The Butler Grizzlies closed out the regular season with a four game sweep of the Garden City Broncbusters and will now head to the postseason. The Grizzlies earned the eighth seed in the Region VI tournament and will start their playoff journey with a three game series against the Coffeyville Red Ravens. Butler will host the series, starting with a game on Wednesday evening at McDonald Stadium before a Thursday afternoon meeting. If the series is tied after two games the deciding game will be played on Friday at 1:00pm with a trip to Manhattan on the line.
The Grizzlies and the Ravens are sure to be familiar with each other, having played twice already this season, with a third game being postponed. The two teams split the regular season series, with Butler taking the first game at the JUCO Spring Festival in Oklahoma, 8-6, and the Red Ravens evened things up with a walk off win in Coffeyville in April, as a seventh inning RBI single propelled them to a 9-8 victory. Both games were hotly contested and the best of three playoff series is sure to be a thriller with both team's seasons on the line.
Butler and Coffeyville have played 33 times since 2004 and Butler leads the series 20-13. The Grizzlies are 8-1 at home against Coffeyville since 2012, as the Red Ravens have not won at Butler since February 12, 2017, (1,914 days ago) where they clakmed a 2-1 victory. These teams have met twice in the postseason since 2004, once in 2005 and 2010, both meetings in the first round with the Grizzlies taking both of those series winning 2-1.
The winner of the series this week will play either the top seeded Cowley Tigers or the sixteenth ranked Seward Saints at Tointon Family Stadium in Manhattan in the first round of the double elimination Central Division Baseball Tournament next week. The winner of the tournament will punch their ticket to Grand Junction, Colorado for the NJCAA World Series.
