LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – It was another windy night at The Hideaway on Monday for a pair of doubleheaders. The Warbirds and Calicos faced off first, followed by a series between the Snappers and Bombers. The end of week six will mark the midpoint in the season, with the number of games played across the league averaging out at 21 games. The Sandvipers have control of first place, and the Stone Men are in the basement, but 2-7 is pretty tight, and 3-6 could come down to the final few games of the season.
The first game of the evening was a pitchers’ duel despite the windy conditions, with Matt Petrikas and Alex Carrasco trading zeros for the first four innings. Carrasco walked out of the game with one out in the fifth, but Matty Levine was able to get the next two outs, preserving the shutout. In the bottom of the inning Petrikas set the Calicos down 1-2-3, and he also had a shutout through regulation, so the game went into extra innings still scoreless. The first batter of the sixth, KJ Lacroix, hit a leadoff two-run homer because a runner is placed at second base to start the inning. Levine walked his second batter after getting two outs, but Calicos manager Nick DiVella came in to get the third out, giving his team a chance after loading the bases with a walk of his own. Barry Hutter worked a walk to lead off the bottom of the sixth, getting Petrikas out of the game. Chad Phillips came in to try to close it out, but DiVella got under a riser, and hit it up into the jetstream for a walk-off home run, giving his team the 3-2 win in dramatic fashion.
In the second game of the series both teams scored unearned runs in the first inning thanks to an RBI double from Barry Hutter, and an RBI single from Warbirds manager Chris “Warchicken” Warfield. The game remained tied at one run apiece until Nate Serisky hit a two run double to give the Warbirds a 3-1 lead. Petrikas closed it out in the fifth, combining with Brian “Uncle B” Puter and Phillips to allow only one hit, the double from Hutter in the first inning.
The Snappers got out to an early lead against the Bombers in the first game of their doubleheader thanks to an RBI triple from Rookie of the Year candidate Taylor Bryner in the second inning, and a two-run homer from Bryner in the third. Bombers manager TJ Brown cut the lead in half with a two-run shot of his own in the bottom of the fourth, but Snappers co-manager Jesse Capps answered with another two-run shot in the fifth. Brown singled and scored in the bottom of the inning, and he was just a triple shy of the cycle, but the Snappers took game one with a 6-3 win.
The Bombers opened the scoring in game two with back to back RBI singles from Peter Mocabee and Brandon Maio in the top of the second, but in the bottom of the inning the Snappers were able to walk Maio out of the game, and they rattled off eight runs thanks to homers from Manny Santillanes, Jonathan Wilson, and Bryner. In the third Mocabee got in on the action with a solo shot, but the Snappers put up five more runs in the bottom of the inning, and they won the game 13-3 in just three innings due to the ten run mercy rule.
The next Premier League Wiffle® games will be tonight, Thursday, March 18th. There will be a full slate of games, with doubleheaders between the Sandvipers & Calicos at 4:30pm PDT, Warbirds & Bombers at 6pm, Stone Men & The Ones at 7:30pm, and Snappers & Tomahawks at 9pm. Tune in LIVE on Twitch! There will also be a PLW tournament next weekend, March 27th-28th, and the winning team will receive a $2,000 cash prize. There are still a few spots remaining, so sign up today!
