In the prior 25 years of professional baseball in Princeton, teams representing the town have made it to the league's championship series only twice, the 1994 Appalachian League Champion Princeton Reds and the 1998 Eastern Division Champion Princeton Devil Rays, who fell in the league finals that season to the Bristol White Sox.

But one team that, despite not playing in the postseason, will never be forgotten by followers of Princeton was the first edition that Tampa Bay procured for the area, the 1997 Princeton Devil Rays.

The team arrived here with age and a level of experience that converted into a crew that terrorized the Appalachian League with a barrage of offense that saw the squad average over seven runs scored per game over the course of an entire Appalachian League season!

Of course, there are games where the team does not meet that level of offensive output.

On the other hand, teams of all abilities have that one game that a person never forgets. The game where skill, luck, and the miscues of an opponent all in the same evening combine into an avalanche that odds say you'll never see again.

For Princeton, that game arrived out of nowhere on August 10, 1997 at Hunnicutt Field, where a game that lasted eleven minutes short of three hours saw the P-Rays send 1,079 fans home happy following a 25-1 victory over the Danville Braves. The efforts put forth by the P-Rays that night still stand as franchise records for most runs scored in a game and biggest winning margin in a game.

Danville actually drew first blood in the top of the first inning by plating an unearned run versus Princeton starting pitcher Ed Kofler, a highly regarded draft pick by Tampa Bay, who was actually the starting pitcher in Princeton's first-ever game as a Rays' affiliate. The P-Rays countered with two runs in the bottom of the opening frame and it still appeared to be another routine Appalachian League game as the game entered the second inning with a 2-1 advantage.

After Kofler set Danville down via a scoreless top of the second inning, the flood gates that never seemed to shut for the rest of the contest, burst open for the first time.

Seven runs were tallied on Princeton's side of the scoreboard in the second to give the P-Rays an imposing 9-1 lead after only two innings had been played. Amazingly, despite the fact that the P-Rays scored 25 runs on the evening, they only scored in four different innings: two in the first, seven in the second, seven more in the fifth, and then topped it off with nine more in the seventh inning.

These 25 runs for the Princeton contingent came via only 15 hits. The D-Braves pitching staff did the rest by allowing ten unearned runs, walking ten hitters, throwing six wild pitches, and hitting four P-Rays' hitters.

Danville's starting pitcher on the night was Garrett Lee, who on the year led the Braves in innings pitched with 84 and recording a 5-5 record on the season with a 4.93 earned run average in 14 starts. Who knows where his ERA might have been that year if you could wipe out his appearance at Hunnicutt Field on that fateful night. His 4.1 innings of laborious effort that evening saw him fall under the weight of allowing 12 runs (11 earned) on ten hits while walking three and lofting one wild pitch.

It was a hard night indeed for anyone associated with the Braves to view as Lee was followed on the mound by Travis Brummitt, who needed only 1.2 innings to yield four runs (all earned)against only two hits but issued two bases on balls and one wild pitch.

The third pitcher to take the hill to begin the seventh frame for Danville, Tim Lyons, went a long way toward establishing his final ERA figure on the year of 32.40 for the D-Braves in ten appearances in 1997. He faced nine hitters, getting none of them out while displaying the wildness that verified he allowed nine runs (eight earned) on only two hits to go along with three walks, two wild pitches while also hitting three P-Rays batters.

The Princeton bats were silenced after that but the night to remember was already being etched in the Princeton history books even before it was over.

Obviously, several P-Rays fattened up their offensive numbers as a result of the contest.

1997 Appalachian League All-Star first baseman Robert Berns went 4-fo-4 at the plate for the P-Rays with two homers, three runs scored, and seven RBI. Oddly, no doubles were among his four hits. It was just two nights later that Berns stroked the double that gave him the single-season record for two-baggers in all of minor league history for short-season hitters. He finished the season with 34 doubles, eclipsing the former record-holder for doubles in a minor league short-season, Cecil Fielder.

Jared Sandberg, who was the MVP of the Appalachian League that season, served as a designated hitter that evening and went 2-4 with four RBI while pounding a homer.

Tampa Bay's first-ever first round draft pick, Paul Wilder, had a homer, a double, two runs scored and three RBI.

Shortstop Paul Hoover, who later went on to play catcher in the big leagues, was a tremendous recipient of the Braves' generosity by scoring four runs despite only going 1-3 with the bat. He also knocked in two runs on the night.

Multi-hit games were also achieved by third baseman Eric Benevidez and catcher Mike Lopez-Cao, who also had a homer in the slugfest.

With the wide margin of victory, Princeton made plenty of substitutions during the course of the game and, as a result, 12 different P-Rays' players scored at least one run in the game.

The Princeton pitching ledger shows that Kofler had his best pitching outing of the year at a time when he had more run support than a pitcher could ever dream of. After Danville's unearned run in the first, he threw six scoreless innings. In his seven innings of work for the game, Kofler gave up the one run, only two hits and set down seven Braves hitters via the strikeout route versus only two walks allowed. Chris Mason and Matt Pruett each followed Kofler to the mound with one scoreless inning each to bring the curtain down on this memorable night.

The name in the Danville lineup that evening who went on to achieve the most big league fame, second baseman Marcus Giles, had a forgetful 0-4 night at the plate and made one error in the field.

In the time since, Danville has went on to become one of the most successful teams year-in and year-out in the Appalachian League. But, that is the beauty of sports in that every new game is launched as an unscripted piece of work. With the last out on night of August 10, 1997 the final writing will always show that it will be a game that will live on forever in Princeton's professional baseball history.

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