BOVINA CENTER - Last weekend at the 4th annual Cowtown Scramble Vintage Base Ball Festival, the host club Bovina Dairymen took home the Cream of the Crop Award after a dramatic, walk-off win in the bottom of the ninth versus the Connecticut Base Ball Club of Hartford. The win was the 100th victory under the leadership of Nick “The Stick” Frandsen since reorganizing the team in 2017 and preserved the team’s first unbeaten season since the Club’s founding in 2008.
“The game was an instant classic,” said Frandsen.
Over the nine inning contest played in the rules and customs of 1864, there were three lead changes, great defense on both sides including Bovina turning a double play in the sixth to hold the Hartfords scoreless in the frame. Bovina tallied four aces in the bottom of the sixth to take an 11-10 lead. A Bovina relay got the third out at home to stop the bleeding in the seventh after the visitors scored two runs to go up 12-11. CT scored two more in the top of the eighth inning expanding the lead 14-11.
But, Bovina held the Hartford club scoreless in the first half of the ninth and Alex Taylor (5 for 5) hit a clutch single to keep the Dairymen’s hopes alive and scored the 15th and deciding run, completing the undefeated season to an echo of cheers from the Bovina rooters that some said could be heard in Delhi.
Festival co-organizers did well also ... Fleischmanns Mountain Athletic Club won three out four matches and the Polecat Base Ball Club featuring the Hamden Nine split with two wins and two defeats. The annual event is organized by the Delaware County Vintage Base Ball Association with support from the Livestock Foundation, the MARK Project and Delaware County Tourism & Promotion Grant Program and will be held again Oct. 4-5, 2025. Donations collected from this year’s event will be sent to Little Leagues in the Asheville, North Carolina area to help rebuild fields devastated by Hurricane Helene. To see more highlights and photos from the weekend’s event, visit the DCVBBA Facebook page.
