Bay City Independents

Bay City visits Petoskey

Winter Sports Park, Petoskey, MI

August 8, 2010

Bay City 19, Petoskey 8

The second leg of the Independents’ tour of the great, white north saw the Bay Citys pull up camp in Petoskey, Michigan, home to the Petoskey Mossbacks.  The Mossbacks’ field was beautiful to say the least, and had an interesting lay out with an incredibly short right field.  The Mossbacks are a relatively young club, and they remarked that they were interested in testing their metal against the Bay Citys. 

As was the case for both days on this trip, the order of striking was determined by a bat toss, which the Independents lost.  The Mossbacks chose to take the field first, and unlike the match in Mackinaw City, Bay City actually took to striking early and often.  Sean “Tanner” LeRoux struck first and made his first, and then took his second and third thanks to a well struck ball by his elder brother Tom “Cat” LeRoux.  The elder LeRoux would also make his second on the apple masher, and both he and his brother would tally when Al “The Kid” Garcia made use of the tree lines in the garden to garner a ground rule double.  Garcia would make his third on yet another safety by Jason “Buttons” McInerney, and would then tally when his younger brother Justin “Doc” Garcia drove him home with a daisy-cutter of his own.  The scoring would end there for Bay City, but the Mossbacks would tally an ace of their own in their first innings as well.  The score was now Bay City 4 and Petoskey 1.

Both clubs would be skunked in the second innings, but the Independents would find their form again in the third when Cat LeRoux found himself on first again, only to be driven to the plate by “The Kid” who had yet another two bag shot in the match.  Much like the first innings “The Kid” would tally thanks to his younger sibling “Doc” who placed another single into the garden.  The scoring would stop there, and the Mossbacks would be whitewashed in their third innings, so the score now stood at Bay City 6, and Petoskey 1.

The tally bell would remain silent until the seventh innings, when the Independents began their assault anew.  Two straight cannonades into the tree line of the long field saw Doc Garcia and Brian “Butterfly” Beceril make their second.  Garcia would score thanks to the whillow whipping of Beceril, and Beceril would score when the next striker, Brandon “The Rope” Revette made his second on a fine daisy cutter of his own.  After the next two strikers lost their hand, Adam “Little-Train” Johnson drove Revette home with tree shot of his own.  The Bay Citys would score 3 runs in all for the innings, and took a commanding lead in the match at 9-1.

In the eighth innings the Bay Citys would be skunked, but the Mossbacks made charge into the breach that would have made the light brigade blush.  Petoskey would see three strikers make their second easily in an innings that they pushed across 8 aces to make the contest a tight scratch at 9-8.  Bay City now held a precarious lead in a contest that seemed all but finished.

It is said that it is not what happens to individuals that matter most, but how they deal with their circumstances either good or bad.  It was plain to see that at the end of the ninth innings the Independents decided to take the opportunity to show what they were made of.  The innings began with Doc Garcia sending the onion into the tree-line once again, and it wouldn’t end until after he had repeated the effort a second time.  In all the Bay Citys sent 14 strikers to the line in the innings, and tallied four doubles, and a home run by Rope Revette.  The ace parade pushed across enough runs to fill a fortnight, and brought the match total to 19-8.  The Mossbacks had no answer in their ninth, and the contest came to a close.

Plans have been discussed to bring the Petoskey boys south to the city by the bay for next season, and the Independents would be more then glad to host such a fine group of ball players and gentlemen.