SWL 2026 Divisional Round Preview, Sunday August 23
Two matchups, both rematches of regular season series. Three games each, all of it on Sunday, higher seed at home for Games 1 and 3 (rule 3.01). The Leaning Golden Man is one round closer, and one of these four teams has the pieces to beat Wiffle House.
SD vs WH, Divisional Round
#1 Wiffle House (16-0) hosts #4 Swingdome (10-6)
G1: SD @ WH | G2: WH @ SD | G3: SD @ WH
Wiffle House has not lost a game this year. Sixteen wins, and sixteen runs allowed across the whole season, which is less than some teams give up on a single Sunday. Swingdome just came out of a three-game Wild Card scrap with Bilabial Stops to get here. On paper that reads like a mismatch, and it might be. It is also the only series this year that comes with actual evidence about how you play Wiffle House close.
The one thing to know about Swingdome: on August 9 they lost to Wiffle House 1-0. That is the closest game Wiffle House played all season. The next closest was a two run win in May. The Thomas brothers both went 8-0 this year, and no opponent scored more than four runs on them in any single game. That 1-0 is the only evidence anybody has about what a close game against this team even looks like.
Alex Hatch is a big part of that story. He threw five innings of one run ball against Wiffle House that day, which nobody else in this league has done. He has only pitched three times all year, and the other two were last Sunday, back to back, in the same afternoon: nine innings of elimination wiffle to carry his team through a three game series. So the question is not whether he can do it. He has done it. The question is what he has left six days later, and that is Jimmy Froio's call as captain.
Sam Thomas and Phillip Thomas both went 8-0 with a 1.20 ERA and 63 strikeouts. Sam walked 15 men in 40 innings from the back mound. Phillip won the first triple crown in league history, .651 with 10 home runs and 51 RBI. Neither has been touchable. Reed McFeely (.592), Azor Cole (40 runs scored) and Dustin Diemond (.491) anchor the offense. Wiffle House outscored their opponents 198-16 in sixteen games.
Swingdome's path to three competitive games runs through pitching. Nick Ludwig (59 K, tied for fifth in the league) pairs with Hatch from the back mound, and Froio runs the front. The lineup is real, with Quinn MacWatters (.600, 27 RBI) and Steve McGinley (.578, 5 HR). They still have to score against the Thomas brothers.
What to watch: who Froio hands the ball to first.
SHRL vs 100, Divisional Round
#2 100% Real Juice (11-5) hosts #3 Sheryl Crows (11-5)
G1: SHRL @ 100 | G2: 100 @ SHRL | G3: SHRL @ 100
Same record, and the closest matchup on paper in this bracket. These two met once, back on May 24, and 100% Real Juice took both games. That sweep is where the head-to-head tiebreaker for the 2-seed came from. The opener that day finished 1-0. Sheryl Crows get to argue with all of it now, in a format where one inning carries a lot more weight.
100% Real Juice are the most distinctive team in this league and I mean that as a compliment. Four doubles as a team all season, and no triples at all. That is not a typo. Their offense is singles, walks and the occasional home run out of nowhere, led by Aaron Hunter (.582, 32 hits, 31 of them singles). It works because Hunter (7-1, 2.59 ERA, 63 K) is also their best pitcher. Epo Olivares (3.55 ERA, .524 at the plate) is a real second arm, and Adam Brickett (31 K in 18 1/3 innings) makes three, and three is exactly how many you need on a Sunday like this. They've been rested since the Wild Card bye.
Sheryl Crows are coming in hot. They swept West Coast Washout 2-0 last Sunday, 12-1 and 13-8, though not in the order anybody expected. It was Connor Donovan (5-0, 3.33 ERA, 9 walks all season), not Gray, who threw the four inning mercy in Game 1. Evan Gray (6-1, 2.05 ERA, 49 K in 29 1/3 innings) struck out nine in Game 2 and the lineup put sixteen hits behind him. Jeff Hanschmann (.477, 8 HR, 25 RBI) is the bat that scares me most in this series. He has taken the front mound three times this year while his bat carried the lineup. The open question is the back mound, which he has not used all season, and it is the one door in this bracket nobody has seen him open. If it shows up this round, the Crows look like a different team.
The tension here: 100 has the rested staff and the best single arm in the series. Sheryl Crows have three starters who look nothing like each other, plus enough depth to keep Gray and Donovan available for a Game 3. Order matters more than talent here.
What to watch: Hunter against the top of the Crows order, and whether Hanschmann walks out to the back mound for the first time all year.
On to the 30th
The winner of SD vs WH and the winner of SHRL vs 100 meet in the World Series on August 30. Higher remaining seed hosts Games 1 and 3.
Everybody in this bracket has spent the summer watching Wiffle House and taking notes. Sunday two of these teams get to use them. I play on that team, so weigh all of the above accordingly. If you are picking one game to come stand behind the fence for, make it Swingdome, and the reason is that 1-0 on the ninth.
@seattlewiffle | 2026 Postseason
