The day started off with maybe 2 favorites, and the rest were expected to go nowhere. The two favorites did not even make the playoffs. The projected 4th and 5th place teams; The teams of teddy McNamara, Chris McNamara, and Rico Piatelli along with the team of Matt Griffin, Matt Donohue, and Chris Murtagh surprised everyone including themselves both starting with a 4-0 start. The two teams then had to meet with the winner getting the bye into the finals. It was a back and forth game until finally Donohue’s team unleashed with 4 unanswered runs sealing the victory 6-5.

Gulino in action

Commissioner Matt Griffin received some heat after letting some players in, which others said would not be good enough to play. All that talk was wrong. Almost half the players were all new faces; Andy Haley, Colin Sullivan, Scott Hanson, Chris McNamara, Nicky Newhall, and Lino Patti. Each player proved to play a big role for their respected teams.

The Invitational started off with a bang with the much-waited game of the brothers McNamara/Rico vs. Haley/Colin/Lino. Sullivan took the mound for his team, opposing the other teams ace Teddy McNamara. Teddy is known mostly for his bat, but all tournament he got it done on the mound as well. It was a well fought battle staying scoreless most of the game until the Macs and Rico finally broke 2 runs and took the opened 2-1. Despite the lose Sullivan pitch a beauty striking out a ton(who counts anyways) including 4 off Rico. On the other field the team ‘Macking with Corbes’ (Casey, Mason, Corbes) took on the soon to be champs Donohue/C. Murt/Griffin. Corbes’ team jump off to an early 3-0 lead but it would not last long as their opponents responded with 13 unanswered runs including his first career Griffle Ball homerun by Chris Murtagh.

Sullivan at bat

Probably the favorite team coming into the Invitational, Gulino/Gibbs/West took the field to take on the team featuring 2 new faces; Newhall/Hanson/ and Brian Murt. The game was a low scoring one much like every other game played in, but unfortunately for Newhall’s team they fell short 2-1. The big story of this game however was rookie Nicholas P. Newhall-Quan. The last player accepted into the tourney, he was pretty much predicated to do nothing. He did the absolute opposite. One of the talks of the tourney, with his beautiful slider and unheard of fastball. All day he kept teams close but then lost them at the end losing 4 games by a total of 5 runs.

Another big story was the performance of rookie Andy Haley. Andy did not start game 1, but he did start game 2 taking Griffin’s team deep into the 3rd then giving up a 2 run homer and then 3 more runs in the 4th. The score may have seemed a little lop-sided but he kept the players guessing all day long.

4th Annual Griffle Ball Invitaional Champ Matt Donohue

2nd ranked player, and 1 half of the 1st and 2nd Griffle Ball champions, Mike Corbelle took the tourney by surprise, taking a perfect game through 6 innings, but then giving up a hit before finally finishing his shutout with a 1-0 victory. Corbes has been known throughout his career as a clutch hitter, but he did what he had to do on the mound. In a later game he gave up a home run to Tim West, and immediately removed himself from the game.

Gulino, Gibbs, and West got off to a solid 1-0 start, but then dropped 3 straight and won their 5th game but it proved to not matter, for the first time in his career Chris Gulino fell short of the playoffs. They battled all day but to no prevail. Slugger Kurtis

Griffle Ball rising star Nick Newhall

Gibbs was smoking the ball all day, but unfortunately the roof had to stay closed all day so he kept hitting the rafters among many other players. Shout out to Tim West on hitting his first ever homerun, and maybe his first hit, but hey, who’s counting…

Matt Griffin, Chris Murtagh, and Matt Donohue, who were expected to win 1 or maybe 2 games proved why you have to play the games. They came out and smoked a few teams but then had to get it done the hard way vs. others. Great pitching by Griffin and excellent fielding by both Murt and Donohue to help secure victories. All of them got it done at the plate, maybe at different times but at key moments.

When the semifinals came it was between the 4-1 teams of the McNamara’s/Rico vs. The 2-3 team of Sullivan/Lino/Haley. For the first time ever a team with only 2 wins had advanced, but they did what they had to do. Teddy McNamara threw the first ever-recorded perfect game. What we expected to be a blow out, turned out to be a pitching duel. Andy Haley

Rookie of the Year Canidate Chris McNamara

going to distance but getting no run support came up with the L.

The finals were a rematch of before when Griffin’s team faced Teddy’s. In the bottom of the first Griffin helped his own cause with a solo homerun. In the top of the 2nd Teddy responded with a homer of his own. Then in the bottom of the 2nd Griffin came back with another solo shot to give his team a 2-1 lead. Teddy would have none of it, as he hit yet another solo homerun to tie it at 2. That’s the way the game stayed until the 7th inning when they walked Griffin to get to the slumping Donohue. Matty D responded with a game winning triple just out of the reach of Rico.

The Griffle Ball league looks to host another tournament maybe during Christmas vacation, but probably not so they look to hold another at Hockey Town during February vacation. Only time will tell…