The History of Balls Deep

The beginning of Balls Deep goes back to the summer of 2001. The 3 Griffin boys; Marc, Chris, and Matt constantly played in their backyard, in Byfield, Mass. After a summer of playign each other, and beating their friends they were introduced to wiffleball 'tournaments' by Brian Rybicki. Rybicki was the best wiffle baller they Griffins had seen up to date. After a little while of internet searching they noticed that the New England Wiffle Association was holding a tournament in Sharon, MA in August. The boys put a team in and named in, 'Team Byfield', seeing all four players were originally from Byfield. Unfortunatly for Marc, he could not attend the tourney due to some prior commitments(a wedding). So the team consisted of Matt[14] and Chris Griffin[22], Brian Rybicki[23], and Ryan Donohue[22]. They went down to the tournament having no idea what to expect. The team wasn't sure how good they would compare to all these teams who had been doing these tourneys for a few years.

The suprsing put up a great showing going 3-1 and advancing to the next round ranked 14th. The next day the team showed up, fired up, and finding out they were going to play division rival from the last day, the Southern NH Swingers. The first time the teams met, it was all pitching with Team Byfield winning by 1 run on a walk in extra innings. This game was different. First inning, Ryan Donohue hit a 3 run bomb to put Team Byfield ahead 3-0 and they never looked back as Rybicki shut the Swingers out. In Round 2 the team had to face a team who had obviously done this before, The Fighting Beavers. The Beavers recieved a first round bye and were ready for Team Byfield. In the 4th inning, the fielding arrangement changed as Chris Griffin moved in to play infield with guys on 1st and 2nd leaving Matt alone in the outfield. The Beavers connected with a line drive to left out of the reach of Matt giving the Beavers a lead that held up the rest of the game, 2-0. It was quite obvious the team had some work to do if they wanted to compete in future tournaments, they were totally unprepared.

One month later the team entered a tournament run by Wiffle Up in Hopkington, Mass. This would be the teams first 'fast pitch' tourney. The team had a new addition this time, Marc Griffin was able to attend giving them a 5 man roster. Team Byfield reazled they were in need of a team name change, they just ddin't have an interesting enough name, so Rybicki suggested Balls Deep, and of course, the rest of the team agreed 100%. In Hopkington the team went 2-1 in regular play losing only to the Trenton Giants who finished 3rd in the end of the tourney. Balls Deep ended up playing Kazakk in game 1 of the playoffs and won that game 5-0, but then drawing a tough game vs. The R.I. Kings who later went on to tie for 3rd with the Giants. The Kings dominated Balls Deep who just was not ready for what they brought, amazing pitching. Not a bad overall day, good experience.

The next tournament that Balls Deep entered was run by the Wiffle tournament Federation in Natick, MA. The team ran through their first roudn competition going an amazing 4-0, dominating all teams by atleast 6 runs. The next day the team came back feeling very good about their chances/seed. First round we drew the Fliesh Boys. Unfortunalty the game was closer then we would have liked winning by a score of 1-0 with a top of the 6th homerun by Chris Griffin to give the team the W, Rybicki was perfect the whole game. Next round, B.D. faced off against one of the better teams in the tourney, a team of 2 called, The Truth. The Truth was dominant all day, but was ranked real low because they saved their #1 pitcher for day 2. It was nothing but pitching this game as it went into the 6th, 0-0 with no hits yet. Some how with 2 outs, the Truth pitcher got rattled and walked 3 in a row bringing up Matt Griffin w/ 2 outs and bases loaded. His older brother Chris gave some words of encouragement before he went up there-"Don't swing, dude." However, Matt ignored what his brother had to say and laced a single up the middle to drive in the games only run. In the bottom fo the 6th, The Turth walked 3 times as well and with 2 outs their power hitter came up. The count went full, bases loaded 2 outs and Rybicki delivered a great rising fastball which just caught the top of the K zone to seal the game. Balls Deep entered the Final 8, but got stuck vs. The Brew Crew. The Brew Crew came out and smoked Rybicki's pitching for 4 runs in the first inning. Ribs pulled himself and marc Griff came in on relief and only gave up 1 more run the rest of the game, but it didn't matter. Balls Deep scored 1 run on a solo homer by Marc, losing 5-1 and JUST missing a chance at atleast a box of twinkies.

After their best tournament yet, the team entered another NEWA tourney, one year from their last at Sharon, MA. The only difference was it was just the 3 Griffin brothers, no Donohue or Rybicki. This tournament the team once again did outstanding in round 1 going 3-0, then losing to Take-A-Whiff 1-0 with an extra inning walk. On Day 2 Balls Deep opened up against The Heavy Hitters and dominated them 9-3 including homeruns by all 3 of the Griffins. In game 2, Balls Deep drew the 3 Angry Popes, who only has 2 players...Anyways the game opened up with Balls Deep striking first, with 2 on 2 out, Marc hit a deep one that was robbed by great catch by the Pope outfielder, but the next inning, the team put together a string of hits to take a 2-0 lead, and that would prove to be the final score. Again the team made the Final 8 but was stopped there getting stuck against Doom. After a good 2 innings, and a conterversial ball/strike call while Doom was batting. Marc seemed to loose his posure on the moudn walking 4 and giving up a few hits and the team went down 4-0. Each player got 2 hits but they couldnt put any consecutive ones so it made no difference. Balls Deep loses to Doom 4-0, however Doom reports the score of 5-0[cool guys].