PERFEKTION: No-Hitters, Perfect Games, and the Year of the Pitcher

Written by Josh Smith

This season has featured the best pitching the league has ever seen. The ridiculously high batting averages are now a thing of the past as we can now better compare our hitting talent to that of other wiffleball leagues around the country (at least the ones that use yellow bats). Popping the batting average balloon was accomplishment enough but the level of pitching has been on the rise. The league is currently in the midst of an equilibrium of excellent pitching and decent hitting - the goldy locks zone where everyting seems to be just right.

The amount of strikeouts was expected to increase due to the skinnier bats and the increased pitching talent but when pitchers like Paul Hesson, Nick Kappra, & Jeremy Ray came along this year - strikeouts increased even more. Greg Sowards broke the old strikeout record last year with 69 strikeouts. Striking out 69 batters in the black bat era is astonishing but what is no surprise is that record being broken this year. But the record has already been eclipsed by two pitchers at the half-way point this year. At this pace, the new record could be in the triple digits. Here's a list of pitchers with the highest amount of strikeouts:

Steven Adkins: 73 Drew McClanahan: 71

Jeremy Ray: 45

Nick Kappra: 40

Josh Berletich: 39

The five of these pitchers will probably increase their strikeout count by at least 30% throughout the rest of the season. Walks have been steadily on the rise this year but not at a ridiculous rate. Last year pitchers walked 268 batters. This year 276 batters batters have walked to first thus far in the season. I don't feel this is a bad thing because what needs to be taken into consideration is that the bats have smaller surface area this year and chances of making contact are lower. Also, some pitchers are throwing 80+ mph and looking comes natural to batters after the first pitch.

The strikeout count alone this year is something to marvel. So far this year there have been 417 strikeouts compared to last year's total of 353. We could reach 600+ strikeouts this year by the end of the season if this pace persists. The strikeouts don't come easy since most batters have learned not to watch the first pitch. Pitchers that are dominating on the mound are methodical in their approach, I call them plastic surgeons. Their approaches vary on speed and movement but the result is the same: sitting batters down.

But this year something special has been taking place. No-Hitters and Perfect Games are on the rise! So far this year there have been 5 No-Hitters and 4 Perfect Games. That's never happened in this league. Such events have only happened a handful of times in the past couple of years. In 2012 there were 2 No-Hitters. In 2013 there was 1 No-Hitter and 2 Perfect Games. Now those figures have more than doubled this year and it's because of excellent pitching not just skinnier bats.

Drew McClanahan has had the most success this year as a plastic surgeon. He's thrown 3 Perfect Games and 2 No-Hitters (one of them split with Ryan Pritt) and he will probablly throw more before the year is done. He pitched 4 years at Concord University and his speed and delivery are unrivaled in the league. He has yet to give up a run all season, something no other player or team in the league has ever done for this long. At 10-0 the Breaking Balls show no signs of slowing down and really could go undefeated this year if something doesn't happen. Maroon $quad looked to go undefeated last year but ultimately crumbled towards the end of the season as opponents began to see through the hype. The ultimately went on to win the championship but their place in the national rankings suffered nonetheless. I don't think that will be the case for the Breaking Balls, they have more going for them than the Maroon $quad ever did.

Steven Adkins has really been coming into his own this year. He's thrown 1 Perfect Game and 2 No-Hitters. His blinding fastball is hard to come around on and if you do hit it it's usually a foul. He's leading the league with over 50 walks this year but the rate of that number has been declining. Richard Ball is the only other player to throw a No-Hitter and it was against Poker Night. You could shrug that off but it's still something to respect. Nick Kappra was absent the week Wee Willy Wiffle played Poker Night and if he were there he probably would have thrown his first No-Hitter or Perfect Game of the year, instead he still is having to be satisfied with shut outs. Shut outs are also at an all-time high, 26 this year compared to 23 last year.

Scoring is now harder than ever but that's not necessarily a bad thing. But pitchers have given up only 191 Earned Runs this year. Last year's figure? 718 ER! Goodbye football scores! Hello legitimacy. Behold! We are in the year of the pitcher.