They were dancing in the aisles in Norfolk as the Animals win in showdowns in a game possibly pivoted by a fan challenge
July 25, 2025: Party Animals 9(6) ~ Firefighters 5(4) SD3
The Firefighters and Party Animals were back for the second game of a three-game series at Harbor Park in Norfolk, Virginia. This series will be the last Firefighters headliners for the season. In August, the Party Animals will have headliner series in St. Paul, Minnesota; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Starkville, Mississippi. All of those games will be against the Texas Tailgaters. The Firefighters, who are were 3-13 at the start of this game will be traveling with the Bananas for MLB park series in Baltimore, Denver, Chicago and Pittsburgh, as well as a three-game set at Historic Grayson Stadium in Savannah.
The Firefighters started with Austin Temple with a 2.70 season ERA. The first inning will start with Reece Hampton hitting into a Stephen Cullen trick play at first backed up by Temple. Noah Fisher’s bat went flying towards third, but Logan Lacey still managed to pull the trick play to get him out at first. Temple would then catch Dakota McFadden looking to end the frame. Bottom of the first and the Animals would bring up Bret Helton, who has pitched 71.2 innings during this World Tour with 13 ball four sprints and a 4.40 ERA. With two outs in the bottom, he would get another ball four sprint with Logan Lacey at the dish, but a strikeout to Dakota McFadden would prevent from scoring. No score at the end of one.
An amazing play in the top of the second. Andy Cosgrove on first from a ball four sprint and Jason Swan out looking. Tanner Thomas grounds to Isaac Parra who managed to tag Cosgrove midway between the bases and still was able to get a between the legs trick play over to Stephen Cullen for the force at first to end the half. In the bottom of the second, Stephen Cullen would hit a lead off single to get him on board. South Trimble was brought in to pinch run. Caden Green would then send one down the line left, Tanner Thomas who was mic’d up at the time could not get it home in time scoring Trimble. Firefighters win the inning.
Bottom of the fourth, Liam Spence would go right and get on base. Dalton Cornett was next up and on the first pitch, the ball was fouled down the right field line and was allegedly caught by a kid in a Party Animals jersey. The ruling on the field was a fan out. Val Perez, coach of the Firefighters challenges the call. It was determined that he caught the ball, but it bobbled on his glove and he caught it the second time. The call was overturned and the at bat goes on.
OK Bananaland, I have an issue with this one. I understand when a catch is not “clean” because it hits a railing, the ground or touches another fan before it is caught by the fan. What if I was in an open walkway area and I had a glove on and I was able to do a perfect Ryan Cox tip drill trick play and caught it cleanly afterwards, would that not count? If a fan has touched the ball and that ball does not touch anything or anyone other than the fan and the fan brings the ball in, it should be a fan out. Even if they bobbled it. It’s still a clean catch in my opinion. Jesse, we need to fix this for next season.
Cornett would hit one out towards left center, past Sal Jacobo to Reece Hampton who sends it to Bryson Bloomer to get Liam Spence at third. Cornett would make it to second. Logan Lacey would get a ball four sprint off of Bret Helton bringing in Cornett. Firefighters win another inning. They are now up 2-0.
The Party Animals would get their first point on the board through an Andy Cosgrove single and doubles by Tanner Thomas and Bryson Bloomer to score two runs. The Firefighters could not answer it and now we are at 2-1 Firefighters.
In the top of the sixth with a 3-2 count, Reece Hampton get a Matt Wolf somersault wind-up which he would hit foul. He would then get a ball four sprint off of Wolf taking him to second with Sal Jacobo on third. Noah Fisher tags up to Ron Franklin scoring Jacobo. The frame would end on an Andy Cosgrove foul out to a fan. A joint effort by South Trimble and Liam Spence in the bottom of the sixth would push the inning. We are still 2-1, Firefighters.
OK. We are ending the sixth inning with 38:44 left on the clock. This will become relevant, I swear!
Top of the seventh inning, 36:00 on the clock and Jason Swan up for the Party Animals. Bounces one towards left, gets by Logan Lacey and Caden Green and Swan slides into second. Bryson Bloomer would go into a ball four sprint off of Marshall Shill brings in Swan. Dustin Baber bounces to Isaac Parra who tags Bloomer and then overthrows to first base. Bronson Balholm would go into a ball four sprint. Balholm stops and first and Baber at third. Runners on the corners. Sal Jacobo hits one out to right bringing in Baber for the second run. The half would end on Reece Hampton popping up to Logan Lacey. We are going into the seventh inning stretch with 26:34 left on the clock. The Firefighters were unable to answer those runs. We are now tied at two points.
Time check at the end of seven — 0:19:27
Back for the top of the eighth — 0:17:26 on the clock. Jake Skole doubles and Jason Swan singles out to right to bring in Skole. Party Animals bring up six at bats. We go into the middle of the eighth — 0:08:37 on the clock. Out of the inning break, we are at about 0:07:25. Remember, this is the bottom of the eighth, not the ninth. Joe Lytle goes to deep right and gets on second. 0:06:56 and now South Trimble. With a 1-1 count, Trimble swings and loses the bat towards third. Bryce Bloomer hurls it back to him (kids.. do not try that at home!). Liam Spence gets a ball four sprint off of Brady Kais scoring scoring Noah Bridges, who came in to run for Lytle with two outs.
0:02:36 on the clock. Liam Spence with a full count hits it to right down the line and it was called foul. There was a fan challenge. The ball looked clearly foul here. The foul call was upheld.
0:01:25 on the clock and a ball four sprint. Noah Bridges comes in to score. We are tied in runs for the inning. Remember, we are at 2~2 in points. Two outs and Dalton Cornett comes up to the dish with 53 seconds left on the clock. Cornett hops to Brady Kais who was not able to glove it. This inning is still going. Logan Lacey comes up to the box with 24 seconds remaining. With a 1-1 count and two on, Kais starts his wind-up, the clock runs out. This is the first time in quite awhile we have seen the time run out and the first time for a Firefighters headliner. With a 2-2 count, Lacey pop up to Tanner Thomas to end the inning.
When the clock runs out during an inning that is not the ninth, that inning is considered the final inning and every run counts for a point. With that, we go to showdowns with the score tied at 3~3.
But let me make one thing clear. If Kais was able to strike out Spence instead of a sprint, this game would have gone to the ninth inning, regardless of the fan challenge. The fan challenge shaved a just over a minute off of the clock. Tanner Thomas caught the third out 59 seconds after time had expired. If the fan challenge was not called, this game would have gone to the ninth inning even with the ball four sprint to Spence.
In the first round of showdowns, it will be Jake Skole batting for the Party Animals, Ben Dum on the bump and Noah Bridges in the field. On a 1-2 count, Skole would hit out to right field and was able to make it all the way around. The Firefighters send up Joe Lytle to hit off of Drew Gillespie with Jason Swan fielding. Lyle would send it towards left field making the walk off. We are tied.
Second showdown brings up Reece Hampton with Dum remaining on the bump. Reece successfully walks it off on the second pitch. Firefighters bring up Logan Lacey. Gillespie remains on the mound. Lacey walks it off. We are still tied after the second round.
In the third round, Bryce Bloomer comes up, still with Dum and Bridges for the Firefighters. Bloomer goes to left field for the grand slam walk off. Animals up 9~5. Firefighters bring up Dalton Cornett. Gillespie and Swan remain. The ball does not leave the infield. Swan easily tags Ron Franklin between first and second and the Party Animals win in three showdowns.
Party Animals win: Party Animals 9(6) ~ Firefighters 5(4) SD3.
Party Animals trick plays: 3 ~ Thomas, Baber & Jacobo.
Firefighters trick plays: 7 ~ Cullen (3), Parra (2), Spence (1) & Lacey (1).
Showman of the Night: Jake Skole - Party Animals
As this article is being released, the Firefighters are playing their third and final game in this Norfolk series and the last Firefighters headliner of the 2025 World Tour. Also, the Savannah Bananas are in Philadelphia to take on the Texas Tailgaters. Both games are on their respective YouTube channels. The Bananas game is also being carried on ESPN.
Sunday will have second game in the Bananas vs. Tailgaters series from Philadelphia. This game will be at 3PM EDT and will be the first ever Banana Ball game carried on over-the-air broadcast television. Look for it on your local CW Network station.
Jesse keeps saying this game gets better every day. Friday night’s game proved that. It’s only going to get better! This Michi says keep watching the 2025 Banana Ball World Tour: exciting baseball, trick plays, interesting entertainment, and most importantly… FANS FIRST!
Oh by the way, dancing kid was still in the aisle for the start of the third round. This game went long. He looked burned out. Great job kid. You have a future. I wonder how many followers he has now? Good night.
All screenshots: Fans First Entertainment. YT @TheOfficialFirefighters (fair use).
Additional credit: official scoresheets from Josh Talevski (X: @JoshTalevski)