On a very warm and muggy late June day we saw our ballists from Northville travel north to once again participate in the Historic Holly vintage baseball tournament, featuring four of the finest teams in all of Michigan. The Northville Eclipse from Northville, Mi., The Canton Cornshuckers from Canton, Mi., The Bear Clan from Flat Rock, Mi. and Walker Tavern Wheels of Brooklyn, Mi.
The first match of the day featured our fine club from Notrthville against an all to familiar foe, The Canton Cornshuckers. The second match featured the Bear Clan against Walker Tavern, with losing teams facing in a consolation match at 2pm and the winners facing one another in a 3:30pm game.
The first match saw our Eclipse jump out to a early lead with four quick tallies, but soon found out why many consider the Canton team to be the most elite of Michigan teams when they tallied Thirteen in the bottom half on the inning, highlighted by a four tally hit by marbles that i think the Eclipse ballists may still be looking for. The second inning saw what makes this Eclipse team so fun to watch as they continue their hitting ways with another six tally’s, to close the gap to 14-10 at the finish of the second inning. Unfortunately for our hometown club the bats for the Cornshuckers continued to press the hopes for another brilliant Eclipse comeback further and further down, ending in defeat. The Canton Cornshuckers 27 , The Northville Eclipse 16. On a positive note our men from Northville scored in all 5 innings of the contest and were paced by the fine 4 hit performances by both Badger and Bullfrog as well as a strong 3 hits in 3 at bats for Sunshine. The winning Canton team was lead by 5 hits each by Ace and Six Shooter.
Our consolation game featured the Eclipse facing a somewhat unfamiliar baseball club, The Walker Tavern Wheels of Brooklyn Mi. In the first inning the team from Brooklyn put up a strong 5 runs and just kept on hitting for the next 6 innings, sorry Eclipse fans but the “Wheels” fell off for our men and Walker Tavern went on to win convincingly 28 to Eclipse 10.
The tournament winner would be The Bear Clan from Flat Rock, as they went on to beat The Canton Cornshuckers 12-10
Next up for the Eclipse is Flint Lumber City at home Saturday June 29th at Mill Race Village and then on Sunday June 30th we take the annual pilgrimage to Dearborn Michigan to face the Lah-De-Dahs from Greenfield Village .