The 2021 PEBA regular season has come to a close. Titles have been claimed and playoff teams head to the post season to try and capture the ultimate title. First off let’s head to the stage for the Sovereign League hardware winners.

Batting Title:

Aurora’s Jose Rivera dominated the rest of the field for his first Sovereign League Batting Title. Jose hit .324 on the season and was never really challenged in the final month of the season. The 35 yr old earned every bit of his 19.8m salary. His teammates River Pope and Matthew Farrell rounded out the top 3, hitting .316 and .315 respectively.

RBI Crown:

Aurora’s Nick Giles ran with this crown just as his teammate did with the batting title. Giles finished with 115 RBI’s including 18 in the final month of the season. It’s not only the first RBI Crown Giles has won, but the first time he has had over 100 RBI’s in his career. This will be a nice piece of hardware to go on his mantle. Trailing the RBI Crown winner was Yuma’s Danny Burke with 106 RBI’s. Kalamazoo’s Russell Guy and Tempe’s Javier Padilla finished in the 3rd spot with 103 a piece.

Home Run King:

Shin Sieki’s Koryusa1 Kakuta separated himself from the rest of the field to be crowned the Sovereign League Home Run King. Kakuta finished with 33 bombs on the season. This was the 30 yr old’s first season in PEBA while spending most of his career in the recently disbanded League Of The Rising Sun. Crystal Lakes’ Rikiya Hamada, Reno’s Ramon Leach and Palm Spring Alexander O’Niel trailed the King with 31 homers each.

Pitching Wins Title:

Crystal Lakes’ Manuel Corona claims the title with 21 wins. The second time in his career that he is a 20 game winner. This 31 yr old’s last 20 game season came in 2014. Corona was Sovereign Leagues only 20 game winner in 2021. Trailing him was Bakersfield’s Markus Hancock, Aurora’s Michel Provost and Shin Seiki’s Yakamochi Suitani each with 18 wins.

ERA Crown:

Now this was a close an exciting race right down to the finish. Crystal Lakes’ Alfredo Valazquez finished with a 2.45 ERA to claim the crown. Valazquez was 12-3 on the year starting all 27 games he was in. He sealed his crown by closing out the regular season by surrendering only 1 earned run in his last 12 2/3 innings. Bakersfield’s Markus Hancock was a bridesmaid again, trailing Valazquez by only .05 with a 2.50 ERA. Shin Seiki’s Yakamochi Suitani finished up in the 3rd spot with a 2.52 ERA.

Strikeout King:

Shin Seiki’s Yakamochi Suitani was crowned the Strikeout King with 215. Suitani had 10 or more strikeouts 5 times including a 10 strikeout performance in his last regular season start. He had 248 strikeouts in 2020 pitching in the LRS and at age 25 we expect that there will be more 200 plus strikeout season’s in Suitani’s future. Trailing the King was Crystal Lakes Manuel Corona with 208 k’s and Aurora’s Michel Provost with 204.

Fireman Award:

We have a tie (and I hate ties) for the most saves in the Sovereign League. Both Crystal Lakes’ Ramon Contreras and Bakersfield’s Jim Ratzlaff lead the pack with 43 saves each. Since I hate ties so much there must be a tie breaker right? So this publication’s  Fireman award goes to Jim Ratzlaff. Contreras had 8 blown saves while Ratzlaff had blown only 3 on the season. Aurora’s Bryant Burris and Shin Seiki’s Akio Sai trailed with 39 a piece.

Pennant Races:

Crystal Lakes took their 3rd consecutive Great Lakes title. The Sandgnats have dominated that division by claiming 11 out of 15 Great Lakes titles. Of the 4 seasons they did not win their division, they finish 2nd twice and 3rd twice. That is complete domination of a division if I may say so myself.

In the Desert Hills, Aurora hung on by the skin of their teeth to claim their 10th division title. Like Crystal Lake, the Borealis have dominated the Desert Hills division winning 10 of the 15 season. In the years they did not win the division the finished 2nd once, 3rd three times and 4th once. The Borealis won this years title by 1 game over Bakersfield who was closing fast at the end but just ran out of time. Bakersfield will take one Wild Card spot in the playoffs while the Yuma Bulldozers will occupy the final Wild Card spot edging out Kalamazoo and Palm Springs.

The Shin Seiki Evas dominated the Rising Sun division. They won the division by 30 games to become the Rising Suns first division champ. With a record of 107-55 they finished the year tied with Imperial leagues Florida Featherheads for the best record in PEBA.

Congrats and Good Luck to all the playoffs teams as we head into the 2021 post season.