Knucks sweep Steaks, Washout await
Starting at a crisp 9:30am, we knew that both the Mighty Knucks and the RBI Steaks could hit, so the story of this series was how the pitching would hold up. Here the Knucks performed far better than expected, with Brandon Wallach charming popup after popup with his knucklers, and Alex Hatch reigning it in to get his biting movement in the zone. On the other side, the Steaks’ Nick Winn contemplated his imminent dadhood and had difficulty controlling his speed and location. Following him, captain Jimmy Froio showed supreme craftiness and guile on the hill, but was the unlucky victim of a go-ahead 2-run blast in the 5th inning from Ryan Langager.
Advancing to the next round after 12-2/F4 and 7-6 victories, the Knucks are gearing up for West Coast Washout and their pitching Cerberus of Karl Koch, Jeff Hanschmann, and Pittsburgh recruit… checks notes ... Daniel Rish. But with a fresh approach on the mound and continuously hot bats, don’t count out the Knucks in their campaign for the final.
House squeeze Juice, stare down Stops
Epo Olivares knew that 100% Real Juice needed his A-game to take down the scorching Wiffle House lineup. My goodness, did he deliver. He took the hill and struck out batter after batter with risers and splitters. Even offensive force-of-nature Liam McFeely succumbed to Epo’s nastiness. (The House’s all-Kanye walkup setlist did little to numb the pain.) On the other side of the ball, the Juice did just enough against new starter Sam Thomas, and even though the winning run reached the plate with 1 out in the bottom of the 6th, Epo slammed the door with two more emphatic strikeouts for a 6-4 win. The mighty Juice were on the verge of taking sweet revenge against the rookies that dared to dunk on them.
But that would be the high point of the Juice’s muggy afternoon, with the House offense finally bursting through the dams. While second House starter Quinn Thomas labored early in his outing, surrendering 11 runs and letting the Juice stay in game two, he benefited from an almighty 23 runs of offensive support, with Adam Brickett struggling to stem the tide.
It didn’t go much better for third pitcher Matt Rosenfeld, who unexpectedly had to deal with the speed limit while facing off against an already-warm and dealing Quinn. Epo entered to try and stop the bleeding, but by then it was too late, and the House walked away with a 13-3 victory for a marathon series win.
Now the rookies are tasked with slaying the dragon, by which we mean the Bilabial Stops. Nick Usoff and captain Eddie Brown have each been doing their best Shohei Ohtani impressions, all with a solid supporting cast. Still, the Stops do bleed, and we will see if Wiffle House can draw enough.
