In a Tense Final Game, the Juggernauts Repeat as Champions
The Juggernauts entered the 2022 United Wiffle Ball (UWiffs) World Championship Tournament (WCT) as a team that could not possibly surprise anyone. These Juggs, or sometimes Juggz, already had a successful 2022 season, having won the Mid-Atlantic Wiffle championship, both in the regular season and the championship tournament. They had also already proven their dominance could play on the national stage, having won the UWiffs event in 2021. The reigning champs being successful was going to surprise no one.
The Juggs did have a surprise in pool play on Saturday, however. They won their first two games, defeating the Wiffaholics by a convincing 11-0 margin, and followed that up with a dramatic 3-2 victory over the Phenoms, courtesy of a Ben Stant walk-off solo home run. Neither of these outcomes is surprising. Yet in their third game, the Juggs had a 2-0 loss handed to them by the CCW Skullcrushers, the 2022 NWLA tournament champions. This put them at the end of pool play with a 2-1 record; the result was still good, as they advanced straight to the Elimination Bracket as the seventh seed, needing only one win to send them to Championship Sunday. The fact that they were without an undefeated record, though, was unexpected.
What happened next was completely expected, as the Juggs dispatched of the OG Goon Squad by a 7-1 score. This punched their ticket to Sunday, where they would enter the quarterfinals as the home team against a Meats squad they routed in last year’s final.
The game against the Meats was not the romp it had been in 2021, but the Juggs still had a fresh Ryan McElrath to deploy, as well as the thunderous bat of Stant. The former tossed a shutout while the latter homered, as the Juggs advanced to the semifinals with a 3-0 victory. Once there they overmatched the 2020 champs, the Usual Suspects 7-1, advancing to their second straight championship game, where they would face a familiar foe in the Phenoms. No surprises so far.
What ensued was an instant classic full of surprise.
First, when the PA announcer said Ray Lutick, not Ryan McElrath, would start on the pitcher’s carpet, the crowd was audibly astounded, though the mistake was corrected quickly. Then, in the first plate appearance of the game, Jordan Robles left everyone stunned again with a solo home run, making it 1-0 Phenoms. Stant responded in the third inning with a solo shot of his own, knotting the game at one run apiece. There it stayed as both pitchers, McElrath and Robles, traded zeroes, both looking exceptionally sharp against daunting opposing lineups. That lasted all the way until the bottom of the fifth inning, the final inning of regulation, when the Juggs’ captain Red Sarnowski finally pulled out a surprise of their own, launching a ball into the net above the outfield fence. The Juggernauts had walked off against the Phenoms, winning the WCT as now back-to-back champions.
“It feels great winning again,” was all a gleeful Sarnowski could muster when asked what it meant to him that he was the one able to clinch the game that officially cemented the Juggs’ title of best Wiffle ball team in the world. By this point the team had already received championship hats, and were celebrating and taking pictures with the impressive trophy they had earned. Jokingly, Sarnowski added, “I can hold this over Stant’s head. He is so mad that I just did this to him, my ego is through the roof, it’s hilarious. Now I get to brag to him that I hit one [home run] in the championship to win it.”
Stant, normally the Juggs’ biggest bat, quipped back, “His ego’s a problem,” about Sarnowski. More sincerely, he added, “It’s awesome. If I can get it going for just one time, then we can get it together for the whole tournament. And it really all worked out.” The winning pitcher and Finals MVP, McElrath, mused that their whole key was, “We aren’t afraid to lose. People are bound to hit a home run, you’re bound to lose games here and there, but we just move forward to the next play.” With that mentality, any outcome is hardly a surprise to the Juggernauts—they already care more about the next one. The outcome they produced over the weekend is no surprise to them or anyone else: the Juggernauts, 2022 United Wiffle Ball World Champions.
