Jordan Castelli, the captain of the Flamingos, had arguably the best draft for the Opening Day Tournament. Castelli is known for his power bat and he added Austin Berger and Gino Joseph, two flame-throwing right handers, to his side for the first tournament of the year.
Castelli is coming off a 2019 Winter WILL championship in his last competitive wiffle ball appearance. In the individual style tournament he hit 13 home runs on his way to a 29-19-4-1 victory over the three other competitors. Last regular season he knocked 18 home runs and hit for a .547 in 53 at bats, which was good for third and fourth in the league, respectively. Across his six year career, Castelli has earned himself three Silver Slugger awards (2015, 17, 18) and a league MVP award in 2014.
Austin Berger hit .333 in 2019 for the 100 Thieves in 30 at bats. Six of his 10 hits landed beyond the fence. Nonetheless, Berger will be more likely to make a name for himself this season from the rubber. Coming into 2020, Berger has not thrown a pitch in a WILL game. That will change this season, with the new rule of pitchers able to choose to throw from an unrestricted speed rubber. Austin burst onto the fast pitch wiffle ball scene in 2018, when he joined the WILL Waves and threw 17 innings for a 3.81 ERA and a 2-1 record throughout their national championship run at the NWLA Tournament. Recently, Berger has gained even more attention in the fast pitch world. At the 2019 NWLA Tournament he went 3-0, had a 0.86 ERA over 14 innings, and struck out 35 for a 15.00 K per 6. Adding that performance to a no-hit game at the Mid Atlantic Wiffle Fall Wiffs Tournament this past October, he was named the 57th best fastpitch player in the country by The Drop.
Gino Joseph was a rookie in 2019 to the WILL, but not to competitive wiffs in general. He has become a regular in the Mid Atlantic Wiffle tournaments and is arguably one of the top up and coming players in the game. Joseph was named the 22nd best fastpitch player in the country by The Drop after his 2019 performance. In MAW, a scuff ball league, he threw 80 innings, struck out 212, one of only two players to have 200+ strikeouts, and posted a 1.10 ERA. In the medium pitch WILL last season, Joseph hit .286 in limited at bats (14) with two home runs.
Behind the offensive firepower of Castelli and pitching from two of the top pitchers in the country, this team is well deserving of its pre-tournament position as the favorite.
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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!
