The Driftwood Summer Series

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While I work out what I want to do for my long-running 'Women's Baseball League of America' series, I thought I would post a limited run thread about a annual summer baseball series played between two towns in Massachusetts,

Each post will be a game recap in the twenty-nine game series, prefaced by a history of the series.

I hope you enjoy

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Driftwood

In 1938, the towns of East and West Driftwood, located in central Massachusetts, came together to alleviate some of the hardships of The Great Depression through a baseball series played daily through the month of July. The towns had long been rivals but the mayors at the time felt that this was a way to unify in the face of hardship without taking away the historical competitiveness between the two towns.

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Part I: The early years of the Driftwood Summer Series

It was West Driftwood who dominated the first years of series. The team won every edition of the competition between 1938 and 1946. Players like J.J. Jarrell, Milt Little, Aaron Hagood and Jonah Roden led a dominant force that proved unbeatable in the eyes of East Driftwood. This was despite West Driftwood going through three managers during their period of success. The best year of the run was 1943, when they went 23-6.

However, East Driftwood rallied in 1947, putting together a 20-9 season to win their first title. 24-year-old Daniel de la Rosa hit .341 across 29 games to lead the team to the win. Meanwhile, pitcher Rob Love didn’t give up a single run across 19 innings of relief work.

But in 1948, it was back to a period of West Driftwood dominance. This would be how the series worked for many years, with West Driftwood winning multiple series before East Driftwood snapped their streak. West Driftwood would put together streaks between 1948 and 1955, and between 1957 and 1961. East Driftwood would win in 1956 and 1962, with all three of their first trophies coming under long-time manager Brian Griffith.

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Part 2: Upheaval in the 60s and 70s

The 1964 and 1965 editions of the series would mark the first time that East Driftwood won back-to-back titles. Going 17-12 in 1964 and 16-13 in 1965, they were led by heavy hitters like Jagjit Viraj, Jason Westbrook and Deepthi Salim. West Driftwood would build another streak between 1970 and 1975 before East Driftwood went back-to-back in 1976 and 1977. During West Driftwood’s six-title run, Brian Griffiths retired. When he hung up his cap at the end of the 1971 season, he had managed 34 East Driftwood teams while working full time as the foreman at the factory outside of town. After taking the title back in 1978, West Driftwood to make at least one successful title defence in the 1979 as East Driftwood won the next three titles.

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Part 3: True rivals

After East Driftwood’s three-title run ended in 1981,West Driftwood went on a three-year run of their own. The teams traded wins in 1984 and 1985 before East Driftwood entered their longest unbeaten run, winning four consecutive titles between 1987 and 1990. After trading the title back and forth and a handful of two-year streaks, West Driftwood had the next major streak as they won the title every year between 1997 and 2001 and then again between 2003 and 2006.

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Part 4: Modern history

East Driftwood replied to the early 2000s streak of West Driftwood dominance by winning three titles between 2007 and 2009 and another in 2012. That 2012 win was sandwiched by two streaks as West Driftwood won in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015. East Driftwood went back-to-back in 2016 and 2017 before West Driftwood took the title in 2018 to enter 2019 as the defending champion.

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July 1st 2019

In the first game of the year, West Driftwood’s Tommy Crawford would face East Driftwood’s sophomore ace Scott Rogers. Crawford had made his debut in 2010 at age 16 and boasted a 17-16 record and 3.30 ERA. Rogers had played out of the bullpen in 21 of his 22 appearances in 2018, going 1-0 with a 2.77 ERA as well as winning Rookie of the Series.

The teams opened the game by trading scoreless frames in the first and second innings before Crawford scored from first on a Greg Vallee double in the top of the third. The 1-0 lead lasted until the bottom of the sixth when a pitch got past Vallee behind the plate and Devin Kaup was able to score from third. The following inning, Adam Hughes, who had replaced Rogers on the mound in the sixth, gave up four two-out hits and walk to give West Driftwood a 5-1 lead before he was relieved by Jane Martin. Martin gave up a hit and a walk to load the bases before finding the final out of the inning. Martin stayed on the mound into the eighth, only to give up a double to Tommy Morrison, which allowed Vallee to score from first. Chris Maddux, who relieved Crawford in the eighth, struck out the side in the ninth to seal East Driftwood’s fate.

W: T. Crawford (1-0) L: A. Hughes (0-1)

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July 2nd 2019

East Driftwood looking to come back from the rough opening day loss behind the arm of Jorge Sanchez, who had gone 2-1 in eight starts in 2018. West Driftwood passed the ball to Greg Vallee, who had played catcher in the first game but returned to his usual position on the mound. Vallee went 1-0 with a save and a 0.79 ERA in 2018 and was one of West Driftwood’s most potent weapons, having earned 2018’s Best Pitcher award.

East Driftwood started strong, with Rich Compton scoring from second on an Aaron Reisinger single. West Driftwood responded immediately as Austin Schlegl hit a two-run triple four batters into the bottom of the first. Eric Stull brought Schlegl home two batters later to increase West Driftwood’s run total to three before Sanchez managed to notch the third out and end the inning. In the bottom of the fifth, Austin Schlegl earned his third RBI of the night as he brought home Tommy Morrison thanks to a single off reliever Joe Lott. Greg Vallee was relieved in the seventh- he had struck out thirteen over six innings of work while only allowing four runs and one walk. East Driftwood’s woes continued as Adam Hughes gave up another run in the bottom of the seventh to take the score to 5-1. However, East Driftwood rallied the following inning as Devin Kaup hit a two-run home run to left-center to bring the team within two runs. Despite this, the inning ended with only the two runs and West Driftwood’s closer Matt Omura earned three easy outs to close out the game in the top of the ninth.

W: G. Vallee (1-0) L: J. Sanchez (0-1) SV: M. Omura (1)

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July 3rd 2019

Now 0-2 on the season, East Driftwood turned to Ben Castle. Castle had first played in the summer series in 2007 and had 18 wins in 67 games, along with a 2.41 ERA. For West Driftwood, Eric Stull had been handed the pitching assignment. Stull was 35 and had been playing since 2000. He was a two-time league leader in ERA and was a pitcher worthy of great respect.

West Driftwood started strong, scoring two runs on two hits in the top of the first. Aaron Reisinger responded with a two-out solo home run in the bottom of the inning to bring the score to 2-1. Austin Schlegl extended West Driftwood’s lead to 4-1 with a two-run double in the top of the third as Ben Castle failed to find any that worked against the West Driftwood hitting core. After 2.1 innings of work, Castle had given up four runs on four hits and had been saddled with an ERA of 15.43. However, for what reason he was kept on the mount by manager Keith Johnson. Castle was finally relieved after Schlegl scored on a Brett Bennewitz single. In 2.2 innings of work, Castle had given up five runs on five hits, thrown sixty-two pitches and earned an ERA of 16.88. He was replaced by Bill Guenther, the rookie pitcher making his second appearance of the season. Guenther pitched fine but his scoreless frames came to an end as he gave up an RBI double to Brett Bennewitz in the top of the fifth, which was immediately followed by a Joe Boucher single that brought Bennewitz home. Jane Martin relieved Guenther in the top of the sixth after a single, balk and walk. However Martin proceeded to give up a walk and a run-scoring fielder’s choice in her first two batters. A passed ball escaping catcher Cristian Janicki allowed another West Driftwood run to score, meaning Martin had given up two runs to the first three batters she had seen before getting out of the inning. The game ended with a burst of excitement as East Driftwood were able to score three runs in the bottom of the ninth off Chris Maddux. However, it wasn’t enough and the game ended 9-4.

W: E. Stull (1-0) L: B. Castle (0-1)

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July 4th 2019

Independence Day was always a big game for the series, despite being only the fourth game. West Driftwood sent out Chang-sik Na, who had made their debut in 1997. East Driftwood, hoping for the marquee win to turn their season around sent out the 32-year-old Alberto Sanchez.

Rich Compton started East Driftwood off strong. In his first ever at-bat against Na, he took him deep for a two-run home run. A deep flyball from Devin Kaup was enough for Aaron Reisinger to leg it in from third as East Driftwood added a third run only a few batters later. Daniel Chiadez scored from third on the subsequent groundout as West Driftwood recorded the second out of the first inning after six batters. However, the lead was immediately wiped away as West Driftwood scored four runs in five hits as each of the five batters in the order got a hit. Run number four came as a result of a passed ball to sixth hitting Brett Bennewitz. Sanchez was finally able to record outs on the seventh, eighth and ninth hitters. However, the damage had been done and the score at the bottom of the first read 5-4 to West Driftwood. East Driftwood immediately equalized as Rich Compton hit a single, stole second and forced an error taking him to third before crossing home on an Aaron Reisinger single. West Driftwood retook the lead on a Brett Bennewitz single in the third. Chris Maddux entered the game to try and institute some order. Despite his best efforts, East Driftwood was able to take the lead in the top of the fifth through a two-run home run from Devin Kaup. The 7-6 score line persisted until the bottom of the seventh when Aaron Schlegl hit a solo home run to extreme right field to tie the game. That lead was extended through a Joel Schweinfurth RBI double off Jason Canales. The following inning, a Jason Crudup triple was converted into an eighth run on a Chris Vieira groundout. However, by the end of the inning they would still be down a run. Chris Wilson shut down any ninth inning heroics to take West Driftwood to 4-0 on the season.

W: C. Ling (1-0) L: A. Johnson (0-1) SV: C. Wilson (1)

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July 5th 2019

Scott Rogers made his second start of the season. In the series opener, he had earned a 1.59 ERA over 5.2 innings of work. July 5th saw him go up against West Driftwood’s Jorge Turcios. Turcios had led the league in numerous categories in 2018 and would be a tough opponent for the young Rogers.

For four innings, a pitcher’s duel rage as both sides allowed minimal hits and allowed no runs. However, as Rogers’ energy waned, he gave up a single to Tommy Morrison. Josh Harris, a 17-year-old reserve call up covering second base for East Driftwood, froze as he collected the ball and Turcios was able to run in from third for a two-out RBI. Things then got worse for the young pitcher as he made an error while covering first, which allowed a further two runs to score. He forced a flyout from the next batter but the damage was done. Bill Guenther was sent to the mount to pitch the sixth with the score still a reasonable 3-0. However, the score line would hold as the bullpens of both teams combined for a total of two hits allowed.

W: J. Turcios (1-0) L: S. Rogers (0-1) SV: C. Wilson (2)

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July 6th 2019

Game six saw Jorge Sanchez face Tommy Crawford. Sanchez was 0-1 with an ERA over 8 while Crawford was 1-0 with a 1.23 ERA.

A single from Rich Compton followed by a double from Aaron Reisinger allowed East Driftwood to take an early lead. They extended their lead in the top of the third with an RBI double from Devin Kaup and a two-run single from Tyler Rogers. West Driftwood scored twice in the bottom of the third to cut the lead in the half but it was still 4-2 in favour of East Driftwood. East Driftwood found a fifth run in the top of the seventh on a Daniel Chiadez single before a walk to Cristian Janicki forced in a run since the bases were loaded. New pitcher Jeremy Swartz, relieving Riccardo Steenman, fared no better as he gave up a two-run single to the first batter he saw. While that was the extent of the damage, West Driftwood found a run in the bottom of the eighth on a error at first base but even loading the bases in the bottom of the ninth only resulted in a game-ending flyout. East Driftwood record their first win 8-3.

W: B. Guenther (1-0) L: T. Crawford (1-1) SV: P. Greenwood (1)

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July 7th 2019

Greg Vallee made his second start for West Driftwood after earning a win with a 1.50 ERA in his first outing. He went up against Ben Castle, who had a disastrous 2.2 inning-long first outing which left him with an ERA of 16.

Despite loading the bases, West Driftwood only managed to bring one home in the top of the first as Ben Castle didn’t instil too much confidence in the East Driftwood fans. Two fielding errors in the top of the second gave West Driftwood another run as they continued a slow but steady approach. A Chris Vieira double in the bottom of the seventh pulled back a run for East Driftwood after four scoreless innings that only saw five hits between the two sides. West Driftwood went into the bottom of the ninth defending their one run lead but a walk, an error and a 5-3 groundout allowed East Driftwood to force extras. The winning run came in the bottom of the twelfth as pitcher Bill Guenther hit an RBI single with the bases loaded to give East Driftwood a 3-2 win.

One piece of sad news to come out of the day was the severity of the injury that Matt Omura had sustained during the sixth inning. It was revealed to be ruptured ulnar collateral ligament and the doctors at Driftwood General gave him a recovery time of 12 months. Omura’s albeit brief stat line was 2.1 innings pitched, three strikeouts, 3.86 ERA and one save.

W: B. Guenther (2-0) L: C. Maddux (0-1)

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July 8th 2019

Alberto Sanchez returned to the mound for East Driftwood. While he had a 0-0 record, he had a painful ERA of 27.00. He faced Ricky Cavazos, who was making his first start of the year but had gone 1-2 with a 2.70 ERA in 2018.

East Driftwood took an early lead in the top of the second as Devin Kaup legged it in from third on a Ryan Parton single. They extended their lead in the fourth through three doubles to make the score 3-0 before they loaded the bases before Cavazos hit Kaup with a pitch to walk in a fourth run. The next batter up was Jared Crudup, who hit a two-run single to make it 6-0. Cavazos’ replacement, Nate Paige, didn’t fare any better in the sixth inning, culminating with a two-run double that took East Driftwood to 8-0. They lit up Paige again in the seventh, scoring another three runs to extend their lead to 11-0. West Driftwood broke up the shutout in the bottom of the ninth but that only resulted in the final score being 11-1.

W: A. Sanchez (1-0) L: R. Cavazos (0-1)

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July 9th 2019

Eric Stull returned to the mound, boasting a 1-0 record and a 1.80 ERA. His opponent was East Driftwood’s Jason Skinner, making his first appearance of the year. Skinner had gone 0-0 in 3 starts with 2.70 ERA in 2018.

West Driftwood started well as Brian Welch legged out a triple as only the second batter of the game, heading over home plate a few moments later as James Jefferson grounded out to first. The lead only lasted until the bottom of the second when Devin Kaup scored on a groundout. East Driftwood took the lead an inning later as Josh Harris scored on an infield single from Rich Compton. The score would remain 2-1 for the rest of the fixture as East Driftwood moved to 4-5 on the season.

W: J. Skinner (1-0) L: E. Stull (1-1) SV: P. Greenwood (2)

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July 10th 2019

Scott Rogers made his third start of the season in the series’ tenth match. At that point, he was 0-1 with a 1.69, with his most recent start being the 3-0 loss East Driftwood suffered on July 5th. He was facing Chang-sik Na, who had a 15.00 ERA despite his 0-0 record. He had given up five runs on July 4th, a match that West Driftwood would eventually win 9-8.

East Driftwood got on the board early as Jared Crudup hit a two-out RBI-double to give them a 1-0 lead in the first. West Driftwood tied the game in the bottom of the second and took the lead in the third. A Tyler Rogers triple in the fifth helped East Driftwood tie the game at 2-2 and Bill Guenther replaced Scott Rogers on the mound for the bottom of the fifth. The 2-2 score line lasted until the top of the inning when a series of hits lead to East Driftwood retaking the lead and adding a few security runs to end the seventh leading 5-2. Everything was looking great until Bill Guenther, with three innings under his belt already, gave up a three-run home run to Austin Schlegl. The home run was followed by three strikeouts but the damage had been done. The game went to extras and a fielding error from third baseman Joe Chavez allowed East Driftwood to take a one-run lead in the top of the eleventh. Adam Hughes was able to pitch a three-batter bottom to give East Driftwood the win.

With the win for East Driftwood in the books, that meant that through ten games, both teams had had five game win streaks and stood at 5-5 in the standings.

W: J. Canales (1-0) L: C. Wilson (0-1) SV: A. Hughes (1)

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July 11th 2019

Tommy Crawford returned to the mound against Jorge Sanchez after earning the loss in their last meeting on July 6th. For his part, Sanchez was 0-1 after earning the losing decision on July 2nd.

Crawford pitched well out of the gate but East Driftwood still managed to get a run across in the bottom of the first. The lead lasted until the bottom of the ninth when Paul Greenwood, chasing his third save of the season, gave up the tying run on an infield single. The game ended half an inning later as East Driftwood earned a two-out walk-off error to take the game 2-1. This marked the first time East Driftwood had led in the standings and extended their winning streak to six.

W: P. Greenwood (1-0) L: J. Swartz (0-1)

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July 12th 2019

Ben Castle continued looking for redemption in his third start of the year. He had managed to get his ERA down to 7.36 but was still a definite weakness in the East Driftwood rotation. He came up against Greg Vallee and his 1-0, 1.38 ERA record.

Castle kept pace with Vallee through the first four innings. However, after his catcher Cristian Janicki allowed a runner to get to third on a botched throw to prevent a steal, all it took was a deep flyout to give West Driftwood the lead. Vallee no hit East Driftwood through five innings until finally giving up a single in the top of the sixth. Ironically, the hitter that broke through was no other than Ben Castle. Four batters later, Castle scored from second on a Cristian Janicki two-out single to tie the game. West Driftwood retook the lead in the bottom of the inning as Joe Boucher crossed the plate to make it 2-1. West Driftwood managed to maintain the lead, only allowing one hit in the last three innings. That gave them their first win since July 5th and tied the standings at 6-6.

W: G. Vallee (2-0) L: B. Castle (0-2) SV: J. Turcios (1)

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July 13th 2019

July 13th marked a rest day in the series and the two towns came together for a festival and general day of unity.

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July 14th 2019

Ricky Cavazos looked to get his season on track after earning a 14.73 ERA in only 3.2 innings during his first start of the season. In his was Alberto Sanchez, who earned the win on July 8th, despite his 7.36 ERA.

A Daniel Chiadez triple in the bottom of the first made it easy for East Driftwood take an early lead. West Driftwood tied the game in the top of the fourth after Janicki threw wide of third base in an attempt to prevent a stolen base, allow Brian Swift to head home. East Driftwood took the lead back on a pair of extra base hits in the bottom of the fifth. The score held until the end of the game, with Aaron Reisinger making a dramatic diving catch to deny a game-tying run.

W: A. Sanchez (2-0) L: R. Cavazos (0-2) SV: P. Greenwood (3)