ELKTON, MD— It was a perfect afternoon at the Terrapin Station Winery for 19^th Century Base Ball and the 6^th Annual Maryland 19^th Century Base Ball State Championship Tournament.  The Elkton Eclipse reclaimed the state title for the 5^th time in 6 years with an 11-8 victory over in-county rival, the Cecil Club of Chesapeake City who were the defending champions.

In the first match of the day, the Cecils played the Talbot Fair Plays who had been finalists the first 5 years of the state tournament, but never took home the championship.  Chesapeake City, the number 3 seed, started the game looking like the defending champions and jumped on top with a 8-0 lead.  Talbot, from Easton, Maryland chipped away at the lead until it was 8-8.  It stayed that way until the 8^th inning when the Cecils scored 8 times en route to a 16-8 victory and take them to the second straight title game.

In the last semi-final, the Eclipse who were the number 1 seed as well as the Mid Atlantic Vintage Base Ball League’s current leader, took on the Chesapeake & Potomac squad from the Baltimore/Washington area.  The Chessies have never won a state playoff match and the streak continued in 2012 as the Elkton Nine scored early and often on its way to a 30-6 rout of the club from the southwest.

This set up an all Cecil County final.  The Cecils scored the first ace, but the Eclipse came back with 2 of their own in the first.  After Chesapeake City tied it up in the 2^nd, the Eclipse never looked back and scored 5 in the third inning.  In a close match the rest of the way, the Eclipse were up 9-7 going in to the 8^th.  The Cecils scored one and were threatening with much more, but the Eclipse shut them down and then tacked on 2 more in the bottom of the 8^th.  Cecil was determined not to give up though and rallied to have the bases loaded with one out in the 9^th.  A pop out and a ground out ended the Cecil’s run and the Eclipse once again had the pennant back in the County Seat.