For the third time in history, the two Forest City clubs, Rockford and Cleveland, met in the Centennial Cup playoffs in the '98 semis. The first was out west, and West make a difference: Rockford's Buck West slammed a three-run homer and drove in four, while Gus Weyhing scattered ten hits in a 10-1 rout. In Game 2, Cleveland jumped to a 6-1 lead as Bug Holiday drove in three runs off Dad Clarkson. Rockford chipped away, but ran out of innings in a 7-4 loss, evening things up.
The series headed to Cleveland, and CFC continued hitting the ball. Bill Delaney, despite batting eighth, drove in a pair of runs in the opening as Cleveland raced to a 4-0 lead. After adding another quartet in the fifth, and CFC was on their way to a 10-3 win and a 2-1 series lead. But Rockford struck back with no fewer than 20 hits in the fourth game, scoring twice in each of the first three innings off Joe Blong in a series-tying 10-4 victory.
The final game looked like it would be a pitcher's duel: through five and a half, neither CFC's Gumbert nor Rockford's Peter Sommers allowed a run. In the bottom of the sixth, though, it all exploded: five hits, a walk, a hit by pitch and an error later, and CFC were leading, 7-0. But in the eighth...it got worse for Rockford, as Cleveland scored six more times to give them a very unlucky (for the westerners) 13-0 decision, and the series to CFC.
Meanwhile, in the quiet village of North Tiverton, Rhode Island -- just across the border from Fall River and home of the Marksmen -- FR's Cozy Dolan shut down Wilmington on eight hits (as rookie Emmett Heidrick slammed a pair of triples) in a 9-2 win. But the Quicksteps tied the series the next day, as the great Negro star Frank Grant singled in the winning run in a ten-inning, 2-1 victory.
Heidrick was back in Game 3 with a two-run double as Fall River jumped to a 6-1 lead after four innings. Wilmington stormed back as Grant and John Tener both homered in the eighth to cut the lead to 7-6, and in the ninth, Joe Sugden doubled and went to third on a ground out; alas, Tommy Corcoran popped up and the Marksmen held on. But the Qs evened the series in Game 4, as Deacon McGuire's two-run single was the difference in a 5-3 win.
Back in Brandywine Springs Park in Wilmington, and it looked like the Quicksteps were headed back to the Cup Final, as Foghorn Bradley held the Marksmen to two runs -- and drove in two himself -- as the Qs had a 4-2 lead. All Bradley needed was three outs.
He never got them. Oh, ol' Foghorn got the first
two outs, wrapped around a Heidrick single, and when William Chouquette dribbled a ball down to first baseman Tener, it looked like it was over. Nope. He booted it, keeping the Marksmen alive. Very,
very alive, as Bradley promptly walked Tom Lynch on four pitches, loading the bases. Four straight hits and a throwing error later, Bradley was out of the game, and FR had a 8-4 lead, and soon a spot in the Cup Final.
