We are down to two. The top-seeded Sea Turtles and third-seeded Prestige are set to battle it out on Monday night for the 2022 WILL Championship. The best-of-three Championship Series will take place tonight (Monday, July 18) at Falconi Fields. First pitch is slated for 6:35 pm.
Sea Turtles
Record: 16-1 (#1 seed)
How They Got Here:
After a 3-1 opening day, the Sea Turtles won 10 straight games to end the regular season and earn the #1 seed in the playoffs. They rolled through Bracket A with three convincing wins, clinching a spot in the Championship Series.
Steven Keelon pitched three complete games in last week's playoffs and had a locked and loaded offense behind him. The Turtles won each game by no less than five runs, including an 11-5 win over Noodles to start it off, 15-0 victory against Oakdale, then a 7-2 defeat of the defending champions, BYW, in the Bracket A finals.
Top Hitter:
Jordan Castelli is near the top of the league in average and home runs. He was nearly unstoppable in the playoff round last week to lead the charge through Bracket A for the Turtles.
Full Batting Stats
Top Pitcher:
Steven Keelon was the go-to arm in big games for the Sea Turtles throughout the 2022 campaign. He pitched every inning in the playoffs and is expected to take the ball all night in the Championship Series as well.
Full Pitching Stats
Prestige World Wide
Record: 13-5 (#3 seed)
How They Got Here:
Prestige rattled off seven wins in a row during the middle of the season to put them in position for a top seed. The squad lost the last two games of the regular season but regrouped for the playoffs.
Tyson Mead belted a walk-off home run in the bottom of the fifth to win their opening round game over the Beavers. Then a shutout win against the #2 seed Splunkers (3-0) put them in the drivers seat of Bracket B with a spot in the finals. The Splunkers worked back through the loser's bracket and rolled into the bracket finals with energy and returned the shutout to Prestige, winning 5-0, forcing the if necessary game. PWW got two runs across and that would be all they needed, behind a complete game from Taczak to clinch the spot in the Championship Series.
Top Hitter:
Taczak was Week 1 Primanti Bros. Player of the Week and is right up near the top of the league leaders in home runs. Right up there with him is teammate, Tyson Mead.
Full Batting Stats
Top Pitcher:
Will Taczak has handled the pitching duties almost exclusively for PWW. The effective right hander tossed every inning for the team in the playoff round last week, going 3-1.
Full Pitching Stats
How They Matchup
Sea Turtles downed PWW in extra innings in their lone matchup of the season in Week 2.
Late Home Runs Give Sea Turtles Extra Inning Win Over PWW
Sea Turtles (5) - PWW (3) | BOX SCORE
Prestige World Wide built up an early lead (3-1) with three home runs, Will Taczak had two and Tyson Mead one, across the first two innings. Steve Keelon settled in from the rubber and did not let up more than a single the rest of the way, scattering eight hits across six innings and giving up just the early three runs on way to a victory. Down to their final out in the fifth, Keelon hit a home run and then after a single by Reed Bursic and walk by Jordan Castelli, Keelon came back up and tied things up with a double to the left field wall. It only took one extra inning to decide a winner, as Castelli belted his second home run of the game to lead off the sixth inning and Keelon closed things down from the rubber in the bottom half.
Notes
Sea Turtles
Jordan Castelli is one of the most decorated WILL players in history. He won the WILL in 2017 and 2018 as a member of Booze on First.
Steven Keelon, Rob Licht, and Gino Joseph have never won a league championship in the WILL.
Keelon and Licht, both longtime veterans, were teammates in 2018 on the Beavers, when they lost in the Championship Series to Castelli's Booze on First.
Licht has been in three championships before, 2014 on the Pirates, 2017 and 2018 on the Beavers.
Prestige World Wide
They are the first all-rookie team to be in the WILL Championship in league history.