High Rollers (0-2) vs NWO (2-0) – Cantiague D

NWO looks to get back on the field for the first time since Week 1 against a High Rollers team that is also only two games into their season. Jury is still out on the new look NWO The Pimentel brothers look solid, but is the rest of the roster good enough to compete with the top teams? HRs need support around Ryan. Mingles walked him multiple times last week, and no one really made them pay. Ryan is the best player in this league, but he can’t take them too far alone. This series will come down to who can use their home runs most efficiently on the smaller Cantiague field. If Ayaz can get the guys out in front of Ryan and turn him into a singles hitter or let him hit solo shots, NWO can escape with their undefeated record intact.

Prediction: Split

Hit Squad (5-1) vs Sunday Sensations (0-2) – Cantiague A

Hit Squad is slowly cementing itself as one of the top teams in D3 this season. They are off to a great start and are taking on a Sunday Sensation’s team that is hoping to grab its first W of the season. Recipe for HS remains the same, get timely production throughout their lineup from their veterans, and they are doing just that. SS needs to have their best players show up each week. If the team is going to depend solely on Wil to carry the load on offense this week, it’ll be tough to keep up with HS’ steady onslaught.

Prediction: HS Sweep

Dad Bods (3-1) vs Only Fams (0-6) – Wantagh B

OF continues to be a work in progress; their additions of Omar and Adrian are enough to keep them in some games, but for them to be taken seriously, they are still a couple of bats and a pitcher away. Their schedule to start the season hasn’t been all that kind either, as they play the Fall champs this week in Dad Bods. PK and crew have been coasting to start the season and have been pretty much untested. Maybe this week we’ll see them with their full team for the first time? Oak, Milan, Umar, PK, and Luis is as much of a murderer’s row as you can have in D3 to this point, so let’s hope for OF’s sake, a couple of those guys decide to stay home.

Prediction: DB Sweep

Games of the Week

Mingles (5-1) vs CurryUp! (0-2) – Seamen’s Neck 3

Big series this week, and the D3 chat is going off. Mingles are coming into this game with a chip on their shoulder after losing OF Dimitri. Captain Adeel and Wahid must have seen this coming, though, as they debuted a new NSA in PJ during last week’s sweep of High Rollers. CurryUp! Looks to pull the upset this week despite being shorthanded. The team was forced to replace star player Endy after much discussion. They’ll also be missing Captain Rishi this week, so it should be an uphill battle for the first-year franchise. Do they have what it takes to get back at Mingles, or will they indeed get smoked? It's tough to say without knowing what other cards Rishi has up his sleeve. His late-night addition of veteran pitcher Ray Lorenzo solves his problem on the mound for sure, but will his other new NSAs (Anthony, Ivan) surprise the league even further? Early word is that both are also former baseball standouts, so it should be interesting to see how they match up against Anthony D, Dylan, and Nick J.

The keys to this game will be navigating the large outfield of Seamen’s Neck and pitching. Which team’s OF can play mistake-free softball? Both have played games here this season and understand what it takes to avoid giving up cheap homeruns but without Dimitri manning CF for Mingles and Rishi’s team still a work in progress, there may be an opportunity here. Pitching will also be big in this game. Wahid knows how to win games from the pitching circle. He did it last week against High Rollers by pitching around Ryan and will probably do the same to Reggie this week. The question here is, can Rishi get Ray approved fast enough to pitch? That would be huge for CurryUp! Who dropped two games, mostly because they couldn’t throw a strike when it mattered last week.

With all that said, it should be a competitive Sunday of softball!

Prediction: Mingles Sweep