London 2009: Early Exits
The Nationals and Senators both made early exits from the 2009 London Wiffleball Tournament. Both teams fared well in pool play, going undefeated at 3-0 in a new pool play format that was cut from four games to three games.
The 58 teams in the tournament that showed up were then seeded (improperly) in a double elimination tournament bracket based on record, then by run differential. The Nationals had an 8 run differential and received an 11th seed. The Senators had an amazing 36 run differential, but one of their games was reported to the tournament organizers as a loss, and they received a 23rd seed. They would have been a 2nd to 4th seed, though the exact numbers weren’t made clear at the time and adding more math to an already messed up situation wasn’t going to help. (We were told the top seed had a run differential of 45.) Even though no games had started the organizers said they were unable to correct the mistake, so the tournament went forward with that.
Commissioner Gallaway later discovered that seeding overall was done wrong because the organizers had the 1st seed play the 58th seed. A post will be coming soon explaining brackets and seeding, but the bottom line is this: in order for the seeding to be played out properly, with 58 teams, the top 6 teams need to get bye’s in the first round. The incorrect seeding caused major match-up problems starting in round two of the winner’s bracket and all rounds of the loser’s bracket. Again, this will all be explained more thoroughly in a later post.
Ultimately, the unlikely event that could have happend did happen. The Nationals and Senators played each other in an elimination game in the loser’s bracket in the third round of the tournament. The incorrect seeding of the Senators, as well as the incorrect matchups of all seeds caused a perfect storm of events. Despite losing the two practice games the night before, the Nationals prevailed and eliminated the Senators. They then turned right around and lost their next game, being eliminated themselves.
PWL Tournament Leaders
Batting
- AVG – Ty Fletcher (Senators) – .582
- HR – Jim Shannon (Senators) – 8
- RBI – Jim Shannon (Senators) – 16
Pitching
- ERA – Jake Tomko (Senators) – 6.14
- OBA – Tony Cani (Nationals) – .361
- K – Jake Tomko (Senators) – 4
Nationals [complete stats]
- Pool Play Game #1 – Astros (WIN 1-0) [box score]
- Pool Play Game #2 – Monsters (WIN 2-0) [box score]
- Pool Play Game #3 – Royals (FORFEIT WIN 5-0)
- Double Elimination #1 – Rockies (WIN 4-0) [box score]
- Double Elimination #2 – Phillies (LOSS 22-23) [box score]
- Double Elimination #3 – Senators (WIN 9-6) [box score]
- Double Elimination #4 – Dodgers (LOSS 4-18) [box score]
Senators [complete stats]
- Pool Play Game #1 – Red Wings (WIN 32-3) [box score]
- Pool Play Game #2 – Pine Riders (WIN 2-0) [box score]
- Pool Play Game #3 – Nuts (FORFEIT WIN 5-0)
- Double Elimination #1 – Astros (LOSS 3-7) [box score]
- Double Elimination #2 – Thunder (WIN 20-14) [box score]
- Double Elimination #3 – Nationals (LOSS 6-9) [box score]
- The umpire said the score of the Senators first game was 35 to 3, but it wasn’t. We watched the tape again. This will also be the first game uploaded to the website. The umpire commentary is PRICELESS!
