Amidst blue skies and purple lilacs, the St. Croix Base Ball Club travelled long to the city of LaCrescent for a day of base ball with our friends from Southeast Minnesota; The Rochester Roosters and LaCrescent Apple Jacks. Our picked nine for the day were this writer, “Basher” Cagley, “Twist” Foss, “Sugar” Sjogren, “Kid Liberty”, Mr. Lavigne, “Aces” Arpi, “Slow Trot” Tholkes and “Bear Trap” Foss.

The first match versus the Roosters was a successful one. Mr. Lavigne, a gentleman new to our club and a man of much height and strength, struck the ball with might and fielded his position with elegance and this seemed to inspire the men from Washington County to perform in a fine manner. When all was said and done, the St. Croix’s were victorious ten aces to three.

The second match was versus the Apple Jacks and included many well-placed daisy cutters and sky balls by our club. The weather was cool that day so the men legged their bases with ease eleven times, while the Apple Jacks had none.

“Slow Trot” hurled the sphere with accuracy and deception and is to be commended for his fine play. Tallies were kept by Mrs. Ohm, but the captain failed to recollect the number of aces recorded by each individual. What was etched into memory was the breaking of two St. Croix bats (one of which was owned by Mr. Cagley) by the young Mr. Foss on two separate occasions.

We enjoyed the fellowship of our opponents and look forward to an engagement with them later in the year in Rochester.

The captain’s official game account:

St. Croix’s and Baltics hold a fine exhibition of ball at Midway Stadium

The St. Croix Base Ball Club played on the grass of Midway Stadium for the first time on Monday, May 23rd. The St. Croix’s have played at Midway before, but both times the field was covered in snow and the temperatures hovered around zero degrees.

The St. Croix’s showed some fine hitting and base running, and at the end of their lineup Mr. Rich “Aces” Arpi provided the bases loaded triple that scored three for the St. Croix’s which gave them four aces in their inning. The Baltics had some strong hits right at the St. Croix fielders, but also placed a few where the St. Croix defense could not get to. The Baltics tallied three times in their inning, giving the St. Croix’s the victory for the exhibition.

The match was held before the St. Paul Saints and Fort Worth Cats match of the Northern League. The St. Croix’s and Baltic’s will meet again on August 7th at the Washington County Fair in Baytown Township.

The four aces that were tallied for the St. Croix’s were scored by Mr. Jurek, Mr. Robinson Jr., Mr. Peterson and Mr. Nelson.

The captain’s official game account:

St. Croix’s edged by Afton in Season Opener

On a beautiful, but windy spring afternoon, the St. Croix Base Ball Club played a match game against the Afton Red Socks.

The clubs called the “Striker to the Line” and the match began before several scores of citizens from that area. The St. Croix’s were first to be at the bat and with several mighty swings tallied the first two aces of the game, with Mr. Pfundstein and Mr. Ebnet scoring after some heavy hitting by the St. Croix’s.

The Afton Club tied the score with two aces of their own in the bottom of the inning making sure to let the St. Croix’s know this was going to be a close match until the final inning.

The score remained the same until the fourth inning when Mr. Robinson for the St. Croix’s tallied an ace giving the St. Croix’s a one run lead. In the bottom of the fourth inning the Afton boys tallied three times to take the lead 5-3.

In Afton’s fifth inning, they made some hits that found cracks in the St. Croix’s defense and several miscues by the St. Croix’s defenders led to six aces for the Red Socks. The Afton Club added another ace in their sixth and eighth finishing the match with 13 aces.

Although down by nine aces, the St. Croix’s fought back with three aces in their eighth, and in their ninth, had another rally going with another three aces until the Afton defense stiffened and got three hands out to end the match. The final score being Afton 13, St. Croix’s 9.

For the St. Croix’s, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Pfundstein and Mr. Ebnet all tallied two aces while Mr. Smith, Mr. Sjogren and Mr. Peterson all had one ace each. Another match at the same field will be held later in the summer.