It was a gloreous day for 19th century base ball on Sunday, October 3rd as Fort Mott in New Jersey hosted the Mid Atlantic Championships.  The 6 top clubs in the league vied for the league title in a day long tournament in southern Jersey.

In the first round match ups Elizabeth took on Potomac while Bohemia was up against Talbot.  Talbot had won the Gettysburg Tournament and finished 2nd in the Maryland State Championships.  Bohemia is a first year club from Chesapeake City who has really taken to playing the vintage game well its first year.  After the first inning, Bohemia found itself up 5-4 in a close game.  That was as close as it got though and Bohemia pounded the ball and went on to defeat the Fair Plays handily.  In the other first round match, Elizabeth started with a 6-3 lead after 1 and never looked back in downing the Potomacs from Washington DC.

In the 5th place match, two Maryland foes went up against each other in a thrilling match.  Talbot was up 9-5 with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth and looked like they were going to take the consolation match.  All of the sudden the Potomacs bats woke up and tallied 4 aces to tie up the match and send it in to extra innings. In the 10th, the Potomacs plated the 10th and deciding run to win 10-9.

At noon the semi finals took place.  Elizabeth ran out of steam after downing the Potomacs and ended up losing to a fresh Atlantic Club 10-3.  In the other semi final, the two clubs from the Elkton Base Ball Club met up for a rematch of the week before.  Last week Bohemia downed the Eclipse 16-7 and they started off right where they left off.  Bohemia hit the ball all over the field and built up a strong 16-6 lead going in to the 8th inning.  Elkton looked dead in the water, but a couple of timely hits and the Eclipse came roaring back.  The veterans from Elkton put up 7 runs in the 8th inning to get the score to 16-14.  After holding the Eurekas scoreless in the 9th, the Elkton club wasted no time in posting 3 runs with just 5 batters to squeak out a 17-16 victory.

In the 3rd place match, a quick forming rivalry between the Resolutes from Elizabeth and the Eurekas resulted in Bohemia walking away with a 9-5 win.

The championship match was one where both clubs had been on a colision course since April when they went back and forth all year between first and second place.  The Eclipse started off right where they left off against Bohemia jumping out to a 5-2 lead after 1.  Elkton then built the lead to 7-3 and seemed in control of the whole match until the 6th inning when the wheels fell off for the Eclipse.  Great hitting by the Atlantic and some sloppy play by the Eclipse resulted in an 11 run outburst.  The Atlantic then built on their 14-7 lead and won going away to take home the 2010 Mid Atlantic Vintage Base Ball League Championship.

It was a great season by all 13 clubs who participated and 2011 looks to be even brighter.  HUZZAH to all the clubs who participated this year and we look forward to 2011!