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.