VINELAND- As the champagne sprayed, the scenes seemed quite familiar. It had been a long nine years, but with some pitching performances for the ages, and timely hits from some long time veteran players, the Flapacamingos WC found themselves back on top, winning their 5th Wifflepalooza Championship on Saturday. "A long time coming", said team captain Jake Lambert, "What a performance by these guys, I'm so happy, we finally got back".
A nine-year drought seemed miles away as the Flapacs celebrated at the Willie J. Huff Wiffleball Complex, and two of the men covered in champagne combined for two of the greatest performances in tournament history. Let's start with the pitching, as the Flapacs have always tried to do. They struck gold when they acquired Kevin Engasser, who capped off his 2nd Cy Young Award winning performance in as many years, by shutting out the Goodfellas in the semi-final, wrapping up his entirely scoreless day. Not to be overshadowed, he became just the 2nd player ever to throw two no-hitters in the same tournament (Ryan Hutchings did it for Purple Drank Squad in WP3). That's right, two. He finished the day with 18 innings, 4 hits allowed, no runs, and 34 of a possible 36 strikeouts. "It seems automatic when he's out there", said GM and team catcher Al Etter. "We feel justified in thinking we're simply going to win when he's out there. To have allowed what, 1 run in over 30 innings over the last two years, it's incredible. Best I've ever seen".
As great as Engasser is, the ultimate hero of the day for the Flapacs was veteran Ryan Ricci. He too was brilliant on the mound, posting the second best qualified ERA in the tournament (2.88), only behind Engasser. Ricci guided the Flapacs through 2 regular tournament games, as well as the Championship Game, cruising after he helped give himself some run support to work with. The Flapacs hit 6 grand slams on the day, Ricci had 3 of them, including one in the 3rd inning of the title game to break things open. "Just got locked in really early. Starting off the way we did with 25 runs in our first game, really gave us the confidence we needed", said Ricci, who drove in 16 runs on the day, tied for the 2nd highest single-tournament total. For his efforts, Ricci won both tournament MVP and Title Game MVP.
As great as those two were, it really was a team effort for the Flapacs. Most years, Jake Lambert's stat line might've been good enough to win MVP himself. With 4 home runs and 13 RBI, Lambert posted personal career bests, his exclamation point a homer off the newly implemented foul pole in left field, over the "little mamba", who's predecessor would've kept that in the park. Just one example of how, everything seemed to come up Flapacamingos on Saturday. After taking over for Rob Humes mid-day, veteran Al Etter returned to the lineup, posting a .500 average, and reaching both 40 career HR and 100 career hits on the day. Humes and Saverino posted timely hits throughout the day, as well as a gritty effort at the plate by the team's only rookie, Dave Fridolph. Manager Pat Ney pushed all the right buttons all day long, and following up on his Media day comments, Ney quipped with a cigar in hand, "This ain't the last hole we've dug either".
The Flapacs have reached the mountain top once again, for the fifth time, but with the assumed return of the Goodfellas stars, as well as the assumed return of the Ironballs franchise, the challenges posed will be different.
WIFFLE NUGGETS
- In the midst of his historic performance, Ryan Ricci reached 100 career RBI. He achieved it on his Grand Slam in the title game. He also became just the 2nd person to reach 200 career strikeouts on the mound. A phenomenal day for a legend that seems to just keep getting better.
- Breaking out of the cocoon of retirement, Al Etter returned to the field and finally got himself to the long awaited 40 HR mark, the 2nd ever player to reach that mark, as well as becoming the 2nd player to reach 100 career hits, the only other to reach both is fellow legend Brian Stanzione
- They may have come up short, but give the Goondingos and their captain Jeff Ronchetti a standing ovation. They prepared, they got drunk, they played hard & came close to their first ever title. Ronchetti, reached both 80 career hits at the plate and 250 strikeouts on the mound, the first ever player to achieve the latter.
- Dustin Graiff, another Goondingo star, reached 60 career hits.
- Ryan "Ryhoops 3000" Hutchings reached 70 career hits on Saturday.
- All we hear every summer leading up to the tournament, is how "Onepac is training hard, poised for a break out year". And while that term is certainly subjective, Patrick Hennessy did reach the 30 career hit mark on Saturday, which a few years ago was thought unlikely he'd reach it ever, let alone so soon. So, props to Onepac on the achievement.
- While the day went poorly for Bert, two of their legends reached career milestones on Saturday. Tony Donato became just the 6th all time pitcher to reach 10 career victories
- Ken McCormick also reached 100 career strikeouts on the mound, becoming just the 8th pitcher in tournament history to reach that mark
- While unconfirmed, but early word out of the Commissioner's office is that next year's tournament, Wifflepalooza XVIII, will take place Saturday, August 3rd, 2024. Again, that date is subject to change, but it is expected that the Ironballs will be back to take their place among the field of six, as well as legends Justin Geri, Billy Jackson & Brian Stanzione will return for the Goodfellas
