Two weeks left and the chases are heated up to a boiling point. And one pennant race just got closer.

Batting Title:

Barring a serious melt down, 35 yr old Aurora SS Jose Rivera has his first Sovereign League batting title all but wrapped up with 2 weeks left. He’s hitting .326 and has 9 point lead over teammate OF Matthew Ferrell who is hitting .317. And to make it a possible clean sweep for Aurora, their other teammate OF River Pope is in the 3rd spot, hitting at a .314 clip.

RBI Crown:

Not to be out done, Aurora’s other – other- other teammate SS Nick Giles is closing in on the RBI Crown with 106. Who says pitching wins championships? In the second spot is Yuma’s C Danny Burke and Shin Seiki’s Katsunan Hiraoka with 97 RBI’s each.

Home Run King:

Now this is where things get interesting. Crystal Lake’s OF Rikiya Hamada and Shin Seiki’s C Koryusai Kakuta are tied at the top of the Home Run chase with 31 a piece. Right on their tail is Reno’s 3B Ramon Leach with 30. There are several others with in reach as well, so these last 2 weeks are gonna be fun.

Pitching Wins Title:

Crystal Lake’s Manuel Corona is earning his paycheck as he took one step closer to becoming a 20 game winner for the second time in his career. Corona has 19 wins with a possible 3 starts. That is unless Sandgnats manager Shinichi Seki decides to rest him on the final day of the regular season. There’s a log jam for the second spot with 17 wins. Bakersfield’s Markus Hancock, Aurora’s Michel Provost and Shin Seiki’s  Yakamochi Suitani all chasing Corona.

ERA Crown:

Bakersfield’s Markus Hancock has the narrowest of leads over Shin Seiki’s Yakamochi Suitani and Crystal Lakes Alfredo Valezquez for the ERA Crown. Hancock has a 2.50 ERA while Suitani is  at 2.53 and Valezquez is at 2.56. It won’t take much for either of these 3 to win the crown.

Strikeout King:

Aurora’s Arturo Jiminez the strikeout masters with 201. A slim margin over Suitani, who has 197 and Corona who is at 194. Expect all three to be turning up the heat in their final few starts.

Fireman’s Award:

First off, my apologizes for leaving this off the list in my last column. I obviously wasn’t thinking and will serve a penalty of having to buy a round of hot dogs and beer at the next ball game. And that being said, this chase is a good one. As good as the Home Run Chase for sure. There are 3 closers tied atop of the saves chart. Aurora’s 34 year old Bryant Burris, Crystal Lake’s Ramon Contreras and Bakersfield’s Jim Ratzlaff all have 38 saves each. There, the Firemen got some love. Now maybe the players union will back off of the recent hate mail they’ve been sending me.

Pennant Race:

Bakersfield closed up on Aurora and only trail them by 3 games now. Aurora plays Fargo at home for 3, then travel to Reno for a 4 game series, they then travel south to Yuma for a 3 game set before they head back home for what could be the regular season series of the year against Bakersfield for 3 games. Bakersfield is at home for 3 games with Canton, then travel to Palm Springs for a 4 game series and then head north to face the Reno Zephers for 3 games before traveling to Aurora. So Bakersfield will finish the season with 10 games on the road. Not an easy task for the Bears when trying to chase down the tough Borealis.