This past Sunday (June 10th), fifteen members of the Chesapeake Nine and two dedicated spectators trekked to Delaware City, boarded a landing craft, and made the short transit across the Delaware River to Pea Patch Island, the home of Ft. Delaware and the site of two seven-inning matches between the Chesapeakes and the host Diamond State Base Ball Club.  The fort and the river provided a spectacular backdrop to the action on the diamond, which was an important part of the Victorian KidsFest celebration.

Under bright skies and with the thermometer hovering in the 90s, Chesapeake and Diamond State played two hard fought but very sportsman-like matches, although the finally tallies would belie that.  The club from Delaware took the opener 10-3 and the second match 13-4.  In each contest, the Chesapeakes experienced a single inning in which they surrendered six aces.  Putting aside those disheartening innings, the contests were marked by good pitching and excellent defense.  Every Chesapeake came through in the field to keep the contests tight, but for the most part the Chesapeake strikers couldn’t solve the riddle of the very effective Diamond State pitcher, who tossed two complete matches and held the Baltimore team to a handful of hits in each contest.

The Chesapeake Nine welcomed a new player on Sunday: Rick Lombardi, who made several outstanding plays from his position in the center of the garden.  We’re still working on a nickname for him.  Thank you for joining us, Rick!

Thanks to all who came out on Sunday!  It may have been our biggest turnout in club/team history.  Special thanks to Scoop for doing a great job of managing the team on the field and to our fine hosts, the Diamond State BBC.

Our next scheduled event is the mini-tournment on Sat., June 23, in Vienna, VA.  Old Dominion is the host; Elkton is the third team.  We’ll be playing in the last two matches, starting at 2 PM.