The River City Rascals clinched the Western Division regular season championship on Sunday night despite an 8-7 loss at Florence. Southern Illinois was eliminated from the race for the top spot with a 3-0 loss at Normal.
"This isn't the way we wanted to clinch," said River City manager Steve Brook. "But in this business, you have to focus on the long term."
River City (63-26) will finish with the best regular-season record in the 12-team Frontier League and have the home-field advantage in both post-season series.
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"I'm very proud of my guys and my staff," said Brook.
The Rascals will host Southern Illinois in the Western Division championship series. The best-of-five set begins Sept 7-8 with Games 1 and 2 at T.R. Hughes Ballpark. The games will begin at 7 p.m. and tickets are on sale at the Rascals box office.
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Games 3 and 4 in the series are scheduled for Sept. 10-11 in Marion. A fifth and deciding game, if necessary, will be played Sept. 12 in O'Fallon.
If the Rascals win the West title, they will host the first two games of the championship series against the East Division winner Sept. 14 and 15. A fifth game, if necessary, will be played Sept. 20 in O'Fallon. River City, the defending league champ, is looking to become the first team to repeat since Windy City won back-to-back titles in 2007 and 2008.
"We will continue to work and push to finish what we've started," added Brook.
The Rascals, who have six games remaining, will play host to Southern Illinois Tuesday through Thursday. They finish the regular campaign with three games at Gateway over the weekend.