[MAW] Top Opening Day Tournament Performances

A big-time performance on Opening Day means just a little bit more than an excellent performance on any other day of the year. With nothing else to go on for the year, a great showing on Opening Day automatically makes a player one of the best in the entire organization on the season. Also, while tournaments in the middle of the year can blend together ­– how many can name the usual placement of MAW’s other signature tournaments (Wiffle Wars, Wiffle Bash, and Backyard Brawl)? – Opening Day resonates and stands out in our memories. A big Opening Day always feel a little bit bigger.

This year, the 100+ players competing at the MAW Opening Day tournament will be looking to add their name to the list of big performances from the prior four MAW Opening Day tournaments. MAW has seen its fair share of impressive April showings since the inaugural MAW tournament back in 2017. We take a look back at eight such performances – two from each of the prior four Opening Days – below. Who will join this select group by kicking off their 2021 season in style?

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Ryan Doeppel – Barrel Bruisers (2017)

9 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 2 BB, 26 SO

Ryan Doeppel was not a pure competitive Wiffle®Ball rookie prior to competing at MAW’s first-ever tournament in April of 2017. The former collegiate baseball player – who had stints at East Los Angeles Community College, Oklahoma State, Iowa Wesleyan, and University of South Carolina Beaufort during his college career – competed in an indoor gym winter league along with the rest of his Bruisers’ teammates a few months earlier. However, he had never faced experienced hitters prior to arriving at Shi Wiffle®Ball Park. That made his dominance over the veteran Yaks’ and Stompers’ lineups all that more impressive. Doeppel did not allow a run in his first 8 innings of work and recorded all but one out via strikeout. Ryan’s only blemish came in the 5th inning of the tournament championship, when Nick Schaefer cleared the tall left-field wall on Sheff for a tournament clinching solo home run. Doeppel’s competitive wiffs career was short-lived – he made just two more appearances in MAW in 2017 before fading from the scene – but his overpowering pitching debut still stands out five years later.

Nick Schaefer – Stompers (2017)

10 IP, 0 R, 5 H, 9 BB, 28 SO | 8-14, 2 BB, 5 HR

The best player on the field at MAW’s inaugural tournament was far and away Nick Schaefer. The veteran right-hander entered the tournament with the thought that it would be his last, after experiencing shoulder discomfort prior to event. While that injury did eventually lead to his retirement about 18 months later, it was clear after his dominant performance on both sides of the ball on Opening Day that Schaefer still had something left in the tank. Nick shut out the Yaks and Barrel Bruisers, hit at least one home run in each of his team’s games, and was the only player to solve Ryan Doeppel all tournament long. While the numbers – particularly the 14 base runners – do not look that impressive, it was a typical outing for Schaefer who made a career of out of hitting his spots (even if that meant a fair number of free passes) and pitching to contact when a strikeout was not critical.

Dan Potter – York Yaks (2018)

10-16, 4 HR, 9 R, 5 BB

The Yaks did not make it out of pool play in the 8-team 2018 Opening Day Tournament, but Dan Potter more than did his part. Potter was nearly unstoppable at the dish that day against some pretty good pitching competition. He did his damage against three veteran pitchers in Ben Stant, Colin Dimitris, and Jimmy Cole. Potter homered in all three of his team’s games, including two home runs against Cole on pitches he had little business even swinging at. Unfortunately, Potter’s unconscious Opening Day was not a harbinger of a monster season to come. He struggled for most of the rest of the season in MAW but did bounce back to have an excellent offensive tournament at the Fast Plastic national championship tournament that October.

 Matt Herbek – Naturals (2018)

14 2/3 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 10 BB, 42 SO

The Naturals - a foursome from Virginia - surprised the rest of the field by making a run to the championship game at the 2018 Opening Day Tournament. It was a surprise because the squad – comprised of the three Herbek brothers and friend Jason Lombardozzi – had only one prior competitive Wiffle®Ball experience to their names (a charity tournament several years back) and were unknowns to the largely experienced player body competing that day. The Naturals’ run was also not a surprise given that three of the four had Division I college baseball experience and David Herbek played for three years in the Chicago White Sox farm system earlier in the decade. The Naturals hit six home runs on their way to a date with the Stompers in the tournament final, but it was Matt Herbek’s pitching that was the real key in getting them there.  Herbek had complete game shutout wins versus Way Too Beautiful (opposite Adam Milsted) and ERL (opposite Connor Young) and worked 2+ innings in relief against GEM (opposite Ben Stant) to seal a win in the semi-finals. A first inning bout of wildness in the day’s title game that led to a walked-in run was Matt’s only blemish on an otherwise perfect April day.

Jerry Hill – Barrel Bruisers (2019)

6-22, 4 HR, 4 BB, 6 R

Although Jerry Hill picked up at least one hit in each of the three games his undermanned two-person team played at the 2019 Opening Day Tournament, it was his performance in a single game that lands him on this list of all-time Opening Day performances. The Bruisers faced off against the Longballs in both team’s first game of the tournament, with Hill on the carpet opposite Colin Pollag. While Jerry had turned himself into a serviceable pitcher by that point, the match up certainly favored the Longballs, a reality that was further reiterated when the Ridley Park team took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. From that point on, however, it was all Jerry. Hill homered not once but twice in the second inning, chasing Pollag from the game and giving the Bruisers a 3-2 lead. Hill held the Longballs scoreless in the bottom of the inning and then took new pitcher Sean Bingnear deep in the third. Another scoreless bottom frame followed before Hill put the finishing touches on this memorable single-game performance with a fourth home run in the 4th. Hill shut down the Longballs in the bottom half to complete the 8-2 victory.

 Jordan Robles – ERL (2019)

14 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 42 SO

In 2019, Jordan Robles was – literally – unhittable in his ERL debut. Jordan made easy work of a short-handed Lemonheads’ squad in the opener and tossed a rare prefect-perfect game (no base runners, all strikeouts) versus the New School Risers to start the day. He then sat for the equivalent of two full game before taking over in relief for substitute teammate Ty Wegrzn in a quarterfinal extra-inning match up with the NY Meats. Not only did Jordan throw 2 2/3’s scoreless innings to pick up the win in relief, but his solo home run in the 8th accounted for ERL’s lone run in the total-bases game. With no reason to fix what’s not broken, ERL handed the ball to Jordan in the day’s championship game. He proceeded to blank the upstart Shortballs 1-0 to give ERL the Opening Day title in what is the most dominating pitching performance in MAW Opening day history.

Dan Whitener – POC (2020)

18 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 9 BB, 49 SO

If not for the player coming up next, Dan Whitener would have quite easily had the best performance at the [delayed until June] 2020 Opening Day tournament. Dan allowed just two hits while pitching four full games for POC on their way to the tournament championship. The only blemish to his line came when – after allowing a couple of walks – he ran into the white-hot Dylan Harshaw who touched him up for a 3-run home run. Otherwise, Whitener was overpowering all day long. He took the ball in the final game of pool play – a 1-0 victory versus ERL – and didn’t surrender it the rest of the way. The dominant, workhorse performance on Opening Day set the tone for Whitener’s tremendous 2020.

Dylan Harshaw – Longballs (2020)

4-18, 5 R, 2 BB, 3 HR

Of all the memorable Opening Day performances mentioned here, Dylan Harshaw’s 2020 Opening Day stat line is the least impressive looking. It is all about the context, though. Dylan managed just four hits in six games but three of them were game winning elimination round home runs against three of the sport’s better pitchers. In three consecutive games, Dylan took Seaan Steffy, Chris Sarnowski, and Dan Whitener deep, propelling the Longballs to their first ever MAW tournament championship. Harshaw’s timely home runs against extremely tough competition helped propelled the Longballs to their first and only MAW tournament title.