We are coming down the stretch of the 2021 PEBA season and here are the races and chases. With the new merger this season there are some new faces challenging for some titles. It should be an interesting last 3 weeks of the season.

Batting Title:

Aurora’s  SS Jose Rivera leads the way with a .327 batting average. This would be the 35 year old, 2 time golden glove winner and 3 time all-star’s first batting title of his career. He has a .005 point lead over teammate OF River Pope who is hitting .322. The 26 year old Pope made his first all-star game this season. And just behind him is Bakersfield’s OF Gilbert Murray and Shin Seiki’s SS Gordon Stenger  who are hitting .319 each.

RBI Crown:

Aurora’s 29 year old SS Nick Giles leads the pack with 101 RBI’s on the season. He has a fairly comfortable lead over Shin Seiki’s 1B Katsunan Hiraoka who has 95 and Tempe’s 3B/1B Javier Padilla with 94.

Home Run King:

We have one hell of a chase going on for the 2021 Home Run King. Tied at the top of the leader board is Crystal Lakes old timer, 38 year old OF Rikiya Hamada and Shin Seiki’s C Koryusai Kakuta with 30 each. And just within striking distance of the leaders are Reno’s 3B Ramon Leach and Palm Springs OF Alexander O’Neil with 27 each. This should be fun to watch as we head down the final stretch of the 2021 season.

Pitching Wins Title:

Crystal Lake’s Manual Corona leads this pack with 18 wins. With possibly 4 more starts on his schedule he has a good chance to hit that magic 20 game mark. The 31 year old right hander is a past 20 game winner back in 2014 with the Goucester Fisherman. There is a log jam behind him that will chase him til the final day. Bakersfield’s ole vet 35 year old Markus Hancock, Aurora’s Michel Provost and Shin Seiki’s 25 year old Yakamochi Suitani trail with 17 wins each. This is another chase that is going down to the final day. And there is a good chance there is gonna be a tie at the end. Let hope not, cause ties in baseball are usually frowned upon.

ERA Crown:

Bakersfield’s Markus Hancock leads the way here with an ERA of 2.38. Trailing Hancock is Shin Seiki’s Yakamochi Suitani with a 2.52 ERA and Crystal Lakes Alfredo Velazquez with a 2.56 ERA.

Strikeout King:

Aurora’s Arturo Jimenez leads with 198 strikeouts. Followed by Crystal Lake’s Manuel Corona with 192 and Shin Seiki’s Yakamochi Suitani with 189

The Pennant Race:

Crystal Lake has a good handle on the Great Lakes division with a comfortable 10.5 game lead over Kalamazoo. There’s still a fairly close battle going on in the Desert Hills division with Aurora on top and a 4 game lead over Bakersfield. The two teams will play a potentially huge 3 game series to end the season. It will be fun to watch how this one plays out. And Expansion team Shin Seiki has the Rising Sun division clinched with a 31.5 game lead over Neo-Tokyo. Did I mention they are an expansion team? That’s right I did and they just so happen to have the best record in PEBA at 96-47  .671 pct.