Excelsiors Start Season With Victory!

Saturday afternoon, Peterson held their annual Gammel Dag Fest. As part of the entertainment, there was baseball to be the played! Yours truly was involved in those festivities, playing vintage baseball for the Lanesboro Excelsiors and defeating the Highland Prairie Hayseeds.

One thing you might notice from watching a vintage baseball game is that no gloves are used. As part of that, the ball can be caught on one bounce for an out. When a ball hits fair in front of the plate, it stays fair. And since we have a limited number of old style baseballs, we had one rule that did not benefit the Excelsiors.

We played the late game, so I got to go downtown in Peterson and get some chicken to eat and see the Nordic dancing before playing. Once I got back, I watched the rest of the Decorah vs. Highland Prairie game, in which the Decorah team was victorious by a 5-3 score.

In Game Two of the day, Lanesboro scored 3 runs in the top first inning, before giving up 5 in the bottom of the half. A lot of offense can come around, and it did. In the 4th, my long fly ball scored the tying run, but it was a back-and-forth contest for a while. Then the Excelsiors hit a grand slam and a solo homer in one inning to get a good lead in the game.

That brings up one rule that we made during the game. After hitting two home runs, the next fair ball hit over the fence would be an out. Of course, with two out and runners on first and third, I blasted one over the fence in left. I tried not to swing hard! Another of our players hit one out to right in the 7th, so everyone had to look for the ball then as well. After all that, the Excelsiors held on for a 12-10 win.

Come see the 1-0 Lanesboro Excelsiors on Sunday afternoon at the Highland Prairie Church! Lanesboro will play the last two of the three games held on that day, so we should be there around 1:00. Hope to see you there!