Michigan State Championship

Game 1 - Kent 12, Bay City 3
The men from Kent won the coin toss and elected to let the Bay Citys strike first. It was a bad sign when the first three Independents strikers went down in order. The day became increasingly worse when the Kents struck for 4 runs in their part of the 1st innings. The gentleman from Bay City appeared to right the ship when they loaded the sacks with not a hand lost in the top part of the second innnings, but alas the next three hands were lost and not a tally was made. The Kents would be relentless in adding runs to their list of tallies in the next three innings, while the Bay Citys left the sacks loaded again and only added two aces to their score. By the time the Bay City defense had steered itself from danger the score was already to great to overcome and the match was ended with the score Kent 12 and Bay City 3.


Game 2 - Bay City 24, Greenfield Village 10
In match number two of the day the Bay Citys seem to find their lost striking ability. In the top half of the first innings the Independents struck hard and made their way to 15 aces. Not to be outdone in their half the Lah-de-dahs of Greenfield Village tallied 9 aces of their own in the bottom half of the first innings. The Bay Citys would slam the door shut on their opponents for nearly the rest of the contest, and would continue to tally many runs with some fine striking. The match would hold some sadness though. Kid Garcia, who had played brilliantly in the field patrolling as left scout, injured himself and was lost for the remainder of the day. Twinkle-Toes Brissette, who had found fine striking form in both morning matches, was lost as well when he pulled up lame at first base. Both players showed a great deal of sand by finishing the contest, and smiling bravely at the conclusion. Bay City earned not only a win, but the admiration of the gentlemen from Greenfield Village and recieved an invitation to play at their homefield on August 7th of this year. The fine attitude by both teams was not lost on the cranks.



Championship Match – Rochester 16, Bay City 7



Thanks to their fine play against the La-de-dahs the Bay Citys found themselves with the opportunity to win the Silas K. Pierce Cup. True to form the Bay Citys lost the coin toss, and the Grangers of Rochester elected to strike first. As is their norm the Grangers struck well and quickly gained a 7 aces to 1 advantage against the hometown boys. Despite being low on healthy bodies the Bay Citys were not low on morale, or talent. They quickly made up the difference and found themselves with a chance to win in the end. The last innings found the Grangers ahead by merely one tally with the score 8-7. They quickly erased all doubt as to the outcome of the contest in their last at bat, and rang the tally bell 8 times to take a commanding lead. The final score could have been much worse had it not been for an innings ending play by Scott "Umpy" Umphrey. Being forced to change position due to injuries Umpy made a miraculous, one handed grab of a howitzer off the bat of one of the fine Granger strikers. The play drew huzzahs from both clubs. However, Umpy's grand play was not enough to rescue the Bay Citys from defeat. The Independents gained fine praise from the Grangers excellent fielding short stop, Goodfella Pratasek, at the contest's end, but that was all they would leave the field with. The Grangers would take home the cup, and the Bay Citys would have to be content with having earned some respect on the day.