Day One Update: A Walk (or 641) To Remember

The tournament this year is, as always, very impressive and Chris Gallaway has continued to amaze us with his ability to make it possible for us to live the fantasy that is the NWLA Tournament. So, as per requirement by the tournament, here is our update on all things HWL-related for the first day of the tournament.

We played Skibbe Wiffle Ball League first at 9:15am this morning (we were fortunate with pool play draw time-wise) and got killed 23-1. The eyerolls were probably abundant from others who watched as we were predicted to finish near the bottom. But we figured something out about strategy in this game and in subsequent games...more on that later.
Next we played SRL who could only bring 3 guys. First of all, the fact that these guys have a skeleton crew this year and are even trying is worth a tip of my heart. Also, they are really cool guys and I'm glad we got to meet them. They had a lead on us for a big chunk of our game but we ended up coming back and winning 8-7. Close call for us but that would be the start of a 3-game winning streak. SRL, unfortunately, did not win any games all day.
Then we faced MNWA. They are really young dudes, barely 18 and they love Capri Suns and Hawaiian Punch. They also were very clever when we almost ran out of time on the clock (yes we were timed in pool play games). We beat them 8-0 but would see them later. <3 MNWA
Our last pool play game was against Kalamazoo Wiffle League. We didn't know much about their crew this year except that Brian Lewis has really taken charge of the team (kudos) and Brian Meyers was not coming. Ryan Winfield thankfully came with the team and has managed to hang on to his car keys the entire weekend thus far. We won 9-3.
We were seeded #5 in the double elimination bracket and played MNWA again. There were a lot of walks but in the bottom of the sixth Nick Kappra bailed us out with a walk-off home run to end the game with us winning 13-12.
Finally we played Mequon Wiffle League and lost 11-0. There were some...interesting umpiring calls during the game. This game brings us to now and we play OCWA at 8:00AM tomorrow morning in the loser's bracket. Somebody's going home.
There have been over 600 walks in the tournament so far. Walking is boring and a lot of teams are doing it. It's slowing games down and that's why we only had 45 minutes for pool play games to ensure bracket times started as planned. It's a major issue that I think many people in the tournament are unaware of or do not feel is a problem.