The Oakland Larks beat the San Francisco Sea Lions 12-4 at Sacramento’s McAuliffe Field today in a tribute game organized by Sacramento State students to honor Negro League Baseball.

The exhibition game was organized by twins Dante and Dominic Morris, sophomore business majors, as one of the campus’ Black History Month events.

Approximately 80 people, including Sac State President Alexander Gonzalez and Provost Joseph Sheley, came out and endured the rain and cold to watch the teams, which were comprised of Sac State students and friends of the Morris Brothers.

“We wanted to play this game as a tribute the sacrifices black baseball players made in the past when the game was segregated,” Dante Morris said.

In a ceremony before the game the two teams honored former Negro League and Major League Baseball player Frank Williams, who played for the Negro League Kansas City Monarchs and Major League Pittsburgh Pirates, and former Major League player Jethro McIntyre, who played for the Cincinnati Reds. Both Williams and McIntyre now live in the Sacramento area.

Williams said he hoped exhibition games like this would keep young people excited about playing the game and that he was honored to be a part of the event.

“I wouldn’t have missed this for anything,” Williams said.

McIntyre said he has known the Morris brothers since they started attending summer baseball camps and clinics as young children in Oakland, Calif.

“I didn’t teach him that,” McIntyre laughed as he watched Dante Morris, who was playing for the Larks, get run-down and tagged out between first and second base in the bottom of the first inning.

The teams wore the 1940s-style uniforms of the Larks and Sea Lions, which the Morris twins had specially made for the event.

The Larks and the Sea Lions were members of the West Coast Negro Baseball League that began in 1946 and disbanded in 1949.

The Morris brothers said they learned about the West Coast Negro Baseball League when they began doing research in preparation for the event.

Dominic Morris, who played for the Sea Lions, said they decided to represent the Larks and Sea Lions as opposed to more well known Negro League teams like the Monarchs or the New York Black Yankees to give the game a local feel and honor the little known West Coast Negro Baseball league.

The Morris brothers also run the Morris League, a recreational baseball league for Sac State students they founded in the spring of 2007.

Fans began to leave the game in the sixth inning as the rain became steadier and heavier. The game was called after the seventh inning on account of the rain.

Todd Wilson can be reached at [email protected].