[MAW] 2020 Wiffle Bash Tournament Preview

On Saturday July 25th, Mid Atlantic Wiffle and the Ridley Park Wiffleball League host Wiffle Bash at Catania Brothers Park in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania.

The 2020 Mid Atlantic regular season will pass the halfway mark this weekend, just four short weeks after it began. The marathon run of the last three springs & summers has been replaced by a veritable sprint of a schedule in this COVID-altered year. A lot has happened in the last four weeks and a lot stands to be resolved over the next five. Will Wiffle Bash provide some sort of clarity to this mad dash of a season or will we all leave Ridley Park with just as many questions as we had going in?

Three in a Row

As the point standings at the bottom of this article plainly reflect, the Longballs have been the best team in Mid Atlantic through two 2020 tournaments. The Ridley Park guys won their first MAW tournament title on Opening Day and followed that up by reaching the finals of Wiffle Wars two weeks later. They accomplished those feats in very different ways. In some respects, reaching the championship game at Wiffle Wars without their two best pitchers (Cam Farro, Tommy Loftus) was as impressive as their tournament win in June. A hallmark of a good team is winning even when the chips are down and the Longballs proved earlier this month that they can do just that.

The team’s next challenge awaits them in their home base of Ridley Park. You have to go all the way back to 2017 and the Yaks run of three straight tournament finals in July, August, and September to find the last time a MAW team made three straight regular season finals within one season. To accomplish that – and to do it in the three largest MAW regular season tournaments to date – would be an incredibly impressive achievement.

Time to make a move

Several teams currently on the outside-looking-in for the 10-team Mid Atlantic Championship Tournament have an opportunity to move into the Championship Tournament picture with strong outings on Saturday. This group of potential movers includes the Dirtballs, OG Goon Squad, and New School Risers. With C4 (10th) and the Waves (11th) inactive this weekend, those three teams could make significant headway in Ridley towards securing a postseason spot.

The Dirtballs and Goon Squad have played at a virtually identical pace through the first two tournaments. Both teams hold 1-4 records with their one win coming in walk-off fashion. At 8 points apiece, these two will automatically move ahead of C4 and the Waves by just completing their three pool play games. A relatively strong tournament – a 2-1 record and elimination round appearance – would put those teams solidly in the top ten with one tournament left to go.

Likewise, the New School Risers could gain big ground in Ridley. The Risers currently sit at five points – six behind C4 for the final spot – with one tournament played. They missed the elimination round at Wiffle Wars but if the Risers reach it on Saturday, they will also put themselves in the post-season mix. They do not have the easiest pool play schedule, but a quality game out of each of Dave Capobianco and Chris Owen in pool play to get to single elimination – a pretty feasible outcome even up against some quality competition – would be a big step in the right direction.

The Cheeseballs make it 4 for Ridley Park

For the first time ever on Saturday, FOUR Ridley Park Wiffleball League teams will compete in a MAW tournament! The debuting Cheeseballs roster includes a few players with prior MAW experience and a few without. The latter group is headlined by Greg Myers, the reigning RPWL National League Cy Young award winner. Myers has the reputation of being a pitcher’s pitcher. He has a strong grasp of the finer points of pitching – the ability to hit his spots and change speeds, along with the knowledge of when & where to throw a certain pitch – that make him particularly tough to deal with. A season after recording 116 strikeouts with just four runs allowed in 66 ½ [2-out] innings of work, Greg has struck out 77 batters and allowed four runs through his first 44 ½ innings pitched in 2020 in RPWL.

If you think that Myers’ impressive results in league play might not translate to a multi-game tournament situation, you may want to rethink that. Back on June 20th, Greg tossed 18 scoreless innings over the course of two extra-inning games for the RPWL Pirates without allowing a single hit. Myers has the stuff, stamina, and know-how needed to win big tournament games and will be one of several new-to-MAW players to watch on Saturday.

Player and Team Debuts

A half-a-dozen teams – including the aforementioned Cheeseballs – will make their first MAW appearance at Wiffle Bash on Saturday.

Among the teams debuting in Mid Atlantic on this weekend is High Cheese, a veteran Massachusetts squad comprised of Dan Haverty, Brian DiNapoli, and Jimmy Flynn. DiNapoli was one of the more accomplished players anywhere over the prior decade with two fast pitch national titles (as a member of Doom) and countless other accolades to his name. He closed out the decade by blitzing through the competition in GSWL Pro late last summer. Brian was stingy in giving up hits – just eight allowed in a fraction under 32 innings pitched – and even stingier in the runs allowed department as he did not allow a single batter to cross the plate. He was just as good at the dish and should be coming in relatively fresh, which spells danger for the opposition. Flynn is a crafty pitcher who is not afraid to walk the tightrope if need be. Haverty is a power pitcher with upper level stuff. With three quality pitchers and fresh arms, High Cheese is as well situated as any other team in the field for a deep tournament run.

After a two-year absence Danny Lanigan will return to MAW competition, this time captaining the Usual Suspects. Lanigan will be joined by longtime Suspects teammate and fellow 2010 fast pitch national champion, Scott Alford, and Kyle Kaminskas. In his only MAW appearance prior to this weekend way back in June 2017, Lanigan single-handily pitched his team – the Golden Sanders – into the tournament finals at MAW’s second tournament ever.

Jose Marte turned heads with his easy velocity and advanced command as a member of the Dragons on July 11th. Now Jose is returning to MAW with a team of his own – the Outsiders. The Outsiders competed in GSWL Yard the last couple of weeks, picking up some upsets along the way and displaying a swagger befitting of seasoned pros. Marte and company are hoping to turn their recent Yard experience into instant fast pitch success in Ridley.

The final two teams making their Mid Atlantic debuts on Saturday are Philadelphia area locals, the Ducks and Four Aces. Little is currently known about either team, except that at least some players have prior charity wiffleball tournament experience. There is certainly an experience curve involved, but as seen at several prior MAW tournaments previously unknown teams can cause a stir.

Searching for Clarity

A handful of MAW regulars enter Saturday’s tournament hoping to gain some knowledge on exactly where their 2020 Mid Atlantic season is heading.

The York Yaks held their own in their home park in both June and early July, earning solidly above the minimum number of points at both tournaments. They currently occupy the 9th spot in the point standings, but a poor finish in Ridley Park coupled with a strong showing or two from the Dirtballs, Goon Squad, or New School Risers could put the Yaks’ postseason hopes in jeopardy. The Yaks will have Noah Silverman back on Saturday and if they can find that often elusive big hit, a top eight or even top four finish – which would do wonders for their post-season aspirations – is within reach.

For the Stompers, it has been a tale of two tournaments this far in 2020. Opening Day was utterly forgettable for the young squad. They went winless in three games despite throwing their go-to-pitcher, Gino Joseph, all three times out. Much to their credit, the Stompers bounced back in a major way earlier this month when they rattled off three wins in a row to reach the semi-finals. The Stompers have as much variability to their post-Wiffle Bash positioning as perhaps any team in the field. Another trip to the elimination round and they will be sitting very pretty for one of the ten post-season spots. Another day like they had in June and they will find themselves with their backs against the wall come August.

The Shortballs and Meats find themselves in identical spots after two tournaments, although they enter the third tournament of the year with different questions left to answer.

With Teddy Drecher on the carpet, the Shortballs 4-1 this year; the only blemish coming in the quarterfinals versus on Opening Day. Teddy, of course, has been a big reason for that. His confidence and velocity on the rubber this year rivals any of his peers, but the Shortballs have also seemed to find the big hits when he has been on the mound. Meanwhile, Zane Johnston received zero runs of support in his ten innings pitched at Wiffle Wars but also appeared to run out of gas in key spots against both the Longballs and Stompers. Zane’s stuff looked as good as ever, but with Frankie Campanile out as an MAW pitching option for an unspecified amount of time, the Shortballs are hoping Zane can be the shutdown pitcher that Frankie was for most of 2019.

The Meats, meanwhile, travel down to Philly with more pitching depth – their roster on Saturday goes three-deep with Cole, Lea, and VonSchleusigen – but still some uncertainty left to unravel. Kyle had difficult outings in the quarterfinals of both previous tournaments. While his stuff looks good – and Kyle himself says he feels great – the results have not quite been there. It is unlikely the Meats will deviate from their plan of using him in bigger situations this tournament – especially since they will be without Ryan Bush – and it will be worth watching to see whether Kyle can muster up that thus-elusive big game win in 2020 when called upon.

One final team that will use Wiffle Bash as a means of figuring out who they are this year are the Dragons. As the two cornerstones of the club, Nick Lea and Mike Bucci have displayed a tremendous amount of resolve in grinding to two consecutive top eight finishes. The Dragons have gotten things done at every turn and somewhat unassumingly have slithered into the 5th spot in the point standings. The Dragons will have Rob Longiaru back on Saturday. Another elimination round appearance and they will have firmly cemented themselves – if they haven’t already – as a team to be reckon with in August and September.

Chasing the Longballs

Thanks to their back-to-back championship game appearances, the Longballs have a comfortable lead in the race for the 2020 MAW regular season championship. If they are going to be caught, it will take a combination of a stumble on their part and a surge by one (or more) of the three teams directly behind them. Unfortunately for the Longballs, POC, the Juggernauts, and ERL are all more than capable of making such a run. If they are going to do it, however, those teams will need a big tournament on Saturday.

POC was undermanned on July 11th with only one legitimate pitching option (Dan Whitener) to work with. Pete Slater and Tim Beck filled in admirably and POC grinded out a top 8 finish, but that’s a disappointing result for a team that won and finished runner up in the prior two MAW events. If POC has both Whitener and Johnny Costa on Saturday, they are going to be tough to deal with. This team is a force to be reckon with under normal circumstances. The fact that they are trying to erase a frustrating and forgettable tournament from two weeks prior makes them all the more dangerous, provided they have a full complement of pitching.

The Juggernauts spent much of 2020 – four tournaments to be exact – trying to get over the hump and into a championship game. They eventually did, finishing runner up on July 6th to ERL and then winning their first MAW tournament title in August. With the shortened season, the Juggernauts cannot afford to wait four tournaments to reach the title game if they hope to repeat as regular season champions. Their bats were alive two weeks ago and for the second straight tournament Red and Ryan McElrath made for a formidable pitching duo. If they get more of that on Saturday, the odds are pretty good that something will break their way to clear the path to a championship game appearance.

And lastly, there is ERL. After recording the final out versus the Longballs in the Wiffle Wars title game, Jordan Robles turned to teammate Kenny Rodgers Jr., smiled, and yelled out “Back on top!”. The 2019 Mid Atlantic Champions have become accustomed to winning. Their “early” (quarterfinal) exit on Opening Day left a bad taste in their mouths which they quickly undid via a purposeful and impressive march through the elimination round at Wiffle Wars. ERL plays with loads of confidence and the quick two-week turnaround between Wiffle Wars and Wiffle Bash should benefit them more than anyone for that reason. Momentum is on their side and as we saw last year when this team gets rolling, they can be very tough to stop.