[NATIONAL] 2021 Wiffle in the Mitten Tournament Preview

The annual MLW Wiffle in the Mitten tournament will decide two of the Route 2 starters at this year’s United Wiffle®Ball national championship tournament. The 18-team field in the adult (16+) age division is stacked with former 16+ division champions, former 15 & under champions, and experienced teams making their first trip to a MLW tournament.

EVENT HISTORY

MLW hosted its first tournament in 2017 — the Cedar Point Slugfest in northern Ohio — but it wasn’t until the following year that the league brought an event to their hometown of Brighton, Michigan. The first Wiffle in the Mitten tournament in August 2018 led to an all-MLW battle in the 14+ division championship game, while the Saline Spies took down the 14U division.

Wiffle in the Mitten took a big step forward in 2019, corresponding with a move to a new venue, the Legacy Center. 41 teams from three states (and Canada!) competed across two age divisions (14U and 15+). In the 16+ division, the West Michigan Wiffleballers out of Grand Rapids snuck past MLW Red 1-0 in the championship game. The 2020 tournament expanded to three divisions — 10-12, 13-15, and 16+. The title returned home to MLW last year, with the MLW White Squad winning another all-league final.

EVENT FORMAT

The 2021 Wiffle in the Mitten tournament is a 57-team event, with the teams evenly distributed across three ages divisions (12-13, 13-15, and 16+).

In each division, the pool play round consists of 2 games. All pool play games are played on Saturday and are used to seed the Sunday single elimination brackets. The top 16 teams in each division advance to bracket play on Sunday. Bracket play for each division will be 16 team single elimination.

The tournament will be contested under no base running, modified yellow bat, non-altered ball bucket rules.

FOLLOW ALONG ON TOURNEY MACHINE

THE FIELD

There are 18 teams scheduled to compete in the 16+ division. The first & second place teams from that division will be offered a Route 2 starting spot in at the United Wiffle®Ball NCT in October.

As the championship lineage of this event clearly demonstrates, MLW teams historically perform very well in their hometown tournament. There are 5 MLW teams in the 16+ division this year, making it likely that at least one finds a spot in the final 4. Led by Kyle Schultz and Jimmy Knorp, MLW Blue looks like the best of the MLW squads on paper and have more than enough upper-level pitching to make a deep tournament run. Knorp has been the best pitcher in MLW league play this year by several metrics and has some of the best stuff from a movement standpoint of all the MLW pitchers.

This year, however, the MLW teams will face tougher competition from the outside then they historically have at Wiffle in the Mitten, including teams with and without prior MLW Tournament experience.

The only team to disrupt complete MLW’s dominance — the West Michigan Wiffleballers — are back and hunting their 2nd Wiffle in the Mitten title. The 2019 tournament winners are led by Brendan Baranoski. Prior to this season, MLW tournaments were Baranoski’s main Wiffle® outlet. That changed this summer when he was selected by the Costal Cobras in the MLW draft and also signed up with the Flying Monkeys of the Kalamazoo Wiffle®Ball League (“KWL”). After a slow start on the carpet in KWL, Brendan got his feet under him and finished the regular season with a solid 3.60 ERA in 35 innings pitched while striking out nearly 2 batters an inning.  It has been a little more of a bumpy ride in his rookie MLW season, where command issues (almost 2 walks per inning) have been his downfall. Brendan’s brother and West Michigan teammate, Chris, led the Flying Monkeys in hitting this season in KWL with a .587/.678./739 slash line in 8 games played. The Wiffleballers go four players deep and are veterans of this tournament, which will make them a tough match up come pool play.

In addition to West Michigan, there are several other teams with prior Wiffle in the Mitten success in younger age divisions, who will graduate to the 16+ group this year. Whoever leaves Brighton as the 2021 16+ division Wiffle in the Mitten champion will have to go through the prior three championship game participants (2019-2020) from the next age division down.

God Squad took 2nd placed in the 14U division in 2019, dropping a tough back-and-forth game in the championship. They will try to return to the title game this year in the adult division. Last year, Ohio’s All American Vibe won the 13-15 division behind the stellar pitching of Dallas Allen and will try to repeat while moving up an age level.

The common thread in both of those championship games was the God Squad and All American Vibes’ opponent. The last two years, a team from the Portage Wiffle®Ball League reached the finals of the younger/middle age division at Wiffle in the Mitten, coming away with the championship in 2019 and finishing just short of a repeat in 2020. That same squad – playing this year as PWL Sophie Strong – graduates to the 16+ division and will attempt to make three straight finals. PWL is led by Drew Habel and Jake Longman, both of whom are teammates with the Baranoski brothers on the Flying Monkeys in KWL.

The presence of two United Wiffle®Ball NCT Route 2 starting spots have lured a pair of experienced teams to Brighton for the first time.

The WILL Waves from Canonsburg, Pennsylvania — winners of the 2018 NWLA Tournament — travel to Michigan with a listed roster of captain Jake Davey, Austin Berger, Brice Clark, and Nate Morris. The Waves do not appear to be messing around, given the presence of their two top pitchers (Berger and Clark) on this weekend’s roster. Clark has had a breakout season of sorts in Mid Atlantic this summer, seemingly putting his command issues behind him for good. Berger meanwhile will be competing in his first tournament of the season in Brighton and should be fresh as a result. Morris and Davey both have plenty of yellow bat success in their past and will be looked towards to lead the Waves offensively.

Likewise, Michigan’s WSEM Dream Team will make the short trip northwest to Brighton with a stacked roster. Like the Waves, the Dream Team are bringing a top collection of players. Of the team’s four-man roster, only Nicco Lollio — out due to a prior commitment — is not on the Dream Team’s 2021 United Wiffle®Ball Roster. Lollio will likely team up with 2019 WSEM rookie of the year and first year MLW player, Caden Irwin, to handle the pitching duties although Mike Bayley could get into a game or two as well. Team captain Kyle Tomlinson is a threat at the plate in any style of play and will lead the Dream Team offense.