Magic Number: 1

The Orange County Flyers have worked their "Magic Number" down to one. Because Tucson and Yuma (and Tijuana) are mathematically eliminated from winning the second half of the GBL South Division, the only two teams that can win the second half are Maui and Orange County. Tucson and Yuma would need Maui to win the second half, creating a playoff berth for the team with the second-best overall record in the division if either Arionza-based team wants to make the playoffs.

The Flyers are one win away from securing at least the second-best record in the GBL South Division for the 2010 season. Because it's a two-team race in the GBL South Division for the 2nd Half, and one of those teams already won the first half, then OC only needs to secure the second-best overall record to lock up a playoff berth.

Why are Yuma & Tucson eliminated from the 2nd Half Division title:
- Yuma is currently 15 games back of first place Maui with only 9 games left to play. They are out of time to catch up.

- As for Tucson, the Toros are 7 games out of first with 9 to play, and both teams ahead of them - OC and Maui - have 11 and 12 games left, respectively. Because OC/Maui play each other 7 times the rest of the season, one of them will pick up enough wins to pull far enough away from Tucson so that the Toros cannot win the second half.

Orange County is currently 45-30 overall, 9.5 games ahead of Tucson (38-42) with 11 OC games remaining, 9 Tucson games remainig. If the Flyers win only one game the rest of the season, they would finish 46-40, a winning percentage of .535. Even if Tucson won all remaining 9 games, they could only finish 47-42, a winning percentage of .528, which would mean the Flyers make the playoffs on a higher winning percentage.

Here's a look at the overall GBL South Division Standings as of this morning (August 25):

GBL South Division	Wins	Loses	Winning %	Games Back
Na Koa Ikaika Maui	47	23	.671	-
Orange County Flyers	45	30	.600	4.5
Tucson Toros	38	42	.475	14
Yuma Scorpions	37	43	.463	15
Tijuana Cimarrones	9	64	.123	39.5

With no games for South Division teams today, Wednesday, the Flyers have a chance to clinch a playoff berth on their own terms, beating the Tijuana Cimarrones at home at Goodwin Field on Thursday, setting up a face off against the Strong Warriors of Maui for GBL South Supremacy!

Playoff Picture

With four more Flyers wins, Orange County will clinch at least the second-best overall record in the GBL South Division for the 2010 season over both Yuma and Tucson. Yuma is mathematically eliminated from the second half.

If the first-half champion Maui Strong Warriors win the second half as well, the team with the second-best overall record will face them in the playoffs.

Tucson is currently 11.5 games behind Orange County in the overall standings and would be eliminated from having the second-best overall record with two more Flyers win or Toros losses (Tucson would finish at best 48-42, .533 winning percentage, while the Flyers would finish 46-40, a .535 winning percentage). Tucson (15-17 second half) has 12 games remaining on its schedule – and one potential rain-delay against Tijuana it could make up from Saturday – and is mathematically eliminated from the second half South Division title because even if the Toros win out to finish 28-17 [.622] in the second half, they could not overtake both Maui and Orange County because the two teams play each other 10 times.

Of those 10 games, if OC wins at least 5 of them, the Flyers will finish at least 27-14 [.659] in the second half and have a better winning percentage because of fewer games played due to the cancelled 4-game series in St. George, and Maui can eliminate Tucson from the second half with six more wins this season which would secure for them at least a 25-14 [.641] second half record, resulting in a stronger winning percentage than Tucson.