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GAMEDAY SIX (Wed. August 19th)

SUS 1-2 ORA – P Raynard Cordell (ORA): CG, 4 HA, 1 R/0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
K.C. 12-13 AME – OF Frazer Daly (AME): 4/6, 2 2B, R, 5 RBI, GW HIT
NIA 10-13 STJ – OF Nelson Townsend (STJ): 2/5, 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 SB

Orange moved to 4-2 with a walkoff victory over Susquehanna. With the score 1-1 in the bottom of the 9th, Demy Poortman came to bat after Everett Schrieber’s double and doubled him home to end the game, giving Cordell a much-deserved win. Elmer Seabold was excellent in defeat, allowing six hits over 8.1 innings while striking out four Orange batsmen.

American won via their own walkoff, although theirs was much more dramatic. Behind 12-9 entering the bottom of the 9th, American scored four times to deal K.C. a crushing loss. Daly’s two-run single won the contest and earned him his second PotG nod in three games, but William Busby was 3/6 with three runs & RBI and Peter Boyce was 3/6 with four runs.

St. John’s made fairly light work of Niagara – their 13-5 lead after seven innings allowing them to absorb a number of late runs to move to 4-2. As usual the Jensen/Johnson/Townsend trio was great, but the bottom third of their lineup – SS John Baddley, 2B Thomas DiMola, & P Will Tighe – each had two hits while Tighe drove in two runs.

The results of Gameday six meant there were three teams tied for first place at 4-2.

GAMEDAY SEVEN (Thu. August 20th)

K.C. 6-7 STJ (10 Inn.) – C Dag Nielsen (STJ): 2/5, 2B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI
SUS 13-1 NIA – C Harold Constance (SUS): 4/5, 3 R, 2 RBI, 2/3 RTO
ORA 8-6 AME – 1B Hawk Peterson (ORA): 3/5, 2B, 2 R, 2 RBI

Kings County took another tough-to-swallow loss in Providence. Ahead 6-5 in the 9th, Charlie Matthews allowed a game-tying home run to Nielsen, his first homer in more than two years. In the 10th, Nelson Townsend came to bat with two out and singled in William Johnson to win the game for St. John’s, a massive reversal of fortune for both teams.

Susquehanna crushed Niagara – all the runs scored in the first six innings. The hosts totaled just four base hits while committing a dozen errors on defense, their twelve-run loss made all that much worse by the fact that it was Frank Nicholas pitching for Susquehanna and not Elmer Seabold.

A close game in Philadelphia – 2-1 to Orange after the 3rd, 6-5 after the 5th, and 7-6 after the 7th before the visitors added an insurance run in the 9th to safeguard the result. Harold Perry went the distance to go to 3-0 in the TWC, and while Peterson took PotG OF Henry Hodgson was 4/5 with a pair of RBI.

The results of Gameday Seven left Orange & St. John’s tied for first place at 5-2.

GAMEDAY EIGHT (Fri. August 21)

STJ 10-7 NIA – 1B Tarmo Kuopio (STJ): 3/5, 2B, R, 4 RBI
AME 5-8 K.C. – 1B Garfield Koonce (K.C.): 2/4, 2 2B, R, RBI
ORA 10-4 SUS – 2B Ilari Marino (ORA) – 2/5, 2 R, 3 RBI

St. John’s entered the 8th having just allowed five runs to turn a 7-2 lead into a 7-7 tie. However, they kept calm and scored three times in the 8th to take the lead back and win the game. Kuopio was PotG, but Konrad Jensen was 4/5 with three runs and two steals while Nelson Townsend was 2/5 with two runs scored.

Kings Co. stopped their losing streak with a big effort in the middle innings. Six runs over the 4th-6th turned a 4-2 deficit into an 8-4 lead, and from there all American could muster for a comeback was a single run. The hosts had fifteen hits, led by Leen van Rooij’s three, and Koonce’s pair of doubles earned him PotG.

Susquehanna scored the first four runs of the game against Orange and they remained ahead 4-0 after the 4th. Orange then scored ten times over the next three innings to turn the contest on its head and move to 6-2. Five Orange batsmen had multiple hits including P Raynard Cordell, but Marino earned PotG thanks to his three RBI.

The results of Gameday Eight knocked three teams out of contention. Only Kings County, Orange, & St. John’s were left:

TEAM			W	L	 R	RA	 RD
ORANGE			6	2	62	38	+24
ST. JOHN’S		6	2	76	68	 +8
KINGS COUNTY	        5	3	57	67	-10

Orange would be playing at K.C. on Gameday Nine, while St. John’s would be at home against Susquehanna.

GAMEDAY NINE (Sat. August 22nd)

AME 5-14 NIA – OF William Maier (NIA) – 4/5, 3 R, 3 RBI
ORA 3-1 K.C. – P Harold Perry (ORA) – CG, 4 HA, 1 R/0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
SUS 5-15 STJ – OF Konrad Jensen (STJ) – 2/4, 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB, SB, OF AST

Niagara took care of business in the game between two eliminated teams, scoring nine runs over the first two innings as they routed American. Six Niagara players had multiple hits. P Clyde Branagan was 3/5 and 3B Zorba Koustoubos was 3/5 with three runs & two RBI, but Maier’s 4/5 day was good enough for PotG.

The Orange offense struggled in Brooklyn, connecting on just five hits, but that did not matter as the 35-year-old Perry put in a brilliant pitching performance to go to 4-0 in the TWC with a 1.50 ERA. The decisive run occurred in T3 when 2B Ilari Marino scored on an error. Orange added another run in the 7th on a Squeeze Play.

St. John’s needed a win to keep pace with Orange, and fifteen runs over the first five innings against Susquehanna guaranteed that they did just that. Jensen, who did everything, was PotG, but every St. John's batsman bar the pitcher had multiple hits. 1B Tarmo Kuopio had three RBI, and 2B Thomas DiMola added four.

There were now two teams left in contention for the cup – Orange & St. John’s:

TEAM			W	L	 R	RA	 RD
ORANGE			7	2	65	39	+26
ST. JOHN’S		7	2	91	73	+18

Orange would be playing at St. John’s on Gameday Ten, with the victor lifting the cup.

GAMEDAY TEN (Sun. August 23rd)

K.C. 10-15 NIA – 1B Walter Driscoll (NIA): 4/6, 2B, 4 R, 2 RBI, SB
AME 8-7 SUS – CF Willie Davis (AME): 3/5, 3 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI
ORA 9-6 STJ – 3B Will Chaffin (ORA): 3/4, 3 R, RBI, SB

Kings Co. & Niagara battered each other for nine innings in Buffalo, with the hosts getting the better of their metropolitan visitors. Driscoll & Ernest Lewis had four hits for Niagara, Zorba Koustoubos added three, and Lewis drove in three runs as Niagara ended the cup competition in fine fashion.

American ended the cup with a win thanks to a ninth-inning rally. Behind 6-5, Willie Davis doubled in William Busby, Raymond Brinkman sacrificed in Davis, and Thomas Onstad singled in Frazer Daly to give American the three runs they needed to take the lead and win the game. The loss ended an incredibly frustrating competition for Susquehanna.

Orange BBC ended the competition with a memorable victory at St. John’s to take the Tucker-Wheaton Cup. It was close for much of the contest, but with the score 6-4 Orange came to bat in the top of the 8th and scored three runs – one via Will Chaffin single and two via Ilari Marino double – to put the dagger in St. John’s and see to it that the cup would reside in Manhattan for the third time in four years.

It was a very deserved win for Orange. While they only had the #4 offense in the competition, Orange easily had the best pitching & defense and their Run Differential was far superior to that of any other team.

This was Orange’s first cup triumph since 1859, and this would certainly be seen as the more satisfying of the two given how and where they clinched the cup.