Mark Austria
Mark Austria
CAN’T TOUCH THIS (CEDAR PARK, UWIFFS)
TEXASIt does not take much to get the hype train rolling in competitive, fast pitch Wiffle®Ball. Often all that is needed is a video or two of a pitcher throwing high velocity, big breaking stuff in their yard or in a game for that player to be declared the next big thing. Delivering on that hype is far more difficult. For 15-year old Mark Austria, all it took was a short, one-pitch video posted by Tim Dean to the Cedar Park Wiffle®Ball Facebook page in 2020 and being called a “prodigy” in the caption for Austria to enter the top-prospect chatter. It was justifiable to be skeptical – many prodigies never reach their perceived potential – but in 2021, Mark looked very bit the part of the real deal.
Austria did all that he possibly could to cut through that skepticism with a breakout Tournament MVP performance at the July 2021 Texas State Championship. After an inauspicious 2-1 start to the tournament, Mark put the team on his back. In three consecutive games, Mark beat Louisiana’s Anarchy, the 35 Whiskey Ducks, and The Runs to deliver his team their first tournament title. As impressive as that victory was – and beating Ryker Holloway, Chase Oliver, and Drew Dobbins all in a row is impressive – not everyone was sold. At least a couple supercilious wifflers felt that the 2020 National Champions, the Usual Suspects, struck gold when it was announced that they would be opening the 2021 national tournament against Can’t Touch This. That opinion proved foolhardy when the Suspects just barely escaped past Can’t Touch This to in 4-3 in extra innings. Had Mark started that game rather than entering in relief, there is a very good chance that the Suspects would have gone down in their first game. Mark and company bounced back from that tough loss to pick up a walk-off victory on the KWL Keggers before falling in a low-scoring contest with the York Yaks. In the end, however, Austria proved he was more than deserving of the hype bestowed on him and was named the Breakout Player of the tournament.
