By: Ben Prantl
The Wiff is Life League began its 11th season on Monday, June 3. All 13 teams, the largest league since 2018, were in action with 21 games at Cecil Park.
GAME OF THE WEEK
WEEKLY STATS & MEDIA
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PLAYER OF THE WEEK
The Week 1 Player of the Week is ... Matt Cottrill of the Roman Noodles.
Chefs
Place: T1
Points (record): 3 (3-0)
The Chefs beat the Heat, Prestige World Wide and the Valley Boys in Week 1. Nate Morris is 13th in the league in batting average at .529, and homered on Monday. Jake Davey leads the team with an OPS of 1.395, after hitting three home runs, a feat teammate Tim Marra also accomplished.
Prestige World Wide
Place: T1
Points (record): 3 (3-1)
Prestige World Wide defeated the Canonsburg Caucasians, High Heat and Oakdale Curve, while dropping a game to the Chefs. Kolton Smittle leads the WILL with seven home runs, while teammates Tyson Mead and Will Taczak are each tied for third in the WILL with five bombs.
Roman Noodles
Place: T1
Points (record): 3 (3-0)
The Noodles beat the Space Cowboys, High Heat and the Ball Busters on Monday. Tyler Schoenfelder’s six homers is second best in the WILL, and Matt Cottrill is tied for third with five. Cottrill has the league lead in average (.833) and OPS (2.966)
Oakdale Curve
Place: T4
Points (record): 2 (2-1)
The Curve beat the Replacements and Canonsburg Caucasians on Monday, before falling to Prestige World Wide. Johnny Dragisich is tied for the fourth-best batting average in the WILL at .667, and Austin Buzza’s .545 batting average is good for ninth best in the WILL. Scott Bilovus has the fourth-highest slugging in the WILL at 1.750
Splunkers
Place: T4
Points (record): 2 (2-0, GOW)
The Splukers beat the Bees in a 2023 Championship rematch and took down High Heat and will face the Space Cowboys in the Game of the Week. The Splunkers recorded 1 of the 2 shutouts in Week 1, as Austin Abel shut down High Heat over five innings of three-hit ball with 5 K’s.
Ball Busters
Place: T4
Points (record): 2 (2-1)
The Ball Busters beat the Space Cowboys and the Valley Boys, but fell to the Roman Noodles. Dillon Musser is third in the WILL in batting average (.750) and is sixth in OPS (2.300). Cayden Laskosky is tied for ninth in home runs with four.
Lumberjax
Place: T4
Points (record): 2 (2-1)
The Lumberjax beat the Bees and High Heat and fell to the Valley Boys. Mason Miles threw four innings and surrendered one run, which was unearned, in an upset over the reigning-champion Bees. Michael Wheeler and Jon Taczak each homered in the Jax victory.
Valley Boys
Place: 8
Points (record): 1.5 (1-2, 1 EIL)
The Valley Boys defeated the Lumberjax 5-4, behind a five-run first inning and held on for the win. The Boys lost to Ball Busters and the Chefs, the latter of which came in extra innings. Brendan Cruz is 1 of 3 players in the WILL with a stolen base.
Canonsburg Caucasians
Place: T9
Points (record): 1 (1-2)
The Caucasians shut out the Replacements before suffering a 10-3 loss vs Prestige World Wide and being shut out by the Oakdale Curve. Greyden Piechnick picked up four hits against the Replacements, while Brett Carosone tossed a five-inning complete-game shutout.
Replacements
Place: T9
Points (record): 1 (1-2)
The Replacements sandwiched a win over High Heat between losses to the Caucasians and the Curve. Chris Sarnowski has the second-best OPS in the WILL (2.714) and has homered five times, which is tied for third in the league.
High Heat
Place: T11
Points (record): 0 (0-6)
High Heat has yet to appear in the win column in 2024, despite Maxx Melnyk being fourth in the WILL in batting average (.667) and tied for third with five homers. Melnyk and teammate Bernie Riley are each a part of the six players to hit a double in the WILL.
Space Cowboys
Place: T11
Points (record): 0 (0-2 GOW)
The Space Cowboys lost their first two games in the WILL, falling to the Noodles and the Ball Busters. Alex Gregory homered in each of the Space Cowboys’ games. The Space Cowboys will battle the 2-0 Splunkers in the Game of the Week.
Bees
Place: T11
Points (record): 0 (0-2)
The Bees appear to be in a championship hangover after back-to-back WILL titles. The Bees recorded only one run in each of their games against the Lumberjax and Splunkers, in what was a championship rematch.
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