July 21, 2019 – MIDLOTHIAN, IL
Three-time defending World Champs vs. two-time reigning ORWBL Champs.
1 seed vs. 2 seed.
Extra innings.
The Championship game of the 40th World Wiffle® Ball Championship certainly lived up to the hype.
Thanks to the heroics of Danny Hernandez, the Cult West Warriors outlasted the Maple City Magic, 5-2 in eight innings, for their fourth consecutive World Championship.
In what is believed to be the first extra-inning game in the history of the 40-years of the World Wiffle® Ball Championship (according to the on-site historian), Hernandez launched a three-run blast to center in the top of the eighth. The Magic had just used their intentional walk on Wes Ellis.
Tied 2-2 after six, extra-inning rules commenced, with two outs and the last person to make an out put on third base. After both teams recorded outs in the seventh, Hernandez struck, and the Magic could not answer in the bottom half of the eighth.
After a 9-0 weekend, Cult West has now won 33 consecutive games in the WWBC, an amazing feat given the depth of the field over the past four years. The Warriors become only the second team in WWBC history with four straight titles, as the legendary Dud’s Gang won five in a row from 1987-1991.
58 teams (from 12 states) participated in the 40th Annual World Wiffle® Ball Championship on Saturday, all playing four games. 34 teams advanced to the single-elimination tournament on Sunday.
Notes
*Cult West’s Scott Soos was inducted as the 40th member of the World Wiffle® Ball Championship Hall of Fame. Sixteen Hall of Famers were in attendance for the 40th edition of the longest running Wiffle® Ball tournament in the world.
*On Saturday, 40 players participated in the Home Run Derby with Jared Jonkman (Maple City Magic) winning the Derby crown. Along with becoming the 2019 “King of Plastic Swing,” Jonkman split the $200 pot with the South Suburban Humane Society.
*Maple City reached their second WWBC title game, last appearing in 2014, in a loss to the Funky Plastic Offspring.
*Thanks to all the teams and HR Derby entrants, approximately $3,000 will be donated to the South Suburban Humane Society.
worldwiffleball.org 