Wind Surge clinch second division title. Here’s when playoff baseball comes to Wichita
For the second straight season, the Wichita Wind Surge will be competing in the postseason for the first championship trophy in the organization’s brief history.
Wichita officially clinched the second-half Texas League North division title on Sunday afternoon, as the Wind Surge won 1-0 over Northwest Arkansas in their regular-season finale at Riverfront Stadium and their closest competitors, Springfield and Arkansas, both lost.
The Wind Surge will play the first game of a best-of-3 division series against the Tulsa Drillers at Riverfront Stadium on Tuesday, Sept. 20 with Tulsa hosting Game 2 on Thursday, Sept. 22 and Game 3, if necessary, on Friday, Sept. 23. Playoff game tickets for the Wind Surge are expected to be available soon on the team’s official website.
Wichita (39-24) holds a 6-game lead on Springfield (33-30) in the second-half divisional standings and even if Wichita loses all six games on the road to Midland and Springfield wins all six games at Tulsa this week, leaving the two teams with the same record, the Wind Surge hold the tiebreaker with a 10-8 edge in head-to-head games against Springfield this season.
Wichita could clinch the second-half title outright with a single victory or a single Springfield loss in the final week of the regular season. The Wind Surge (74-57) also hold the best season-long record in either division of the Texas League.
Tulsa is the only team in the Texas League North that Wichita has a losing record against, as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ farm club owns a 14-10 advantage this season. Since a hot start to the season, Tulsa (27-36) has cooled off in the second half with the second-worst record in the Texas League since the season split.
The Wind Surge won a Texas League division championship last season in its first season as the Minnesota Twins’ Double-A affiliate in Wichita and advanced straight to the postseason championship series, but ultimately lost a decisive Game 5 to Northwest Arkansas.
It’s still unclear who will emerge as the second-half champion of the South division, as Frisco has a 2-game lead on Midland entering the final week of play. The winner will advance to face first-half champion San Antonio on the opposite side of the playoff bracket.
The Texas League championship series, which will be best-of-3 this season, is slated for Sept. 27-30.
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