Wiffle House stuns Stops to Advance to Series in Rookie Campaign
They’re rookies, so Wiffle House might provide a little flash in the pan, but this team can’t really win. This narrative seems right in Game 1. Sure, they can jump out to a 4-0 lead, but the Bilabial Stops python will crush them. The Stops dinked and dunked their way back into Game 1, ultimately winning by a margin of 10-4.
Facing Eddie Brown, he of one career loss on the mound, and a 2-0 deficit courtesy of One-Armed Pirate Bobby Vadnais, the House of Cards must fall. Right? Well maybe not. Sam Thomas and Dustin Diemond provided the key hits to spark a late inning rally to a 7-4 Game 2 Wiffle House win, knotting the series at a game apiece.
By Game 3, Wiffle House was in control of their own narrative, with the two teams punching and counter-punching as equals. The Stops jumped to a 3-0 lead, and a half-inning later it was tied. House went up 8-3, and then the Stops clawed back. Nick Usoff drove in two runs on a double to make the score 8-5 in the fifth, but crucially Diemond robbed him of a homer on the play to save a run and preserve some of the House lead. With the tying run at the plate for the Stops in the sixth, Sam Thomas induced a pop-out to finalize the 8-6 upset and send the House to the Series in their first season.
Washout down Knucks in Wild Affair to Return to Series
The Washout cruised to an easy Game 1 victory, crushing five homers including two by Jeff Hanschmann, while Karl Koch shut down the resistance in a 13-3 mercy affair. It would be the only easy game of the day.
Facing a 5-0 hole in an elimination Game 2, Chad Kebba’s grand slam turned the tide in favor of the Knucks, and the Knucks took the game 6-5, with Alex Hatch shutting the Washout out over the last three innings.
In Game 3, the Knucks left Hatch on the mound as the hot hand, with Karl Koch returning for the Washout, and the two departed the mound with the Knucks leading 4-2 thanks to a Kevin Ryan grand slam. The game ebbed and flowed, with the Washout ultimately leading 7-5 after 5 innings, needing three outs. They got the outs, but not before a double and five walks led to an 8-7 Knucks lead. On one good hamstring, Jonathan Stevens provided the final twist, crushing a two-run walkoff homer to left to send the Washout to the Series and eliminate the Knucks after an entertaining, hard-fought series.
World Series Lookahead
It’s hard to overstate the magnitude of Wiffle House’s knockout of the defending champ Bilabial Stops. That it came over three hard fought games will surely bring a level of confidence to the rookies. They can bang with the best of them, and their pitching improves by the week. But will fatigue be a concern? The House has played 6 games over two weeks, with Quinn Thomas throwing weekly totals of 212 & 227 pitches, and Sam Thomas throwing 136 & 182 over those games.
The Washout on the other hand had three pitchers appear in their series versus the Knucks, with Koch, Rish, and Hanschmann throwing 99, 93 and 77 pitches, respectively. The offense started off with a bang against the Knucks, hit a dry spell, and then recovered just in time. The Washout were tested against the Knucks, and answered the bell, which is sure to raise confidence in that clubhouse as well.
These teams just played on August 8th, with the Washout winning 14-6, and House recovering for a 15-9 nightcap victory. This is the fourth Series appearance for the Washout, having won in 2015, and lost in ‘18 and ‘20. Wiffle House is the second team to make the Series in their inaugural season (barring 2015, when all teams were new), joining the 2019 Stops, who went on to lose.
Call this series a true toss-up, and may it bring entertaining wiffle to fans and players alike.
