Bay City Independents

Bay City visits Midland

Tridge, Midland, MI

July 16, 2010

Bay City 8, Midland 1

It was a beautiful evening, and fine crowd had assembled to watch the River Hogs and Independents take up a friendly competition in a match game of base ball.  These two clubs have become quite familiar with one another over the past 6 seasons, and the matches are always enjoyable.

 The umpire for the match, Gary Rocha, presided over the coin toss, which was won by the Bay Citys.  Breaking from tradition the Bay Citys chose to take the field, rather then strike first.  The order of the striking didn’t seem to matter as each club skunked the other in the first innings. 

In the second innings the River Hogs would kick up their heels against the Bay City fieldsman and place their first two strikers neatly on first and second sack.  The third striker in the order, Mark Gessford, drove the apple deep into the pasture where the Independent’s left fielder, Britt Venchura, camped under the sky ball and then appeared to muff the ball.  Venchura is a rather bright lad, a PhD in fact, but no string of lettered learning could have foretold his brilliance at playing the points in ball that he displayed next.  After allowing the ball to slip through his hands, thus striking the soil, Venchura scooped up the onion on the bound to allow the striker to lose his hand, the first of the innings, by muffing the ball on the first try Venchura had fooled the runner on first into trying to make his second which he did only to find it previously occupied.  The runner who was standing on second for the Midlanders then made a mad dash for third, and now the trap was sprung as Venchura unleashed a strike to the third sacker, Branden “The Rope” Revette, who promptly tagged the runner for the second hand lost in the innings.  Revette then spied the lone River Hog base runner left now trying to make his way back to first, and fired a cannonade to the base tender, Justin “Doc” Garcia who made the tag and ended the first triple play in Independents history.  A bully play for the Bay Citys indeed.

Britt “The Mad Scientist” Venchura  then led the Bay City charge with a clean safety through the left side of the Midland defense.  Venchura then made his second on a muff by the catcher, and then made his third when Ray “The Banker” Banister drove the apple clean into the long field.  Venchura then made a steal of home when the Hogs catcher had another pitch get by him.  Banister also made his second on the aforementioned muff, and moved over to third on an infield single by Larry “Chuckwagon” Doan. 

Runners were now camped on first and third with two hands lost when Brian “Hooks” Freehling pounded the pill into the Midland garden for a clean single.  Freehling would make his second thanks to some foolishly plucky base running by “Chuckwagon”, who lost sight of the orb and naturally decided to try his luck for third.  Fortunately for the Bay Citys the Midland third sacker muffed the throw and Doan, who was nearly a dead duck, made his third and allowed Freehling to take his second. 

There were now two hands down with base runners on second and third for the Bay Citys when the Independent’s captain, Jayme “High-Steppin” Johnson came to the plate and drove a howitzer to the right portion of the long field.  Johnson would make his way around the bases with all the grace of thoroughbred camel, and fetched up near the oasis of third sack only to be urged on for a home run by the Midland third base man.  Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, the Bay Citys captain made a run for it, or what might pass for a run for it, and made his ace cleanly ahead of the throw home.  This would end the scoring for the second innings, and brought the tally to Bay City 5, and Midland 0.

Both clubs would slap on the whitewash for the next three innings, until the Bay Citys took to striking again and placed another ace in the ledger when Al “Kid” Garcia slapped another cannon shot into the long field, and cleanly made his second.  The younger of the Bay City Garcias, Justin “Doc” Garcia, then drove his brother in with a clean single.  After six innings the score was now Bay City 6, and Midland 0. 

Bay City would add two more runs to their total in the seventh innings, and Midland would push one across in the ninth to finish the match with a total of Bay City 8, and Midland 1.  Both clubs congratulated each other on the fine play exhibited, and vowed to meet again in Bay City the season next.