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GAME ONE (Upper Manhattan Grounds)
ALL 25-3 ORA – Ashley Hearns (RF, ALL) 4/6, 2 2B, 4 R, 4 RBI, SB

It was Alleghany that woke up from their 4-11 slumber, and how!

The visitors started the game off right with three runs in T1, and they ended up ahead 10-0 before Orange could put any runs on the board. Alleghany raised the lead to 15-1 by the end of the 8th but apparently they felt that wasn’t enough, as they then added ten runs in the 9th to turn what was an amazing performance into an otherworldly one.

1B Jerald Peterson led Alleghany with five base hits (5/7, 2B, 3 R, 1 RBI), while Hearns, CF Solomon Springs, & C Harry Thompson had four each. In addition, 2B Burton Ellerby finished with five RBI.

GAME TWO (Upper Manhattan Grounds)
ALL 7-6 ORA – Gerald Strong (SS, ALL) 3/5 (all 1B), 1 R, 1 RBI, SB, GW HIT

Game Two was much closer than the opener, although it wasn’t a back-and-forth contest.

Alleghany again started off strong, with five runs over the first three innings and a 5-0 lead that stood until the bottom of the 6th. That was when Orange pulled off a six-run rally that was punctuated by the first Grand Slam in Founders’ Cup history, a blast over the Right Field fence by Taliesin Buckley.

That appeared to send Alleghany reeling, but after a scoreless 7th the visitors and plated two runs in the 8th on Singles by Strong & PH Charles Davis to take a 7-6 lead that stood the rest of the way. Alleghany had wiped out the Orange HFA and taken a 2-0 series lead.

GAME THREE (Recreation Park in Pittsburgh)
ORA 9-8 ALL – Charles Whitehead (2B, ORA) 4/4, 3B, 3 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 DEF DP

All of the excitement came early in Game Three.

All seventeen runs in the contest were scored during the first six innings. After a 2-1 opening inning Alleghany scored five times in the 2nd and once in both the 3rd & 4th to take an 8-2 lead. The Orange response began in earnest during the 5th, when they scored four runs on a series of singles & sacrifices to cut the deficit to two. In the top of the 6th, a Whitehead Single and a two-run Double by Everett Schreiber put Orange in the lead 9-8, and from there stellar pitching & defense put Orange in the win column.

GAME FOUR (Recreation Park in Pittsburgh)
ORA 6-3 ALL – Everett Schreiber (C, ORA) 3/4, 3B, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1/3 RTO

It was four away wins in four games at the end of nine innings in Pittsburgh.

Orange scored first with a pair of runs in the 2nd, and they extended the lead to 4-0 with two more tuns in the 5th. Alleghany responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the 5th and one more in the 6th to make it a 4-3 game, but run-scoring Singles by Charles Whitehead & Samuel Kessler in the top of the 7th gave Orange a 6-3 lead and sealed the win.

GAME FIVE (Recreation Park in Pittsburgh)
ORA 4-1 ALL – George Sturgis (P, ORA) CG, 8 HA, 1 ER, 1 K, 1/4

And it was five away wins in five games…

This game was all pitching & defense. The two teams combined for just five fielding errors (APBL avg: 13.6 total E/G) and neither pitcher allowed a Base on Balls.

The result was decided in the top of the 9th. With the game tied 1-1, Orange came to bat and scored runs on a Single by RF William Valentine, a Sacrifice Fly by Taliesin Buckley, and a Single by Isaac Holm to go ahead 4-1. Sturgis was fine in the bottom of the 9th, and Orange had an unlikely 3-2 series lead.

GAME SIX (Upper Manhattan Grounds)
ALL 1-8 ORA – Taliesin Buckley (CF, ORA) 2/4, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI

Orange completed the delayed sweep at home.

The key inning in Game Six was the 5th. Orange came to bat ahead 1-0 and scored six runs, with the first three scoring on Singles by Charles Whitehead, Samuel Kessler, & Will Chaffin before Buckley put an exclamation point at the end of the rally with a three-run, inside-the-park Home Run that put Orange ahead 7-0. George Sturgis’ pitching was excellent once again, and that meant Orange had nothing to worry about over the final four innings.

Orange B.B.C. had taken their first Founders’ Cup title, and their third overall.

FOUNDERS’ CUP MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Charles Whitehead (2B, ORA) – .444 (12/28), 1.020 OPS, 7 R, 1 2B, 1 3B, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SB

Taliesin Buckley’s two Home Runs and eight Runs Batted In had a pretty good argument for Founders’ Cup MVP, but Whitehead hit 150 points higher than him, and Whitehead was at his best in the Game Three that marked the start of Orange’s reversal of their two home losses to open the series.

It was the end of a fine season for Whitehead. Signed by Orange ahead of 1872 to notable fanfare, during 1874 “Rowdy Chuck” made his first All-Star Game appearance and now had taken MVP honors in the season’s biggest series.

FOUNDERS' CUP SUMMARY