[United Wiffle®Ball] Six Player Performances You May Have Missed

With 40 teams and close to 200 players competing at the 2020 United Wiffle®Ball National Championship, getting a good look at every team and every player was essentially an impossible task. The tournament was littered with memorable performances, many from players whose teams failed to make it out of Saturday. Others got their teams deep into the tournament but did so in such an unassuming fashion that you may not have even noticed. It is a testament to the quality and depth of the tournament that there were so many players - far more than the half-dozen listed in this article - who competed at a very high level but have potentially gone unnoticed by many of the participants and spectators.

From players making triumphant returns to fast pitch Wiffle®Ball after long layoffs to teenagers making their mark in their first national tournament, here are six player performances from the 2020 NCT that you may have missed!

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Jose Marte
OG Goon Squad

A national “rookie of the year” candidate if there were such a thing, Jose Marte’s entry into competitive Wiffle®Ball provided one of the year’s best origin stories. Marte participated in a Wiffle®Ball tournament for softball players this past June in the Bronx. Members of the Bronx Royals – including Vin Lea – were in attendance and showed Jose the finer points of Wiffle®Ball pitching. A couple of weeks later – when major tournaments started back up in the northeast – Jose jumped right in. At the second MAW tournament of 2020, Marte teamed up with Vin’s brother Nick on the NY Dragons and picked up a complete game win in his debut. Marte entered his own team (The Outsiders) in Long Island Yard tournaments and the July MAW tournament in Ridley Park. With easy (almost deceptively easy) velocity, Marte made an immediate impression on his fellow players and only seemed to improve with each outing.

Marte was MIA down the stretch in MAW and GSWL Yard but hooked up with the OG Goon Squad for the National Championship Tournament. After the Goon Squad dropped a tough one to the Degenerate Gamblers in their opener with TJ Kish on the rubber, they turned to Jose to guide them back. Marte picked up consecutive wins over the Crusaders and Shortballs to get his team to the Saturday night Knockout Round. Once there, Marte battled the Waves’ Austin Berger for seven innings in the longest game of the tournament. He neutralized a hungry Waves’ lineup for 6+ innings, ultimately losing with the bases automatically loaded on a pop fly that landed just out of the reach of Steven Simcox.

Ryan Patnode
Wiffaholics

 The Wiffaholics quietly creeped into Championship Bracket at the 2020 National Championship, thanks in large part to veteran Ryan Patnode. Noder worked the lion’s share of innings for the Wiffaholics on Saturday and beat SlaughterHouse, Savvy, and the Degenerate Gamblers along the way. Mainly relying on a two-pitch combination of a riser and drop pitch, he carved up opposing hitters with all the poise of a veteran who has done this before. Patnode worked both sides of the plate and his pitch selection was impeccable for most of the tournament.

Noder also got it done at the plate, picking up key hits throughout Saturday for the Wiffaholics.

Derek Radek
K-9’s

The face of the Chicago/Midwest scene in the Golden Stick era of national championships, Derek Radek faded from the wiffs world after the 2013 season. Having seemingly moved away from the sport, Derek was drawn back in by the announcement of United Wiffle®Ball and hooked on with the K-9’s for the tournament. Seven years away from high level, fast pitch competition is an eternity but Radek came back in impressive fashion.

The K-9’s went with Elliot Knower in their first game against the Shortballs and early on in their second against Hazardous. The former ended in a walk-off loss and the Radek relieved Knower part-way through the latter. The K-9’s eventually beat Hazardous to ensure they would move on and Radek navigated his team through the Rocky bracket with wins versus the Crusaders and Yaks. Derek nearly got his team passed the eventual champions, the Usual Suspects, in the Knockout Round, but came up just short in a 3-2 loss. In all, Radek threw 15+ quality innings for the K-9’s and was undoubtedly the “comeback player” of the tournament.

John Polanco
Degenerate Gamblers

17-year old John Polanco did not see much time on the carpet this past summer in the Mid Atlantic but more than made up for that lack of work Saturday at the United Wiffle®Ball National Championship Tournament. The New Jersey right-hander was handed the ball in his team’s first game of the day (a 1-0 victory of the Goon Squad). John dropped a game against the NY Meats and then was given a rest in the team’s third game of the day versus the K-9’s. Roughly twelve hours after throwing his first pitch on Saturday, Polanco once again took the ball for his team. He threw well in that game and the pressure of a trip to Sunday being on the line did not seem to rattle him. Runs were hard to come up all day for the Gamblers and the veteran Wiffaholics squad took advantage of the few mistakes the teenage hurler made.

Polanco once again demonstrated the stuff that has a lot of people pegging him as a breakout star in the not-to-distant future. As one of the youngest players in the tournament, he has a bright future ahead of him.

Jordan Bohnet
Las Vegas Wifflers

The Las Vegas Wifflers made an addition to their roster for the first time in years by adding high school senior Jordan Bohnet. The son of club staple Adam Bohnet, Jordan brought much appreciated pitching depth to the veteran west coast squad. A big and athletic pitcher with an easily repeatable delivery, Jordan pitched well in his major tournament debut. Jordan threw parts of all three Contenders Bracket games for his team. In those games, he picked up wins versus Chaos and the NY Dragons and suffered a tough 1-0 loss at the hands of the WSEM Dream Team.

Jordan was one of the youngest competitors in the tournament along with the Gamblers’ John Polanco and Chaos’ Dougie Baker. It is clear he has tremendous upside, with his velocity and command already above average. If he sticks with Wiffle®Ball and refines his pitch selection a little, the west coast could have a new rising star on its hands.

Nicco Lollio
WSEM Dream Team

Unlike the other players on the list, Nicco Lollio did not throw most of the innings for his team. In fact, Nicco pitched only one game for the WSEM Dream Team - a Final 16 match up with the eventual champions, the Usual Suspects - during the two-day tournament. His limited action is precisely why he may have flown under the radar. There was only one opportunity to see him throw, but it was a good one and one worthy of further mention.

With a hard, uncut slider as his go-to offering, Lollio kept the Usual Suspects off balance by working inside and above the zone. He drew his fair share of weak contact and swings & misses as he navigated his way through a tough, veteran lineup. His only blemish that outing came on a Johnny Costa double (Usual Suspects’ captain Danny Lanigan made sure to bat Costa high in the order given he was the only member of the team with significant clean ball experience) that followed a well-earned Scott Alford walk. It was an impressive outing that very easily could have gone the other way and altered the course of the rest of the tournament.