BY RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Staff Writer
The Crestline Highlanders of the SoCal Vintage Base Ball League have been having a great season. Although not undefeated as in the past two seasons, they are in third place as they enter the playoffs with a positive potential for winning the league championship for the third straight year. Their massive scoring power is intimidating the other teams and several have forfeited games to them over the season.
The Lordsburg Trolleymen, earlier this season, could not field a team of nine players against the Crestline Highlanders so, instead of having them forfeit the game, the Highlanders scheduled a double-header against them, which was played on Saturday, Aug. 10 at Harich Field in Twin Peaks. The two teams played two, five-inning games.
In the first game, which began at 10:30 a.m., the Highlanders beat Lordsburg 23-4. The Highlanders came ready to play and smashed in 19 runs in the first inning; including several home runs. With that lead, Lordsburg never could get any traction in the game. However, they did prevent the Highlanders from scoring in innings two and three, while they scored one run in each of those innings and two more in the top of the fourth inning. Then the Highlanders scored another four runs for a total of 23 runs. When Lordsburg didn’t score anything in the top of the fifth, the game was over with a score of 23-4.
For the second game, to inspire Lordsburg to have better fortune, the Trolleymen were designated the home team, hitting second. The Highlanders only scored two runs in the top of the first inning and the Trolleymen responded so at the end of the third inning with only two more innings to play, the score was 6-5, with the Highlanders being ahead by only one run, giving the Trolleymen new confidence of a win in this second game of the double-header.
The Highlanders then came back to score five runs in the top of the fourth inning, followed by the Trolleymen scoring three more runs, so they were only slightly behind with a score of 11-8, with one inning to go. The Trolleymen kept the Highlanders to only one run in the top of the fifth inning of the five-inning game. But the Trolleymen could not score any runs in the bottom of the fifth, for a final score of 12-8 with the Highlanders winning both games of the double-header.
The first game of the playoffs was scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 24 between the Highlanders and the Riverside Smudgepots at Harich Field in Twin Peaks. Several years ago, these two teams played each other twice for the league championship, with the Smudgepots defeating the Highlanders the first year and the Highlanders taking the trophy away from them the second time, a trophy the Highlanders have retained for the past two seasons and had on display at the Crestline Chamber of Commerce office.
Unfortunately, the Smudgepots were trounced when they played the Crestline Highlanders last month and were not able to field a team on the 24th to defend their honor this time and were forced to forfeit the game.
The Highlanders’ trophies on display at the Crestline Chamber of Commerce office.
The next playoff game will be Sept. 7 against the Temecula Dear Bros. The Dear Bros. are in second place in the league, with 50 runs scored this season. At this time, their season win/loss records are identical with the Crestline Highlanders; both teams are only 0.5 games behind Fullerton, which is in first place.
The Highlanders at this time are the highest scoring team of the league with 88 runs scored during the regular season. The first-place Fullerton Fire Knockers have only 66 runs scored by the team this season, but they have also have played one less game this season and allowed only 27 runs to be scored against them this season.
After the Sept. 7 playoff games, those winners will play each other for the Heritage Cup championship on Sept. 21. The Highlanders have won this cup back-to-back for the last two seasons. The playing field has not been determined as it will be decided by those teams playing. For the past three seasons those championship games have been played at Harich Field in Twin Peaks as often the temperature in late September has been in the low 100s down the hill.
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