There will be on two less teams, but one more game on the schedule for the teams playing in the North Saskatchewan River Baseball League 2012 season.
Monday, the league held their annual general meeting headed by co-commissioners Troy Sack and Kelvin Colliar and representatives from 12 teams. Two teams from last season, the Unity Midgets and Lloydminster Midgets, took one-year leaves of absence.
With 12 teams remaining, the teams were split into three divisions based on geographical regions. The North Battleford Beavers will be in a division with the Wilkie Brewers, Unity Cardinals and Kindersley Raiders. The second division will include the three-time defending league champion Lloydminster Meridian Twins, Border City Blue Jays, Mervin Flyers and St. Walburg Reds. The other division will be made up of the Meadow Lake White Sox, Standard Hill Lakers, Lloydminster Junior Redhawks and the Midwest Expos.
Each team will play a home-and-home series with the teams in their division and they will play every other team once making a 14-game schedule, which will start the week of May 14.
The top eight teams will make the playoffs once again, with no special placing being given to the winners of the division. The team with the best record will face the eighth place team, second versus seventh, third against sixth and fourth and fifth.
It is a guaranteed that one team, which didn't make the playoffs last season will make it this year, as the Lloydminster Midget Twins clinched the eighth spot last season.
The league executive also stressed the importance of keeping this league as professional as possible. Fines will be in place if a team misses deadlines to report scores, cancel games on short notice or do not participate in the year-end award process.
Also the league may experiment with games being broadcast on CJNB this season, meaning more exposure for a league that often has representatives in five or six provincial brackets come August.
