2022 ‘Way Past Our Prime’ Capture 25+ Division Championship at Rochester MSBL
Rochester MSBL, 25+ Division
Way Past Our Prime 5, Tribe 3
Submitted by Nick D’Ambrosio, WPOP manager
‘Roman and Schworm Lead the Way’
The 2022 WPOP team was the true definition of a team in every facet. That may have been the best characteristic of us as a group you could get. Yes, some had some nice seasons statistically, but what the stats do not show you is that in every game, somebody new always came up with the clutch hit, the needed walk, or made the defensive play that sealed the win. That’s what makes a team great, that’s the true definition of a team is the ability to count on any one member to make the necessary play when we needed it most.
WPOP finished the regular season 19-3, good enough for second place in the National Division. The playoffs started off extremely rocky for us, pun intended, as truthfully, the Rockies gave us everything they had and pushed us to the brink. We managed to stack runs late and prevailed in a 5-3 win after trailing for six innings as we would only trail one more inning the rest of the postseason.
In the Divisional championship, we fell down quickly after a shaky first inning defensively but poured it on the Giants after that, ending up with a 12-7 win.
In the league championship we squared off with the top American Division team, and champion, the Tribe for what turned out to be an exciting pitchers’ duel at Dwyer Stadium. Not enough can be said about the pitching performance that Casey Guary put up against us. He certainly left everything out on that mound and we tip our caps to his performance and everyone else on the Tribe as we battled back and forth before securing a 5 to 3 win to capture the league championship. Mike Roman led the way offensively for us with two doubles and four trips on base overall to go with Greg Schworm’s complete game on the mound.
A few players deserve individual recognition from this team for their individual performances in particular and how much they meant to the team. Jon Keenan was our batting champ and arguably the regular season MVP. I can’t even tell you the last time he touched a baseball diamond and his year started a little slower than I know he wanted but during the middle of the season, we didn’t have a better spark on our team than the intensity that Jon brought every game and every at-bat.
Greg Schworm was our postseason MVP. Not much else needs to be said besides his pitching box score in the championship, throwing nine grueling innings versus the Tribe, but add in the complete game he threw against the Rockies and then six innings against the Giants. Greg was our workhorse all year, always pitching the toughest assignments and never backing down despite not pitching in over a couple of years.
This was an extremely fun season and an extremely fun team to be a member of!