by Captain Brent “Skinny” Peterson
The St. Croix Base Ball Club traveled to the fair city of Northfield, MN in Rice County to cross bats with the Silver Stars on Independence Day.
The sun was shining and old Main of St. Olaf College was looking over the match as a mother hen would do with her chicks. The toss of the coin was won by the home club and they sent up to bat the St. Croix’s.
Mr. Pfundstein and Mr. Cagley both had clean hits to the outfield and Mr. Ebnet drove his two team mates in with another clean strike of the ball. The St. Croix’s ended their portion of the first inning with two aces scored. The Silver Stars were not able to crack the defenses of the St. Croix’s in their half of the first making the score 2 to 0 in favor of the visitors.
The St. Croix’s could not score in their second but the Silver Stars tallied three times to take the lead 3 to 2 after the second inning. There was no more scoring until the fourth inning when Mr. Cagley tallied another ace for the St. Croix’s which tied the score at three.
In the sixth inning Mr. Peterson crossed the home plate for the St. Croix’s giving his club a 4 to 3 lead. In the Silver Stars half of the sixth inning they tallied three times, regaining the lead after six inning at 6 to 4. The St. Croix’s tallied twice in their half of the seventh to again tie the score at six apiece.
The Silver Stars in their half of the eighth inning, with two hands down and two players on base, had nearly the third hand out when a poor throw, coupled with several other poor throws allowed three Silver Stars players to cross home plate and moved into the lead 9 to 6. The St. Croix’s were not about to go down without a fight, after a great defensive play by the Silver Stars, St. Croix striker Mr. Cagley hit a hard daisy-cutter that forced a poor throw and allowed Mr. Cagley to score for his club. It was thought that the St. Croix’s might come back, but the defense of the Silver Stars stiffened and ended the match with the third hand being retired.
The final score of the match was Northfield Silver Stars nine aces to seven aces for the St. Croix Club.
Mr. Cagley scored all four times he was at the bat, Mr. Pfundstein, Mr. Arpi and Mr. Peterson accounted for the rest of the scoring for the St. Croix’s.