Cape Girardeau native Jeff Augustine prefers the relaxed, backyard vibe of wiffleball to other organized sports like softball.

For a backyard game, Augustine's Sherwood Yards at his parents' Cape Girardeau home drew a crowd of contestants over the weekend at the 13th annual Wiffleball World Series.

This year, 12 teams competed in the tournament, held at the field Augustine has transformed over the years into a wiffleball mecca at 2130 Sherwood Drive, complete with benches for each team and a concrete home plate furnished with AstroTurf.

The teams represented five states and one team drove nearly eight hours from Kansas to play in the tournament, said Augustine, 34, now of Columbia, Mo.

In past years, a team from Georgia traveled to Cape Girardeau to play in the world series, and one year a group from Dallas participated in the tournament.

The Holiks' Tommy Waun pitches to a batter from of the Gurken Salad team during the semifinals of the 13th annual multistate wiffleball tournament Sunday. The Holiks came from Parsons, Kan., to play in the tournament.LAURA SIMON photos@semissourian.com

About five years ago, word about the annual tournament began to spread over the Internet, and the event just began growing, Augustine said.

Augustine's local team, the Diablos, has its own website, diablowiffleball.com, and that's helped draw attention to Sherwood Yards, he said.

Augustine has been playing wiffleball in the backyard with family and friends since he was 12, and continued to host pickup games in the backyard when he was a student at Southeast Missouri State University.

The idea to host a multistate wiffleball tournament at Sherwood Yards, however, actually came about during a poker game, Augustine said.

"We used to play poker or pinochle at my apartment, and one night somebody said, 'we should have a tournament,'" Augustine said.

Since so many people knew about the wiffleball field already, it wasn't long before word about the tournament spread, and the event grew, Augustine said.

"There was plenty of interest in it," he said.

Augustine said that though the teams definitely get competitive with one another, the weekend tournament is pretty much just a laid-back, family-oriented atmosphere.

"It's not such a formal setting as, say, a baseball field," Augustine said. "Everybody just really comes out to have a good time."

The Holiks, of Parsons, Kan., emerged victorious in Sunday's finals.

While some of the teams play as many as 60 games during the season, the same is not true of the Diablos, who have won championships four of the previous 12 years, Augustine said Sunday.

"The first time I swung a bat all year was yesterday," he admitted.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

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