Midnight has struck on the Ottawa Titans’ Cinderella season.
The Titans were eliminated from post-season contention after a three-game skid pushed them out of the final Wild Card spot in the Frontier League’s Atlantic Division.
The final blow came on Saturday night when Ottawa dropped a 5-4 decision to the Tri-City ValleyCats at home.
The Titans had entered the final week of the season ahead in the Wild Card race but lost their lead after dropping two out of three games to the New York Boulders, who were able to leapfrog them in the race to the post-season.
The Boulders then won the next two games of their series against Sussex County, while the Titans lost two straight to the ValleyCats.
The disappointing finish comes after the Titans orchestrated a remarkable mid-season turnaround that pushed them from the cellar to the thick of the playoff hunt.
Sitting at 11-24 in June, the Titans turned things around with several consecutive series wins, returning to .500 by late July.
From there, the Titans clawed back into the playoff race and were hot on the heels of the Boulders for all of August. And in the second last week of the season, Ottawa was finally able to vault into a playoff position.
But a final week meltdown spelled the end of the Titans’ season, with Ottawa dropping five out of seven games.
This year marks the Titans’ fourth season in the Frontier League, an independent league that is not part of Minor League Baseball, and thus features no farm teams for major league franchises.
However, it does serve as a partner league for Major League Baseball, meaning big-league teams can purchase player contracts for their affiliated farm systems. Titans players Jo Oyama and Brett Garcia had their contracts purchased this season by the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays, respectively.
