A few months into their season, the Eclipse have started to develop an identity as a young, aggressive fun-spirited group of ballists that seem to thrive on friendly banter amongst themselves because of their camaraderie that they’ve built in the past few seasons. The guile of experience that was typical in the past is beginning to slowly shift more towards pure physical prowess. However, there are in some rare occasions where retro makes an appearance and a spectator is treated to how things were back in the earlier days and they can decide if it was better or not. Scratch, a Eclipse ballist for nearly five years, began to forge his craft of peddling early in elementary school. His ability to pitch a product directly led to an early encounter of hurling a base ball for gentlemen who were actually paid to perform for a game we gleefully play freely. This experience only fanned his love for the game and Northville benefits greatly as a result of it. Already supported to an early three run lead, the Eclipse had Scratch step up to the plate with two hands down to begin another rally. A miscue on a hard hit ground ball by the shortstop landed Scratch at second where he advanced to third on a single to the left side of the outfield by Moonlite. Mac gently landed his swing behind the third baseman which easily scored Scratch. Moonlite would follow crossing home plate on a hard strike by Jaundice resulting in an early five to zero lead.
In the third inning, the Wahoos from Royal would cut the deficit to two as easily as a sulky plow would cut through the fertile South soil in the black belt. An inning later, the Wahoos would shorten the lead by one more. Jackhammer would lead off the inning with a sharp single and slowly move across the diamond on consecutive outs by ‘Ol Scratch and Sweepy, who was put out at first base by a daring thrown from Jaundice in right field. Jackhammer raced home from third base on an infield single to the left side by Chops and the score was 7-6. Defense and the ongoing heat of a Michigan summer day in July began to lay consequence on the ability to easily tally runs for both teams. Up to the challenge, Scratch sauntered up to the plate with two outs in the sixth frame and promptly singled. Moonlite would drive him in yet again on a towering drive to right center and provide the Eclipse with a two run lead again. However, the club of nine from Royal Oak gathered themselves and put pressure on the team from Northville by adding another run in the eighth inning. Scrubs would run base to base around the diamond after his one out hit and eventually score on a single to center off the hickory bat of Big Papi. The Northville team was able to escape any further lapse in defense when they were able to retire Mallet for the final out of the eighth inning with two runners on. Hoping to add additional runs before taking the field against the Wahoos in their final at bat of the match, Scratch once again took it upon himself to lead by example. A lead-off single would start his progress towards scoring position where Jaundice would plate him from third base on a hard line drive between the tight-fielding first and second basemen of the Wahoos, resulting in the eventual final tally of 9-7 and another close win against the club from Royal Oak on this seemingly annual meeting on the independence of this great country.
The Eclipse enjoy a few additional days of rest before they gather their belongings and make the long trek by wagon into hilly Dearborn to face the heavily-favored Lah-De-Dahs in front of a large assembly.