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SUSQUEHANNA RUNS RIOT AT MERRIMACK MILLS
RECORDS BROKEN BY BOTH TEAMS IN 21-RUN VICTORY SATURDAY AFTERNOON

LOWELL, MASS. (May 26, 1866) – The Inland Championship tilt between Susquehanna & Merrimack Mills on Saturday afternoon featured a pair of 9-9 teams, so a close contest was expected. Well, that absolutely did not occur here…

It took a couple of innings before it started to happen, but Susquehanna dismantled Merrimack Mills’ pitching with much help from Merrimack’s own defense: a group of fielders who committed a team record fifteen errors during the course of the game. Every one of the Merrimack starters save pitcher Bengt Laudrup made miscues in the field, with SS Felix Foster & CF Lars Kelson making three each. To make matters worse, C Bruce Botchko tacked on a trio of Passed Balls.

On top of the terrible fielding, the Merrimack pitching crew decided to add in their own terrible performances, with Laudrup & Gianfranco Fontanesi combining to allow fourteen hits over the first 3.1 innings before Tom Dean came in to pitch the rest of the game.

The result? A team-record 21-run margin of victory for Susquehanna. Four of their batsmen had 4+ hits: 2B Ashley Boyce, LF Jonathan German, 3B Logan Hickey, & CF Jonathan Richards. German took Player of the Game honors thanks to a pair of doubles, three runs, and five R.B.I. to go with his hits. Boyce had three runs & four R.B.I, Hickey added four runs & three R.B.I, and Richards tallied a pair of runs & three R.B.I.

It was Susquehanna’s day, the kind of day that can cause an entire season to take an upward turn.