The National Press Club softball team finds itself in the best position in its 18-year history to advance deep into the MMSL playoffs. A 9-4 record earned Big Blue the fourth seed and a first-round bye, meaning that the team needs to win just two out of three to advance to Sunday.

Last year, the league sent 12 of its 22 teams to the playoffs, with the press club seeded 11th. This year, all of the 16 teams will go, though the bottom eight teams must survive a single-elimination play-in game to get into the 12-team, double-elimination bracket.

The key will be NPC's first game. The press club will be playing a lower-seeded team, most likely the Gazette, which it beat twice this season enroute to the Layhill Division championship. Then again, last year, the lower-ranked press club knocked the Gazette, the top seed, out of the playoffs. Should NPC win, it would face top-ranked WRC, which defeated Big Blue, 7-5, earlier this season in a game where the press club had the tying runs on base in the final inning. An NPC victory puts the team into the winners' bracket finals. A loss means the club needs to win one more game to return on Sunday and then needs two victories to reach the championship round.

A loss in its first game, however, means the press club would have to win three straight games to reach Sunday, albeit all of them might be against lower-seeded teams. That's not assured though; there have been plenty of first-round upsets, meaning a WRC or USA Today or AOL could find themselves in the losers' bracket early and require the press club to get past them in order to reach Sunday. 

To win the championship, NPC will have to defeat the top teams in the league. Besides WRC, NPC lost to AOL on a fluke play at third base, when a batted ball hit the runner standing on the base and the press club couldn't get the third out when the ball ricocheted away. AOL then scored six two-out runs. The press club did beat USA Today, 11-7, opening up an 11-2 lead and withstanding a seventh-inning rally. The loss, by the way, cost USA Today the top seed in the tourney.

NPC has two of the league's strongest women players in second basewoman-outfielder Sarahanne Driggs and outfielder Staci Maiers. Second basewoman Dana Brown is out for the playoffs, but newcomer Adele Cehrs will be able to give both Driggs and Maiers a breather if needed. Also missing on Saturday is center fielder-shortstop Clay Kaufman, though he will return on Sunday if the press club is still playing.

At pitcher, Ryan Donmoyer threw two shutouts this season and has been nearly flawless. Domen will back him up on the mound, but again, if NPC wins game 1, Donmoyer should be able to pitch the three games. Mike DeSenne pitched, and won, earlier in the season but will miss the playoffs.

Mike Diegel has been a spectacular leadoff hitter all season and will split time between right field and designated hitter, along with Bill Holland. Diegel had been sharing first base all season with Jonathan Salant, but will move to the outfield to make room for Kyle McKinnon. Domen and Morin will share center in Kaufman's absence. The team's rookie of the year, Jim Seminara, will share third base with veteran Frank Fuhrig. Jon Allen will play shortstop and Mike Young left field.

Amy Fickling, who with Salant are the last original members of the inaugural 1992 team; Melissa Robinson, one of three remaining members of the 1993 division champs along with Salant and Kaufman; and newcomer Jennifer Dickson will share the catching duties. Cehrs may be pressed into service as catcher as well in order to give everyone some playing time.

Salant, the team's founder and original coach, gave up the reins after the 1996 season but returned in 2007 after Jeff St. Onge, who coached the 2006 division winners, transferred to London. He is stepping down as coach for the second time after the season. He and St. Onge are the only two NPC coaches to win divisional titles. (Salant also coached the 2004 Associated Press team to the Layhill championship, remaining the only coach in the league to lead two different teams to division titles.)

League and club rules restrict participation to NPC members and their spouses or significant others; while the league does allow teams to ``grandfather'' players who are no longer employed by a news organization, or in the case of the press club no longer members, the policy of the Board of Governors is to restrict the team to current members and their partners.

The press club has won only two playoff games in its history, one against UPI in the mid-1990s and last year against the Gazette. Both were higher-seeded teams. The club went two-and-out in the two previous years, 1993 and 2006, that it won a division championship. The team has never won more than one playoff game in a tournament and has never reached Sunday.

This weekend could change all that.