Runner-Up, or Wild Card. Diamond was approved by the State as the official baseball again. Over the past 5 years the official baseball of the state has been Diamond, Pro Nine, Rawlings, and now is back to Diamond. Other technicalities were approved such as tiebreakers for the regular season standings, who supplies umpires, and a few other things.
Although fans won’t be seeing the same matchups and division titles chases as normal, there is no doubt that these new matchups will provide some new rivalries and a lot of entertainment for the summer of 2009. The first league games will be the last Sunday in April, so be sure to mark your calendars and get ready for the best show of the summer, Lake and Pine Baseball. Keep logging onto www.leaguelineup.com/gnats for more news about the 2009 Amateur Baseball Season as well as other local sports information and highlights.
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