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Bay League Opens Its First Season
Outpost News Service

The Bay League welcomed fans in three cities to its inaugural opening day contests. While there remain many questions about whether this venture will prove successful, on the first day of the season fans appeared to enjoy having the diversion of a ballgame available to them. Despite simple diamonds in city parks quickly pressed into action for the festivities, residents of Tifton, Deepvale and Allison filled the stands to watch their local ballclubs take the field.

"Sure, it's just a game, but it's a good way to spend a couple hours and it reminds me of home. I think it's a great idea," said Allison resident Charlie Fox as he left Hillside Park for the Spelunkers' first game against the visiting Lorris Greens. The Allison home crowd left disappointed in the final outcome, as the Greens took a 7-3 decision, but most of the departing observers seemed to have a good time.

Deepvale's Two Rivers Park hosted the most exciting of the three opening contests, with an extra-inning affair that was knotted at 2 runs apiece going into the twelfth inning. Silver Beach's Hawkeye Odle and Deepvale's Clayton Howard matched each other for 8 innings, with both pitchers bending but never breaking. It wasn't until the third extra frame that the batters finally got going, as the Whales worked Deepvale reliever Chris Henderson for 4 hits and a walk and capitalized on Ferrymen shortstop Orlando Stone's error to push five runs across in the top half. The Ferrymen didn't go quietly, getting a 2-run homer from left fielder Mario Goodwin in a 3-run inning, but the home team couldn't quite make it all the way back.

The Tifton Generals played host to the Elliott Springs Tornadoes in the third game of the day, and knocked Tornadoes starter Eddie Hope around for 10 runs in his 7 innings of work, including a 7th-inning grand slam by Moses Nabors. Bay League and Generals founder John Baxter was pleased at the end of the day with the turnout. "It's really more than we could expect. There wasn't a lot of time to do a lot of publicity for the league, but fans showed up in terrific numbers anyway," Baxter said. "We're not declaring success yet by any means, as there's still a long way to go in the season, but this was a big first hurdle to get over."