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PELHAM PITCHES TWO SHUTOUTS OVER LONG WEEKEND
FRONTIER #1 BLANKS BINGHAMTON ON DECORATION DAY AND AGAIN ON JUNE 1ST

OSWEGO, N.Y. (June 1, 1879) - Frontier B.B.C. spent Week Three of N.B.B.O. play hosting Binghamton at Fort Ontario Park in Upstate New York. The result was a 3-2 series win by Frontier that pushed them over .500 (8-7), a result that wouldn’t have happened without the efforts of their #1, Edward Pelham.

The series began well for Frontier with a 10-5 victory on Wednesday in which they were led by former Merrimack Mills 2B William Sudduth (3/4, 2B, 1 R, 4 RBI). Binghamton evened the series on Thursday with an 11-8 win in which RF Edward Everage (3/4, 3B, 2 R, 4 RBI) took the Player of the Game honor.

Friday afternoon’s game was a special one at Fort Ontario, as those in attendance were celebrating Decoration Day to honor the men who perished during the Civil War.

(NOTE: What we know as Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day. Shortly after the end of the Civil War, similar holidays honoring the war dead began in the Northern States and the Southern States, with the holiday being known as "Decoration Day" in the North and "Memorial Day" in the South. Over time, the Memorial Day moniker won out, probably because it was a better descriptor of the day. However, until 1971 it was still officially called "Decoration Day".

The holiday was originally on a fixed date of May 30th each year thanks to General Order No. 11 from General John Logan to the Grand Army of the Republic. It remained that way until the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 mandated the change of a number of federal holidays to specific Mondays, and starting in 1971 Memorial Day was observed on the final Monday in May.

And there's your trivia for the day.

Pelham rose to the occasion in a seven-run Frontier victory:

• FRO P Edward Pelham: CG SHO (4-3, 3.99), 3 HA, 1 BB, 5 K

The only player who came remotely close to doing any damage against Pelham was previous P.o.t.G., Everage, who hit a Double to lead off the top of the fourth before he was left there thanks to Pelham’s pitching. The Shutout was the seventh in Pelham’s career, and it put Frontier over .500 at 7-6.

Binghamton evened the series 2-2 on Saturday with a rain-shorted (seven innings) 3-1 win in which the conditions caused both teams to struggle with the bat – there were six total hits (BING 4, FRO 2) – and the result left both an even 7-7.

The series finale took place just after lunchtime on Sunday, and this one went the full nine innings in splendid weather, with Frontier’s four-run rally in the fourth breaking the game open and their 5-0 lead holding steady thanks, again, to the work of sixth-year #1 Pelham:

• FRO P Edward Pelham: CG SHO (5-3, 3.44), 5 HA, 0 BB, 1 K

This time around it was Binghamton SS Edward Schwab who hit the lone Double in the third inning before he was stranded, and Pelham was aided greatly by C Fergus O’Connall, who threw out all four Binghamton would-be base stealers.

For Pelham, the consecutive shutouts were a rare achievement for a Pitcher but one that he arguably needed. A 2x All-Star with a career ERA of 3.33, Pelham entered the Decoration Day game with a 3-3 record and a 4.75 ERA. The two successive Shutouts lowed his ERA all the way down to a perfectly acceptable 3.44, and they improved his record to 5-3.

The final result of the five-game series bumped Frontier up and over .500 to 8-7 (4th Upstate), with the loss moving Binghamton down to 7-8 (T-5th Upstate).