W.T. Match 3. Independents vs. Squires
Sunday, August, 05, 2007 | at
Greenfield Village
Champion Division Semi-final
Bay City 14, Spiegel Grove Squires 15 – Slip Slidin Away
The second day of the tournament for the Independents held no sunny skies, no rainbows, but only mud and persistent rain. This was the semi-final match in the Champion Division of the tournament, and it would be a re-match of last year’s semi-final pitting the Spiegel Grove Squires of Ohio and our fine Bay City nine. In last year’s sunshine the Bay Citys emerged triumphant by a score of 16-7, but this year Mother Nature had conspired against our boys and placed them in a precarious situation.
The match began with Bay City winning the coin toss and electing to strike first. It seemed a wise choice as the ball would only become heavier and much harder to drive cleanly as the day went on. Mr. LeRoux led off for the Independents, and as has become his custom, drove a clean ball to the third base man that allowed him to make his first. In an act of thievery, LeRoux took his second and then his third in succession. He was driven home on a liner to right field by Big Wood David. David would also take his second on the next pitch from the Squires. The next striker in the Bay City order would lose his hand to a sky ball to center field. Doc Garcia then strode to the plate and immediately crushed a sure double down the left field line, no easy feat as right field is ordinarily where he places the ball. What appeared to be a sure hit was not as in a brilliant move the Squires left fielder bottled the ball in a one handed effort, and then forced Mr. David off of second when he had scurried away in what looked like a sure scoring chance. The Bay Citys would leave the innings with only one tally, and the Squires would match the effort to produce a tie at 1-1.
Since Mr. David produced the third out in the previous innings the Garcia brothers would have another chance to prove their mettle in striking, and this time they would not fail. Kid Garcia, the elder of the brothers, showed his younger sibling how to properly drive the ball into the long field and was able to make his first. He then took his second on a clean steal. Kid attempted to show Doc, the younger of the two, how to thieve third base when Doc saw a pitch he simply had to have. Doc, the fine first base man of the nine, sent a howitzer to the long field between center and first and had the last laugh between the two boys as he easily made his third on that single blow. “Buttons” McInerney would strike next. Fresh off his home run from the previous day Mr. McInerney placed a fine daisy cutter into right field. Buttons easily made his first, but on a fine play by the Squires defense, he was caught trying to reach his second and the first hand in the innings was lost. Mr. Dennis Dinauer would strike next and he was robbed of his first by a sliding catch in left field. A two hands lost rally seemed in order again for the Bay Citys, and in customary fashion they obliged. Rope Revette made his second on a clean drive to the long field stole his third and then was brought home by another daisy cutter by Mr. Koch. Sawmill Koch made his second on yet another liner by “Shoeless Jeff” Dinauer. Koch then stole third, and Dinauer took his second on the same play. Jayme “High Steppin” Johnson then hit a drive to second base that allowed him to make his first and brought home Mr. Koch. Johnson later took his second by theft. Dan “Rainmaker” Decuf then hit his second triple of the tournament and drove home the two base runners to tally. Unfortunately Decuf would be stranded at third as the next striker in the order would lose their hand to the Squires defense. The Bay Citys then quickly dispatched the Squires in a whitewashing and at the close of the second innings the score stood at 7-1 in the Independents’ favor.
The Squires then laid down some whitewashing of their own in the third innings and then tallied two runs for themselves to bring the contest to 7-3 for Bay City. The fourth innings saw Bay City lose their first hand in the innings before bringing up “Tanner” LeRoux for his second turn at striking. LeRoux hit another mud raker to the third base man that allowed him to make his first. Despite muddy conditions the speedy LeRoux took both his second and his third in successive steals. As had become tradition for the tournament, Mr. David then drove a ball to right field to allow Mr. LeRoux to tally. David then stole his second, but he would get no further as the next striker would lose his hand on a sky ball to the center field, and a fine play by the Squires first base man would take the third hand in the innings from the next Bay City striker. The score now stood at 8-3.
The rain persisted into the fourth innings, and should have been an ominous sign of things to come as the Squires took their turn to strike. The ball had by now simply become as heavy as a cannonball, and as slick as a greased pig, as a consequence through a succession of fine hits by the Squires and missteps from Bay City, the Squires placed seven tallys on the ledger and took the lead 10-8.
In the fifth innings the Bay City boys would tie up the match when Buttons McInerney took his first on a blow to center field. He then took his second and third on stolen bases, and was then driven home on a daisy cutter to left field by “Double D” Dinauer. Dinauer would take second and third in the same manner as Mr. McInerney and come home on a drive to the short stop by Rope Revette. Revette would lose his hand on the play and the next striker, Sawmill Koch, would take up the gauntlet for the Bay Citys with another hit to left field. Koch would then take his second by theft and would be brought to third by a fine swing of the willow by “Shoeless Jeff” Dinauer. Dinauer would then steal his second. With runners on second and third the following striker, Mr. Johnson, would see his hand lost to a fine play by the Squires first base man on a foul bound to the right side. The next hand would also be lost to a sky ball in the infield, and the runners would be left on base. A chance to take the lead in the contest would be lost and the match now stood at 10-10.
The sixth innings would see “Twinkle-Toes” Brissette return to the stripe for Bay City, and he and the Independent defense skunked the Squires in order in both the fifth and sixth innings. In their sixth innings the Bay Citys took the lead in the contest again when Mr. Brissette hit a clean single into left field and then stole his second and third. He would be driven in by yet another two hands lost stinger into left field by Ron “Irish” O’Laughlin, a veteran to many a tight scratch in his days. The next hand would be lost and the sixth innings finished, but with the sun now trying to push back the clouds, Bay City took back the lead at 11-10.
After the above mentioned whitewashing of the Squires, the Independents sent “Tanner” LeRoux to the plate again, and as before the results were the same. A clean ground ball to the short stop allowed the fleet striker to make his first. He then steamed up the base paths for two more stolen bases, and would be driven home on a ground ball to the first base man by Mr. David. David would lose his hand though and there would be one less out to be had by the Squires. Kid Garcia now came to the plate and drove a clean single to the long field. He then took his second by theft and would be brought in to score on a safety by Garcia the younger. Doc Garcia would then flash his speed as he stole second base. He then took third on a ground ball to short stop by Buttons McInerney. Buttons would lose his hand in the process, as would the next striker in the order and Doc would be left at third. Bay City now led in a close match at 13-10.
The sun would be lost to the clouds again, and in a near recurrence of the fourth innings, the Squires would take advantage of the Bay Citys to place five runs into the ledger. The gentlemen from Ohio now took the lead for the second time in the match at 15-13.
Bay City, in their last time at bat, sent Rope Revette to the plate. He sent a fine ground ball to the Squires third base man, and to his credit he made a fine play to nip Revette at first. Bay City now had only two hands left to lose. The next striker was Sawmill Koch. The Squires had not been able to keep Koch off the bases all day, and now would be no different as Koch sent another daisy cutter between the third base and short stop for Spiegel Grove. Koch would then steal his second, and “Shoeless Jeff”, who had been equally elusive on the day, drove Koch to third on a fine hit to left field. Dinauer would steal his second and place the tying run of the match in scoring position. Mr. Koch would then tally and Mr. Dinauer took third on a ground ball to first base that would see Mr. Johnson lose the second hand of the innings for the Bay Citys. The Independents would leave the tying run at third as the last out of the innings would be recorded by the Squires defense, and the hopes of Bay City returning to the Championship game would be extinguished. The humble gentlemen from Ohio would take the contest at 15-14. Bay City would now pack up their wagons and head home, their hopes dashed by the fine play of the Spiegel Grove gentlemen. The only solace they could take with them was their own fine play, and show of sportsmanship in their previous matches.
Ballist H.L. Runs
LeRoux ss 0 3
David 3rd 2 0
K.Garcia lf 2 2
D.Garcia 1st 2 1
McInerney cf 2 1
D.Dinauer 2 1
Revette c 2 1
Koch 0 2
J.Dinauer 2nd 0 1
Johnson 2 1
Decuf 2 0
Banister 2 0
Brissette p 1 1
Freehling 2 0
O’Laughlin 1 0
Umphrey rf 2 0
Totals 24 14