The Wiff is Life League’s second tournament of the year, the Battle in the Burg, took place last Saturday. The four teams battled in one of the most competitive tournaments the WILL has seen. At the end of it all the Stompers, Jake Davey, Gino Joseph, and Nate Morris, won it all as the two seed in a nailbiter championship.
The day began with pool play, which featured each of the four teams faced off against each other once. The teams then entered a ladder bracket where the one seed had a bye to the championship, the second seed had a bye to the semifinals, and the third and fourth teams battled it out to move up the ladder. The seeding going into bracket play was 1. Fingerballzzz 2. Stompers 3. Flamingos 4. Mothmen.
Bracket Play
Championship: Stompers (2) - Fingerballzzz (0)
The Stompers' go-to fast pitch arm, Gino Joseph, discussed with his teammates that his arm was getting tired after pitching the previous th+ree games. The squad decided to go with medium pitch, Nate Morris had the ball but last second they gave it to Jake Davey. Davey ended up throwing a complete game shutout. He scattered four hits across the five innings of work. For the Fingerballzzz, Chris Sarnowksi had the ball and was rested after his squad secured a bye to the championship game. Sarnowski was rolling through four innings, then in the top of the fifth Jake Davey drilled a slider over the left center field fence to make it 2-0 Stompers. In the bottom half, Davey allowed a base runner on with one out and then struck out Sullivan by barely tipping the top right of the zone for the final out. Steve Keelon went 3-for-4 in the game for the Fingerballzzz.
Ladder 2 vs. 3/4: Stompers (2) - Mothmen (1)
Gino Joseph took the rubber for the Stompers and faced off against Brice Clark. Joseph went all five and allowed two hits. One of the hits came off the bat of Tyler Roush who took a hanging change up over the left field wall to put the Mothmen out in front 1-0. Brice Clark had the Stompers hitless through 2+ innings. After a Gino Joseph walk, Jake Davey hit a home run to left center field to push the Stompers into the lead, 2-1, in the bottom of the third. Davey’s hit ended up being the lone hit of the game for the Stompers, but it was enough to advance them. Roush pitched a clean final inning for the Mothmen.
Ladder 3 vs. 4: Flamingos (0) - Mothmen (8)
The Mothmen offense broke out after being silenced in pool play. They tallied nine hits against the medium pitching Flamingo duo of Rob Licht and Tim Marra. Licht started and went 4+ innings, in which he allowed six hits and five earned runs. Marra finished out the last half of the fifth inning and gave up three runs on three hits. Roush was the leading hitter for the Mothmen in the contest, he went 5-for-6 with two homers and a double. Clark bolted two home runs, as well, and Zuspan added one. The Flamingos were held to just two hits in the game, Clark was the winning pitcher for the Mothmen.
Fingerballzzz
The Fingerballzzz rolled through pool play to secure the one seed in the ladder bracket, meaning they had a bye to the championship game. In the opener, they scored early and often to down the Stompers, 8-3. Steve Keelon and Chris Sarnowski each hit a home run early in the second game of the day, which they won 3-1 over the Flamingos. Then, in the final pool play game Sarnowski hit a home run and no-hit the Mothmen to secure the one seed with a 5-0 win.
From the rubber, Sarnowski threw all 20 innings that the Fingerballzzz played in. The first game saw him get touched up a bit, as he allowed four hits, three of which home runs. Then settled down by allowing just one hit over the next 10 innings. He ended the day with a 1.50 ERA, 0.55 WHIP, and 25 K’s. The Fingerballzzz were one of the best offensive teams as well, with a team average of .362. Steve Keelon was the leader of all hitters, by far, with a .562 average. Sarnowski led the team with three homers, Keelon had two, and Sullivan one.
Stompers
The Stompers pool play round came down to the final game versus the Flamingos, which decided the two-seed. The Flamingos were the first to score, but homers from Gino Joseph and Jake Davey earned the Stompers the two seed with a 3-2 win. The first game of the day saw the Fingerballzzz down the Stompers 8-3, all three Stomper players went yard in the game off of Sarnowski. The second game was all Gino Joseph, he threw a no-hitter and hit a home run to push the Stompers past the Mothmen, 2-0.
Gino Joseph threw 15 innings on the day and had a 1.00 ERA and WHIP, with 17 K’s while going 3-0 in his appearances. Joseph hit .250 on the day, Nate Morris and Jake Davey each went 5-for-23. Davey led the squad, and the tournament, with 4 home runs, Joseph blasted three, and Morris added one. Joseph drew 8 walks to earn a .500 on base percentage.
Flamingos
The longest game in WILL history started the day off for the Flamingos. Austin Berger and Brice Clark dueled for 17 innings, until Rob Licht hit a walk off homer in the bottom of the 17th. The Clark and Berger matchup was fast pitch all the way up until the 16th inning, when the teams changed to medium pitch. Rob Licht tossed the final two innings for the Flamingos, who had a combined no-hitter. The Fingerballzzz took game two from the Flamingos, 3-1, downing Rob Licht’s fast pitch, which he threw all five and allowed just three hits, two being home runs though. Austin Berger got the lone run across with a solo homer. In the pool play finale, the Flamingos were fighting for the two seed against the Stompers. They got out in front early on a Rob Licht single off the wall. However, the Stompers belted two home runs off Berger to win the contest 3-2.
The offense struggled for the Flamingos all day long, as they went 8-for-64 in total. Tim Marra led the team in the box with a .211 average, Rob Licht and Austin Berger had one homer a piece. Berger threw 20 innings from the rubber, the first game took a toll on him. He struck out 18 and had a 0.75 ERA, with a 0.55 WHIP. Licht saw 11 innings on the rubber and had a 3.53 ERA.
Mothmen
Pool play was not a friend of the Mothmen, in their first ever WILL tournament. The team was hitless in their 3 games. The first went to the Flamingos, 3-0, and was 17 innings long. The long, draining game put both themselves and the Flamingos behind the ball for later in the day. Game two they battled the Stompers, who won 2-0 on a home run by Gino Joseph. The final pool play game was all Fingerballzzz, as they won 5-0.
Brice Clark was the main arm for the Mothmen. He tossed 30 innings for the Green and White, allowed six runs on 10 hits and struck out 24. Which was good for a 1.00 ERA and 0.87 WHIP. Tyler Roush led the team in the batter's box with a .250 average, .400 on-base percentage, and 3 home runs. Brice Clark bombed two dingers, and t. Wyatt Zuspan added one.
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Visit Lovie's Frosty Twist on South Main Street in Houston for ice cream this summer, tell 'em the WILL sent you!
