About four years ago, the Lambertville Historical Society invited the Neshanock to play a match in this historically rich Delaware River community. Such invitations are fairly common, but some are more attractive than others. And few are more attractive than Lambertville for reasons both historical and contemporary. When the original Neshanock club took the field in 1866, their first rivals, so to speak, were the Logan Club of Lambertville. "So to speak" because it's not much of a rivalry where one team, the Neshanock, in this case, lose by scores of 77-25 and 71-47. While no one on the Flemington club wanted to repeat those scores, recreating the original rivalry had plenty of appeal.
The historical appeal also had a modern connection. Two members of the Neshanock, Scott "Snuffy" Hengst and Sam "Ewing" Ricco wanted to revive the original Logan club. Since they were just getting started in 2023, the Neshanock recreated a Neshanock-Logan match with Flemington players. The event took a more regular form a year later when "Snuffy" and "Ewing" got the Logan Club on the field. Saturday marked the third annual matchup between the two clubs; a new tradition modeled on an old one. The Neshanock are especially grateful to the Lambertville Historical Society for the original invitation and their ongoing support. Preserving and interpreting local history is important work which this organization does extremely well.
Both teams were coming off solid performances at the Gettysburg Festival with Flemington matching its best record ever. The Logan Club, playing in the event for the first time, won twice and more than held their own against the Atlantic and Providence clubs, two of the best vintage teams in the county. The Lambertville team's success on one of vintage baseball's biggest stages carried over on Saturday as the local team jumped off to a 5-1 lead after just one inning. Flemington managed to cut the difference to 6-4 after five innings, but the Logan Club sealed their win with a four run seventh inning and a 10-4 win. The Neshanock's offense was limited with only Bobby "Melky" Ritter and Ken "Tumbles" Mandel contributing two hits. The game also marked "Tumbles" return from the injured list and, as usual, the Neshanock are a different team with him in the lineup.
After a brief break, play resumed in the second of two seven inning games. This time the Neshanock got off to the quick start building a 9-0 lead as the game went to the bottom of the fourth. Not in the least discouraged by the deficit, the Lambertville team tallied 11 times over the next three innings to lead 11-9 after six innings. Flemington scored once in the top of the seventh, but there was no repeat of the late inning Gettysburg magic. Don "Splinter" Becker led the Neshanock's attack with three hits. Adding two apiece were Thomas "Hawk" Prioli, Rene "Mango" Marrero, Joe "Dispatch" Prioli and Paul "O'Neill" Cincotta. There was an usual defensive sequence in the first when Flemington retired two Logan runners trying to score from third. By winning both matches, the Logan Club tied the recreated rivalry at 3-3. Little could be more fitting for an old/new tradition
It's almost as if Neshanock needs Duke to start these late inning comebacks
ReplyDelete