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BANNER DAYS FOR BATSMEN TO OPEN 2ND HALF
SEVEN PLAYERS WITH 5-HIT & 6-HIT GAMES ON THURS. & FRI; GERMAN TIES R.B.I. RECORD

NORTHEASTERN U.S.A. (June 21-22, 1866) – in a standard N.B.B.O. season, once the teams have crossed the halfway point and the Dog Days of Summer begin their approach the batsmen of the sport begin to cool down a bit, perhaps weighed down by the heat and humidity. No so at the start of this season’s second half, as on Thursday & Friday of Week Eight no less than seven batsmen have put in performances in which they have collected five or six hits.

The first stop on the attacking tour is Brooklyn, where three of the marquee performances took place. The first star swinger was Empire OF Samuel Pezzi (.336, 27 RBI), who on Thursday hit 5/6 (all singles) with a run and three R.B.I. in Empire’s 15-7 victory at Eckford in Manor House. The next day, Empire teammate William Strausbaugh (.356, 28 RBI) repeated the trick, going 5/6 (all singles) with three runs and two R.B.I. in a 20-9 Empire win. With such scores, a passive observer would not know that it is Eckford who is several games higher in the standings than Empire, who have decided to start the second half of the season with a bang.

The other five-hit performance from a Brooklyn-based player came via the sport’s most popular star: Excelsior P Jim Creighton. In an 18-3 home win over Continental, Creighton pitched the full game while allowing five hits and striking out six, and with the bat he was 5/5 (all singles) with four runs scored and one driven in.

Over the municipal border in New York City, two more players cranked out five hits to start the week. In a 16-12 loss at Red House against Gotham on Thursday part-time Mutual 3B George Stoker was 5/6 with a pair of runs and three R.B.I. Then, on Friday OF Hamilton Harwood (.291, 22 RBI, 15 SB) was Hilltop’s lone bright spot during a 17-5 thrashing in the Elysian Fields against Knickerbocker, as he was 5/5 with a double and two runs.

In Jersey City on Thursday, another in-state rivalry contest saw visiting Newark beat Port Jersey 5-4 thanks in no small part to the efforts of outfielder Dermott McGinty (.333, 18 RBI), who was 5/5 (all singles) with a run & R.B.I. each as his team scored in the top of the ninth inning to win.

The last of the marquee performances was certainly not the least, and in fact was the individual performance of the season in the N.B.B.O. as Susquehanna OF Jonathan German went crazy in an extraordinary win at Reading:

The game was effectively over after the top of the first inning, but that did not matter as Susquehanna kept scoring…and scoring…AND SCORING, with German ending the annihilation of Reading with six hits and a record-tying eight R.B.I.

German’s afternoon in Eastern Pennsylvania:

• T1: 1-run Single to LF off C. Hartmann (stole 2B, scored)
• T2: Ground out to P off C. Hartmann
• T3: 1-run Single to CF off C. Perkins
• T4: Strike Out against C. Perkins
• T6: 1-run Single past 2B off C. Perkins (scored)
• T7: 1-run Double to RCF off C. Zier
• T8: 2-run Single to CF off C. Zier (scored)
• T9: 2-run Single past SS off B. Burmeister
• TOTAL: 6/8, 2B, 3 R, 8 RBI, SB, 7 TB, 117 GMSC

German’s outburst made him the fourth player in N.B.B.O. history to drive in eight runs in a single game, with the previous player to accomplish the feat being Green Mountain’s Oscar Davidson on June 15th of last year.

As a team, Susquehanna tied the N.B.B.O. record with ten extra-base hits in a single game – nine doubles & a triple – and their 25-run margin of victory equaled the N.B.B.O. record as well.

It was quite the couple of days for offensive outbursts, and if that is an indication of how the season’s second half will go then the pitchers of the National Base Ball Organization better prepare for tough times.