2019/2020 Indoor Season Wrap Up

The spring & summer Wiffle®Ball season is – at long last – getting underway in various parts of the country. Although the usual start of the outdoor competitive Wiffle®Ball calendar was delayed by a couple of months – and continues to be delayed in some areas – 2020 has already seen its fair share of wiffs.

Before the pandemic altered much of our everyday lives, there was a rather robust calendar of indoor Wiffle®Ball events that kept many players occupied through the cold months of December, January, February, and into early March. As stylistically varied as competitive Wiffle®Ball is in general, indoor Wiffle®Ball is perhaps even more diverse. That was certainly evident this past winter. One didn’t have to look very long or hard to find all sorts of interesting leagues and tournaments throughout the U.S.

In Alexandria, Virginia, the 4th season of the Cross Fit Old Town Winter League showed once again how quality Wiffle®Ball can unfold in the most unexpected of places, including in a box-shaped Cross Fit gym. The Wiffle®Ball was designed in part to be played in tight spaces, which the fast pitch CFOT Winter league takes advantage of through specific ground rules that account for the fact that the walls and ceiling often factor into the play. Before its season came to a sudden coronavirus forced halt – unfortunately, just as the league championship series was about to commence – the league arguably had its most competitive year to date. While Jerry Hill and Chris Owen – both member of Mid Atlantic Wiffle®’s Barrel Bruisers – continued to be among the top players in that league, both of their teams exited before the championship game. Instead Upper Deck and Closing Time, led by talented pitchers Mike Brumm and Jake Stover, respectively, reached the league championship series. 

Further out west, the Minnesota Wiffleball League (“MNWA”) moved its season to March and indoors for the first time, in part to provide some separation between its season and that of one of the larger leagues in the country, HRL, given the significant crossover in the player base. The league got in two weeks of games – four games for each of the four teams – at Hopkins Pavilion before stay-at-home orders brought a premature end to their season as well.

While those two leagues were forced to close their doors in March before reaching a conclusion, a handful of significant tournaments from earlier in the Winter went off without issue.

The first major indoor Wiffle®Ball tournament of the 2019/2020 winter season was MLW’s Battle of Boston just before Christmas in Weymouth, Massachusetts. The tournament capped off a very successful run of 2019 tournaments for MLW and provided a unique mix of veteran northeast and New England fast pitch players with MLW’s young and devoted base. New Hampsire’s Meadowboyz ran roughshod over the 11-14 age division, winning all five of their tournament games – including two wins against tournament runners up the CT Hurricanes – en route a championship. In the 15+ division, it was the veteran northeast squad of Jordan Robles, Kyle VonSchleusigen, Jimmy Cole, and Vin Lea that took home the tournament title by defeating another northeast squad – the Diamondbacks of Devin Torres, Kenny Stengal, and Garrett Torres – 4-2 in the finals. 

MLW followed up their inaugural indoor tournament with their first winter indoor league season. The indoor league largely served as a showcase for players and teams not involved in MLW’s spring/summer league. Participation in the league came with a significant perk – by virtue of their participation, all winter league players became eligible for the first ever MLW draft. A team from the Livonia City Wiffleball League won the league title, defeating the Trenton Trains in the finals. Showing that MLW team captains were paying attention to the winter action, two of Livonia City’s players - Nick Saylor and Jimmy Knorp – were selected first and second, respectively, in the inaugural MLW draft.

February also saw the return of Mid Atlantic Wiffle’s Winter Classic event for a third straight year. The 16-team fast pitch event in Hershey, Pennsylvania drew participation from eleven different states. After a long day of competition, the tournament championship came down to a battle between 2018 and 2019 Winter Classic runners up, the Fingerballs, and POC, comprised of veteran northeast players Tim Beck, Dan Whitener, Johnny Costa, Pete Slater, and Phil Fresiello. The game appeared destined to go deep into extra innings with Whitener and the Fingerballs’ Devin Torres sailing along on the mound. That changed in a hurry, when Costa – leading off the 7th inning for POC – deposited a clean ball slider over the left field fence for a walk-off home run. The championship was the first MAW tournament title for every member of POC and furthered their case as a favorite to win the 2020 Mid Atlantic championship.

One week later and some 230 miles northeast of Hershey, the 2nd GAUL Invitational tournament took place at the Carmel Sports Club in Carmel, New York. The tournament had a unique draft style twist to it, where the eight players who paid and registered for the privilege to be a team captain also received a custom BABZ Big Flyz Bat. In all, forty players competed in this medium pitch event which came down to the Screwballs, captained by Jerry Ceccio, and Mamba Mentality, captained by Michael Quezada. Mamba Mentality exploded for 11 runs and pitcher Mike Touhy held down the Screwballs’ offense on their way to a 11-1 victory.

TOP TEAMS

There was little team crossover this year in indoor leagues and tournaments this winter, with many players sticking to one indoor event and others switching up teams tournament by tournament. One team that did stick together over a pair of events – and achieved excellent results in both tournaments – was the OG Goon Squad out of Lincoln University, Pennsylvania. The trio rattled off an impressive pair of wins in the elimination round of MLW’s Battle of Boston tournament on their way to a final four appearance. TJ Kish, Andrius Fink, and Steven Simcox walked a tightrope beating the MLW All-Stars 8-7 and the Cannons (Tom Gannon, Rob Sutton, Nick Hamelin, Brian DiNapoli) 6-5, before losing to the Diamondbacks in the semi-finals by a score of 4-2. Two months later, the Goon Squad took down the Shortballs and Mastodons at the Winter Classic to make the elimination round with a 2-1 record. Although they lost to the NY Meats in their first elimination round game, the Goon Squad turned some heads in Hershey – as they did in Boston – and have all the makings of a quality fast pitch squad.

A special mention needs to be given to the CT Hurricanes, who also competed in both Boston and Hershey. The young guys from Connecticut finished second in the youth division up in Boston. Not deterred by the fact that they were going to be the youngest players – by a healthy margin – at the MAW Winter Classic, two of the Hurricane players hooked up Jerry Hill and Chris Owen of MAW’s Barrel Bruisers to compete in Pennsylvania. Although the aptly named Category 4 failed to win a game at the Winter Classic, the Hurricane players gained some invaluable experience against top level players. Look out for these kids in the years to come!

TOP PLAYERS

Many players excelled indoors during the 2019/2020 winter season – far too many to capture in a single article – but several really stand out above the rest. 

Nobody won more indoor championships than Tom Gannon, who was part of the winning teams in two indoor winter leagues – NEAWL and the Recess winter league, while also reaching the quarters at MAW’s Winter Classic as a member of the Mothmen. Kyle VonSchleusigen, Vin Lea, and Jimmy Cole won a championship at MLW’s Battle of Boston and all three – split among two different teams – reached the semi-finals at the MAW Winter Classic. Chris Owen was once again the best pitcher in the CFOT Winter League and performed very well against two excellent offenses – the NY Meats and Champs Here – at the MAW Winter Classic. Kenny Stengel was part of the second-place finishers at both the Battle of Boston and Winter Classic.

However, it was Devin Torres who had arguably the most successful winter thanks to leading his teams to second place finishes at both the MLW Battle of Boston tournament and the MAW Winter Classic.

Like his friend and teammate, Kenny Stengel, Devin picked up a pair of runner-up finishes this winter. Devin led the Diamondbacks to a second-place finish in Boston and later pitched the FingerballS to within one run of a title in Hersey. Coming off a 2019 spring/summer season in which he helped the Diamondbacks reach the finals in Palisades WBL and was a huge contributor in ERL’s successful quest to win their first Mid Atlantic championship, Devin’s accomplishments indoors further solidified his status as one of the sport’s best players.