Down to the final game

Only a handful of games will matter tonight on the season's final day, but boy howdy, will three teams be scoreboard-watching just to be sure they've made the playoffs.

Sardine City (103-58) and Hopatcong (99-62) have wrapped up first-round byes as the top two seeds, respectively, and Marietta (99-62) has secured the top wild card spot as the No. 5 seed. Vancouver (89-72) long ago clinched a postseason berth by winning the Hernandez Division. Now it's just a matter of determining who will face those teams in the playoffs.

Entering the season's final day, Hillsborough (89-72) holds a 1-game lead for the second wild card as the 6th and final seed. If the Hit Men win tonight, they secure the No. 6 seed outright.

Over in the Clemente Division, Arkansas (88-73) and Tucson (88-73) have gone back and forth for weeks and remain tied heading into the final regular season game. A simple scenario of one team losing and the other winning would crown a division champion with an 89-73 record.

If both should win or both should lose, it's likely they would play a one-game playoff to determine the division champion. Tucson would host such a game thanks to a better division record (26-16 v. 23-18); the two teams played to an even 7-7 head-to-head.

All three potential playoff teams will be at home tonight. Probable starters, based on previous scheduled rotations, appear to be:

• El Paso, Seth Lugo @ Hillsborough, Carlos Martinez (Hillsborough is 6-3 versus El Paso this season) 
• Hopatcong, Gio Gonzalez @ Tucson, Felix Hernandez (2-7 v. Hopatcong)
• San Francisco, Dan Straily @ Arkansas, Marcus Stroman (5-4 v. San Francisco)

With a split of their Sunday doubleheader games, Philly (87-74) was eliminated from postseason contention. On the other end of the spectrum, Allentown (57-104) has secured the top spot in the draft lottery with 50.2 percent of the lottery balls, followed by Hoboken (63-98), 25.1 percent, and Blue Ridge (65-96), 12.5 percent.

There's some jostling still possible for draft order among Empire City (69-92), Poovey Farms (69-92) and Livingston (70-91) for 4-5-6 in the lottery.