Centennials Jump Out to Early Lead, Win Game 1

CHICAGO, IL. September 27, 1916 -

		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10		R	H	E
Philadelphia		3	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0			5	8	3
Chicago		0	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	0			3	5	0

The Centennials are considered the underdogs by many, but they used it to their advantage and scored three runs in the first inning on a walk, two singles, and a double from Squire Willey.

In the 5th inning, down 3-1, the Orphans answered back. A leadoff walk by Salmon set the tone. Ludwig tried to lay down a sacrafice bunt, but when the pitcher threw the ball away, he reached first and Salmon moved up to third.

With a man on first and third, Goldsmith came to bat and hit a line drive right through the hole between third and short. Salmon scored, and Ludwig moved to third. It was first and third again with no outs.

But when Goldsmith tried to take second base, Centennial catcher Elias Haley threw a perfect strike to second basemen Suds Frick for the out. With Kyle still at the plate, he ripped a line drive down the right field line that probably would have scored Goldsmith. But Ludwig came in and the game was tied, 3-3 with one out.

After a flyout from Chavez, Ezekial Peel came to bat. On the first pitch, he hit a hard groundball between third and short. Kyle rounded third and was trying for the go ahead run. Philadelphia left fielder threw a rocket home that was slightly off line.

In one fluid motion while guarding the plate, Haley reached downt he first base line to take the throw and spun clockwise back over to the plate to tag the foot of Kyle as he slid into home. It was a close way, but the umpire pumped his fist and yelled "Your out!" with a bellowing voice and the game was still tied, 3-3.

After two straight 1-2-3 innings from each side, the Centennials came to bat in the top of the 8th. It started just had the previous two had gone. Frick grounded out to second, and then Haley grounded out to third. With two outs, Friend stepped to the plate and on a 0-2 count he hit a lazy flyball to leftfield. The fielder couldn't run in quickly enough and it fell in for a hit.

Next up was Willey. With a 1-1 count, Friend took a chance and dashed to second base to get into scoring position. Finally, with a full count, Willey smashed a hard line drive in between the right and center fielder. It rolled to the wall, allowing Friend to score and Willey to walk to second base uncontested for a double.

With the lead, Howel walked up next to try and make the lead larger. A single would do the job, and that's exactly what he did. A hard grounder between first and second scored Willey without a throw which made the score 5-3.

In the bottom of the 9th, Chicago had one more shot. The first batter, Tompson, tapped a soft grounder to the third baseman. Rushing in, he threw a perfect strike to the first baseman but he dropped it! On the secong pitch to the next batter Murry, the ball sailed over the catcher to the backstop, allowing Tompson to move up a base.

But a ground out, fly out, and then a soft hit right back to the pitcher left him stranded, and Philadelphia took game one 5-3.