James and Ephraim returned to Easton, Pennsylvania for the third and deciding game of the Collegiate Championship Series. When they arrived, James met with Lafayette President Mat Hooven and introduced him to Ephraim. Knowing that the lad was looking to play collegiate ball, Hooven wasted no time introducing Ephraim to Manager Tim Garcia and having Garcia show him around the ballpark.
The weather was nice for the game. 59 degrees with clear skies, but the wind...it was blowing pretty good out to right field. If the ball got high enough, James figured they might see a home run in this game. Brown went down in order to start things off. Carlos Pintor led off for the Leopards and got on base due to an error on Bears' shortstop, Marco Rojas. Pintor stole second and made it to third on a wild pitch. Then he scored on a ground out and gave Lafayette an early 1-0 lead. Brown would come back, however, in the top of the 2nd inning. The Bears would hit three straight singles to start the inning and would end up plating two runs to take a 2-1 lead. Brown would scratch together another run in the 3rd inning to increase their lead to 3-1. An RBI triple by Lafayette left fielder Paul "Tempo" Davies in the bottom half of the inning would cut the lead to 3-2.
While the Bears went three up, three down in the 4th, the Leopards' bats kept swinging. Lafayette got three hits in the inning and scored three runs, taking the lead 5-3. Neither team scored in the 5th or 6th inning, but Brown found their groove in the top of the 7th inning. The Bears managed five hits, scoring four runs in the frame to regain the lead, 7-5. The score remained the same as the game entered the 9th inning. Both starters were done by this point, so relief pitchers would be settling this score for the championship. Brown went down in order in the top of the 9th.
As the bottom of the 9th started, Lafayette first baseman Alfonso Martinez led things off. The junior from Freeport, Maine had hit a solid .295 in the regular season, but was 0 for 4 in this game. Martinez would work the count full and on the seventh pitch he saw from relief pitcher Jason Bernal, he hit a line drive through the hole between first and second. The crowd was getting into a frenzy as senior shortstop Ben Gruel came to the plate. Gruel had a hot bat today and was 3 for 4 at the plate. After a first pitch ball, Gruel connected with the ball and drove it deep to the gap in right center. Martinez scored and Gruel ended up on third with a triple!! The lead was cut to 7-6, with Lafayette having the tying run 90 feet away!
Second baseman, junior Toby Underkofler, stepped into the batter's box and hit the first pitch he saw. It probably wasn't the best decision, as it flew into shallow center and was caught for the first out of the inning. Senior third baseman Steve Battista took a 2-1 pitch and grounded out to second, keeping Gruel stranded at third and recording the second out. Senior Phil Puett was brought in to pitch hit for the pitcher. Puett had an okay season, batting .246 in 34 games. After a called first strike and swinging and missing on the second pitch, Puett found himself quickly in an 0-2 count. As the third pitch was thrown, Puett swung his bat....
Here was the headline the following day.
Puett had hit the ball, but it was a lazy fly ball to right field. The ball was caught and Brown found themselves the unlikely champions of collegiate baseball. The crowd was in shock, dismayed by what they had seen. James smiled and reminded his son that almost anything can happen in baseball. "Don't underestimate anyone," he said, "because the favorite doesn't always win."
With another season in the books, James returned to his office the following day to begin his off season checklist to prepare for the 1874 season. As for Ephraim, he had a big decision to make. Which college or university was he going to play for?