07/19/2026
Sunday 19 July 2026
Bellbrook, Ohio
The Ohio 9 traveled to the wonderful City of Bellbrook, Ohio for a 9 inning bound match vs the Tippecanoe Canal Jumpers, hosted by the Bellbrook Sugarcreek Park District. The teams had the pleasure of playing in front of several dozen fans in attendance, all willing to brave the warm, muggy conditions to watch an afternoon of vintage base ball, as played by 1864 rules, and to partake in free hot dogs and ice cream.
The 9 welcomed Logan "Short Fry" Keller, and Bob "Boomer" Behr as extra ballists for today's match.
The Canal Jumpers were first to step to the plate, some fine hurling by Jim "Tugboat" Breen kept all four struck balls on the infield, allowing just a single baserunner, and The 9 was able to escape the top of the first unscathed.
"Short Fry" led off the bottom of the first for us, was moved to third on a single to right by William "Elmer" Segrist and scored on a double by Jonathan "Rainman" Goebel. Unfortunate for the 9, we were held to just that one run in the bottom of the first frame. Over the next five innings, the Canal Jumpers scored often and held The 9 to just two runs through the sixth inning, pushing the score to 19-2.
The bats finally came alive for The 9 in the bottom of the seventh inning. Four straight singles by Chris "Butcher" Hunter, Charlie "Sharkbait" Kemp, "Short Fry", and Christian "Boston" Ollson produced a run, and a strong double by Elmer plated two more runs. We weren't done there, singles by Sam "Timber" Spight, "Boomer", Rob "Papa Scoot" Schuster, and "Tugboat" produced four more runs, bringing the inning's total to seven tallies. Things were finally looking up, and we were hoping for a comeback.
However, our bats again fell silent the last two frames, and The Canal Jumpers came out on top by a score of 22 to 9. The match did feature a couple of defensive gems, "Short Fry" made an incredible one-handed 'manly' catch on a dead run in center field. On another play, on a well struck ball to left field, we were able to cut down the striker at the plate with a strong throw from left field by Raymond "Straps" Peining to the cutoff "Rainman" at shortstop, who made another fine throw to the catcher "Sharkbait", who snagged the ball on a bounce to lay down the tag on the sliding baserunner.
Even with a loss, it was a good day of vintage base ball, with lots of laughter and some good-natured ribbing with our friends from Tippecanoe, it's always a pleasure to spend the afternoon on the ball field with them. The Ohio 9 and The Tippecanoe Canal Jumpers would like to thank the City of Bellbrook for the invitation to play ball in their fine town, and to the many fans in attendance.
Our next event is in two weeks, noon Sunday, August 2nd vs these same Tippecanoe Canal Jumpers. This match will be played at our home park at Corwin-Nixon fields in Mason, Ohio. Hope to see you there!
Please visit our website Ohio9baseball.com for our remaining schedule dates.