Independents Next Match

Bay City 11, Midland 5
Veteran's Memorial Park, Bay City

The day began as most matches seem to for the hometown boys, with a lost coin toss. The visitors, from over Midland way, chose to strike first. The rules here in Bay City permit for stealing to be as big a portion of the game as it was in 1860, and the River Hogs took full advantage of that in the first innings. The gentlemen from Midland used their quick feet to position themselves for 3 early aces, and sure enough the Bay Citys found themselves behind once again.

The Independents decided to use the their speed as well, and positioned themselves for two aces in their half of the first innings. The rally was led by none other then "Big Wood" David and the Garcia brothers, Doc and Kid. Now the score stood 3-2.

Both clubs shared some whitewashing until the third innings, when "Big Wood" struck again. This time he drove in "Tanner" LeRoux, and then took his second base so that "Doc" Garcia could drive him home yet again. Now the Bay Citys had gained the upper hand at 4 aces to 2.

As in their previous matches, once the Independents had taken the lead, they would not relenquish it. The hometown lads continued their fine striking by tallying aces in every innings, but their last. For Midland things were as before as well, because they tallied the final ace of the match, but it would not be near enough to catch the Bay Citys. The final tally total beheld the Independents 11 and River Hogs 5.

The hometown club now holds the series title for this season at 3 matches to none. The Midland Club can hope to gain back some of their losses in return matches for this series in August and September, but for now it can be seen that the Independents truly are the "Lumber Kings" of the Bay Area.

Bay City 17, Midland 7

The battle of the lumber towns resumed today. The venue of match two, which found the River Hogs one game down, was the lovely Village of Sebawing. Despite the neutral site, the Midland club made themselves quite at home, and staked themselves to an early 3 aces to none lead over the Independents.

In the fourth innings the Bay City club would find their form, thanks to the alert base running of Sean "Tanner" LeRoux and their clutch two hands lost hitting, and tallied 6 aces for themselves. The River Hogs would not be outdone, and rang the tally bell two times in their half of the 4th innings to narrow the Bay City lead to one.

The Midland Club whitewashed the Bay Citys in the next two innings, and evened the score in the bottom of the 6th innings.

Again it was with two hands lost that the top of the Independents striking order came to life. Led by the striking of "Tanner" LeRoux, Branden "The Rope" Revette, Dan "Pudge" Decuf, Dennis "Double D." Dinauer, and Ray "The Banker" Banister, the hometown club would score 5 runs before closing their half of the 7th innings.

The Bay City fieldsman then laid down some whitewashing of their own for the next two River Hogs innings, but continued their own fine striking in their usual two hands down form. This time it was the bottom half of the order who led the ace parade. Jayme "Stats" Johnson started a rally that would see its finish when the Bay Citys had totaled 6 more runs, to bring their total to 17 for the match.

The River Hogs rang the final tally of the day in their half of the ninth innings, but it would not be enough. The final score of the match would find the River Hogs on the short end of a 17-7 tally total.

The Bay Citys now hold the upper hand in the "Lumbermen Series", at 2 matches to none. The "Series" will resume on Tuesday, June 21st, at 6pm. The venue will be Field A, at Veteran's Memorial Park, in Bay City.

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.

Bay City 10, Midland 5

The first match to decide supremacy between the Mid-Michigan lumber towns got off to a rousing start. The River Hogs of Midland County won the coin toss at the start of the contest, and they chose to strike first.

Their choice seemed like a wise one, and they quickly jumped out to an early lead in their half of the first innings. The Independents, lead by the bats of "Tanner" LeRoux, "Little Train" Johnson, and "Kid" Garcia, stormed back to tie the match at two aces apiece. Then, while still in their half of the 1st innings, "Shoeless Jeff" Dinauer would push across the go ahead tally driven in by the bat of "Wonderboy" Loiselle.

The River Hogs were not to be taken lightly on this day, and they returned the favor to the Bay City Club by matching with three aces of their own in the top half of the 2nd innings. The Midland Club would hold that lead until the fourth innings. It was at that time that the Independents seized their opportunity to strike, and strike they did. Led again by the fine striking of "Wonderboy" Loiselle, the Bay Citys would ring the tally bell three times with "Wonderboy", "The Rope", and Scott "Umpy" Umphrey doing the honors. The Independents would not trail from that point on.

The rest of the contest was marked by fine fielding by both clubs. The River Hogs saw many fine fielding efforts by their Captain "Photo Joe" Rocha at short stop, and in the 8th innings "Grizzly" Krause retired the side himself by making three fine catches of foul balls from the Bay City bats. The Independents fieldsmen made many a fine play as well, but none were as graceful as "Kid" Garcia's fine over the shoulder catch to retire a River Hog batter in the sixth innings.

When the match came to a close, with the Bay Citys on top with a total of 10 tallies to 5, both clubs were able to smile and appreciate the fine efforts of their opponents. Members of both groups gathered together afterwards and enjoyed some fine stories and grand Midland hospitality. We can hardly wait to read the next chapter in the 2005 battle between the lumber jack cities. See you all on Saturday, June 18th in Sebawing when we will rejoin the series.