May 1  New York Gothams at Mountain Athletic Club

On our first hot day of the season we mourned our third and forth loss.  The Mountain Athletic Club came all the way down from the beautiful Catskills Mountains (where it snowed three days before).  With timely hitting and fielding and Gotham untimely hitting and fielding, MAC whopped the Gotham Club fairly handily.

1864 rules

The only thing we won this game was the bat toss.  The Gotham defense at the top of the first shut the MAC down.  In the bottom of that inning the Gotham Club took the lead with Flytrap’s single, stolen base and Stocking’s double.  Unfortunately we could not capitalize on this offense and did not score another ace that inning.  Unfortunately (again) at the top of the 2nd inning through a combination of MAC’s well placed hits and Gotham Club’s bad defense, MAC scored  10 aces.  In the third inning, the MAC scored another ace.  The Gotham Club scored 3 aces in the fifth inning on well placed hits and stolen bases by Stockings and Stacks and a mighty wallop of a four bagger by Shoeless.  The Gotham Club would score one more ace that game.  Meanwhile MAC scored 6 more.  The final tally was Gotham Club 6 MAC 17.

The heat took its toll on the unprepared teams and we were too worn out to play this so-called game of 1895 “baseball.”  Therefore we elected to play the gentleman’s sport of 1864 Base Ball.  Needless to say this gave the Gotham Club confidence that we might be able to win.

The top of the first inning saw the Gotham Club score two aces on two singles and two stolen bases by the fleet-footed Collector and el Presidente.  In their halves of innings, the MAC scored many runs.  In the top of the 3rd inning Collector would not let Shoeless have the only home run of the day and hit one himself.  In the 4th inning the Gotham Club scored two more runs on Shoeless and Stacks singles and stolen bases.  However by the 5th inning the Gotham Club found themselves behind 15 to 7.  The Gotham Club scored 3 more aces and allowed MAC to score 3 more times.  The final score was Gotham Club 10 Mountain Athletic Club 18.  Gotham Club’s poor defense and questionable offense along with MAC’s well struck balls foiled our efforts to not have a winless season.

May 2  Havre de Grace at Elkton

The short handed Dauntless of Havre de Grace called on some members of the newly formed Eureka Club of Bohemia to assist in its 2 game challenge of the Eclipse played at McMillian Farm in Calvert, Maryland.  In 90+ degree heat, the Dauntless kept up with the Elkton club in what was a re-match of the hard fought 2009 Maryland State Championship semi final.  The same 9-5 result was achieved for the Eclipse as what happened at the state championships last year.  Once again, the game was a lot closer until the Eclipse broke open a 5-3 game with 4 runs in the 6th and then cruised the rest of the way.  The match was concluded with a second game in which the mightly Eclipse outscored the challengers from Hartford County 14-10 to improve to 7-0 on the season and win its 32nd game out of its last 34.  The Dauntless drop to 0-5 on the early season.

Atlantic BBC of Brooklyn 13 Mutual BBC of NY 3

Atlantic BBC of Brooklyn 8 Mutual BBC of NY 4

Atlantic was invited to play at Islip Grange in Sayville, with the New York Mutuals as their opponent. The Mutuals stayed close the first game, as Atlantic led 4-3 after 6 innings, but Atlantic then put together a flurry of hits to score 8 aces in their 7th inning to secure a 13-3 victory. Nice & Easy led Atlantic with 3 hits, and TC, Butcher, Dreambucket, Flash and Hammy each contributed 2 hits. Tree pitched the distance to pick up the victory.

The second game was highlighted by good defense by both teams, with Atlantic again prevailing in a close 8-4 contest. TC banged out 3 hits for Atlantic with a double and 2 aces scored. Dreambucket, with a homerun, and Tuna each had 2 hits, as Hammy picked up the complete game victory in the second game.

In other matches, the Athletic BBC of Philadelphia is still looking for its first win of the season as it dropped to 0-3 with a 22-3 loss to the veteran Diamond State BBC of Delaware at Fairmount Park in Philadelphia.  On Sunday, the Elizabeth Resolutes defeated their rivals, the Flemington Neshanock in a game played in Ringwood, NJ.