North Carolina Newspapers

Wednesday. April 20. 1955 MAROON AND GOLD PAGE THRKK Christians Face Crucial Tilts With East Carolina Eloii Nine Meets Pirates 111 Double Bill Saturday lom; distance cu)i i ek Lefty 'Faylor Is With Biirliiijjton Lefty Taylor, ace pitcher with Elon’s North State Champions of 1950 and 1951, came right back home last week when he joined the Bur-Gra Pirates of the Carolina League as one of the regular mound staff for the professional squad. Taylor had a mark of five wins and one loss for Elon dur ing the 1951 campaign, his final season in a Christian uniform, one of the highlights that sea son being a thrilling 15-inning baUle with East Carolina, in which the Elon southpaw went the route and out-pitched two Pirate aces for a 3 to 2 win. The Christian southpaw, a native of Thomasville, Ga., pass ed up his senior college season to sign with Burlington in the summer of 1951 and was later with Waco in the Texas League before a two-year stint with the Army, He returned to Elon last fall and graduated at Thanks giving. Alton Myers ■Mton Myers, junior third sacker on the Elon baseball squad, has heen the long distance clouter in the Christians' early diamond tattles this spring, according to the statistics that were compiled alter the first six games. The Lexington boy. who is playing his bird season in an Elon baseball uni'Trm, started off with a booming triple in the opening game with Guilford and then rap ped out four two-base blows in (he double-header Against Atlantic Christian on April 9th. In second season as a regular at the hot corner, Myers has also been doing some nice work afield and has tolen two bases. Green Leading Batter In Six Early Contests A pair of hard-hitting outfielders from Brown Summit had batted and a slugging third Daseman "ere topping the batting attack tor the regulars on the Elon Col- ege baseball squad in the first ix games of the 1955 season, ac- oording to statistics compiled last veekend following the Saturday right defeat at the hands of the professional Bur-Gra Pirates. The batting leaders among the Christian starters at the 6-game point were Bobby Green and Char lie Cassell, outfielders, and Alton Myers, third sacker, each of whom had been hitting enemy pitching at a fine clip and at timely mom ents. The three regulars, however, '■ere trailing behind a number of reserves who had been to the plate twice each in the early games. Bobby Green, an All-Confer ence outfielder last spring, whose errific homer was the deciding -lout in the final titular victory >ver Lenoir Rhyne at Hickory, *as banging away at a .421 clip >n 8 hits in 19 trips to the plate. Trailing was Charlie Cassell, who donned an Elon uniform again this year after four years in Uncle Sara’s armed service. Cassell showed a .389 percentage on 7 hits in 18 trips. In third place was %ers, who had 8 hits in 21 at tempts for a .381 percentage. Coach Doc Mathis had used a total of 22 players in the first six Wmes of the 1955 schedule, six “f the group being pitchers, and entire squad was banging away at a merry ,284 clip, which "as tar above the Christian squad hitting of a year ago, when the ■vlon baseballers won their fourth orth State Conference title in ‘X seasons. Bobby Gre«n was topping the Christians in the important runs-1 latted-in column. The big junior! Elon runners across the plate, with Homer Hobgood trailing one behind with 7 RBI’s to his credit. Alton Myers, with four doubles and a triple included in his eight hits, was the leading long-distance hitter in the early battles. Sherrill Hall, tall senior right hander, chalked two of the five pitching victories for the Elon nine, with the other three winning games credited to Captain Hank Hamrick. Luther Conger and Charlie Swicegood. Luther Conger suffered the lone loss at the hands of the Bur-Gra Pirates. The batting and pitching sta tistics for the Christians through last Saturday's Bur-Gra contest are as follows: Player Henderson 2 Motsinger 2 Oakes 2 Green 19 Cassell Myers 21 Swicegood 3 Packard 23 Thompson 23 Scott 8 Conger 8 Hall Dofflemyer Hobgood 17 Sharpe 9 McIntyre 6 Watts 8 JohnMon 0 Hamrick I Stringer Bergman 2 Stauffenberg Elon Loses To Biir-Gra The Christian baseball squad, with five straight wins over col lege competition, suffered its first defeat of the 1955 season when the professional Bur-Gra Pirates of the Carolina League grabbed a 10 to 3 decision in a night battle at Graham Park last Saturday night. The pro squad packed just too much experience and batting power for the Elon collegians, and the Christians fell behind by a 9-0 count before they could push over three runs in the seventh in ning. The Bur-Gra squad paired six hits, four walks and an Elon er ror to grab a 5-0 lead off Luther Conger in the first four innings. The pros then added four count ers off Charlie Swicegood in the fifth and sixth. Jack Henderson held them scoreless in the seventh, but Ronnie McIntyre gave up one run in the eighth. Nick Thompson. Elon's All-State hortstop. came out of an early season batting slump to get two doubles and lead the Elon batting attack. His final two-bagger drove three runners home. Larry Doffle myer and Ray Scott had the other two Elon safeties. R. H. E. Elon 000 000 030— 3 4 3 Bur-Gra . 201 213 01x—10 11 2 Conger, Swicegood (5), Hender son (7), McIntyre (8) and Hobgood: Martin, Taylor (5), Paine (8) and Dorton. The championship chips will be right down on the table when the Christian baseballers invade Greenville for a Conference double-header with the East Car olina Pirates, for the outcome of the two games on the Piratei' home field could go far toward deciding the outcome of the 1955 titular race in the eastern division of the North State loop. Pre-season dope placed the Christians in the favorites role in the battle for the eastern di vision crown, but the diamond prophets also labelled Coach Jim Mallory's Pirates as the "dark horse " of the eastern race Both the Christians and Pirates broke away to winning starts in their Conference competition, and the team which can gain the edge in four games they play each other can well go on to claim the sec- itional honors. The two games in Greenville on Saturday are the first two of their four meetings. Elon copped three of four game? last year, with East Carolina nos ing the Christians 2 to 0 in a battle at Greenville in spite of a 1-hit mound performance by Sherrill Hall. Luther Conger turned the Pirates back in the other game that afternoon by a 2 to 1 score. Hall and Conger then paired on the mound for Elon to chalk wins by 4 to 0 and 2 to 1 in the other games on the Elon field. Coach Mathis has the same two towering right-handers ready for duty against the Pirates on Satur day, and the two All-State mound stars will bfe turning loose with all barrels against the Pirates and Coach Mallory, who formerly tutored the Elon nine. PlVO r ON 1)01 I5LK KILL! V;S W illiams Nine Is Defeated Seeond Time Larry Dofflemyer Larry Dofflemyer. a senior se« ‘i cl sackrr from Elkton, Va.. has been going great guns as the pivol man of Christian double-play combinations in early 1955 base lall games, and ho has taken a turn in initiating several of the double killings himself. 'I'he lec- rrds for the first six games show that Dofflemy(‘r has participated in six double plays thus far for the year, and three of them were Iwo-man jobs that he started himself on plays from Dofflemyer to Bobby Sharpe in the double win over Atlantic Christian. He was the middle man on the other thre^' plays, one from Myers to Doffle myer to Scott and the other two Thompson to DofflemyerSharpe. On The Sidelines Br JOEL BAILET Ba.-iehall Soliedule AB R H Ave. 2 0 2 1.000 2 1 1 .500 2 0 1 .500 19 6 8 .421 18 0 7 .389 21 6 8 .381 3 1 1 .333 23 8 6 .261 23 8 6 .261 8 2 2 .250 8 0 2 .250 4 0 1 .250 17 4 4 .235 17 4 4 .235 9 3 2 .222 6 2 1 .167 8 3 1 .125 0 0 0 .000 1 0 0 .000 1 0 0 .000 2 0 0 .000 3 1 0 .000 elon TOTALS 197 50 56 .284 OPPONENTS 181 25 31 .215 RUNS-BATED-IN — Green 8, Hobgood 7, McIntyre 5, Thomp son 4, Cassell 3, Conger 3, Doffle- (Continued an Page Four) MIISOR SPORTS TENNIS SCHEDULE Elon 2, WF Fresh 8. Elon 3, Guilford 4. Elon 3, E.C.C. 6. Elon 1, E.C.C. 6. Elon 8. A.C.C. 1. Elon-Lynchburg (Rain). Elon 2. Lenoir Rhyne 5. (Remaining Meets) April 19—Guilford, away. April 21—Appalachian, away. April 22—Lenoir Rhyne, away. April 26—Appalachian, home. April 29—High Point, home. May 3—High Point, away. GOLF SCHEDULE Elan 13 1-2, Guilford 4 1-3. Elon 2 1-2, E.C.C. 15 1-2. Elon 3. E.C.C. 15. Elon H. Catawba 7. Elon 11, Catawba 7. (Remaining Meets) April 19—Girilfori, away. April 21—Appalachian, away. April 26—Appalachian, home. April 29—High Foint. home. May J—High Point, away. Elon's Fighting Christian base ball squad is the talk of the North State Conference and not without good reason, for all indications point at this time to another big year for the Maroon and Gold diamond outfit. It took the Weather Man him self and several days of sustained rains to stop the Christians' win ning ways in early season games. Three times last week the annoy, ing stuff halted scheduled games with Guilford, a fact which left the Elon outfit with an overloaded schedule for the present week. It is extremely hard to keep this team of ours off the sports pages of the state when one sur veys the string of impressive wins against its early-season foes. Sta tistics shown elsewhere on this page show that the team has been hitting at a merry clip to aid and abet the pitchers. The pitching staff itself, which is something of a coach's dream, is rounding into mid-seas»n form, and the senior alignment of Ham rick, Swicegood, Hall, Conger and McIntyre has been strengthened by the addition of two freshman hurlers. Jack Henderson and Frank DeRita. Other departments of the club are sound and match up well with the pitching, and every foe on the Elon schedule is pointing for the Christians, hoping to be the first college foe to beat Elon in ’55. By the way, have you seen our base ball team yet? • • • In case you're wondering about those new faces you saw on the campus last weekend, let us help you clear up the mystery. They were not, as someone so wittily suggested, delegates from the House Un - American Activities Committee investigating “Com rade” Moize. Instead, they were a group of youthful high school football players from several dif ferent states who were paying the Elon campus a brief visit. The youngsters were on the campus for three days, and they managed to see a little Carolina rail), al though the Weather Man did smile ^ and send a bit of sunshine on Sat-1 urday. May we hope that the youthful gridsters like the Elon' atmosphere well enough to join our grid squad for the coming 1955 campaign. With one meet already in the books and another one scheduled for this week, the local fans can go to the cinder path for their sports. A great deal of attention is being focused on Horst Mevius, the German lad, who is expected to bring home the bacon in several events for the Christian thinclads. Other track participants say that the slender Mevius reminds one of a locomotive as he streaks around the track. Who knows, may be we will be watching one of the top runners in the state in the person of the blonde speedster from Germany. Maybe, too, we should nickname him the "Lubeck Locomotive" or the ‘‘Lubeck Ex press.” Certainly he has the power and the speed. * • • ON THE LIGHT SIDE . Did you ever wonder how the poor out- of-state students amuse them selves on Sundays, a time wlien many of the students from this section have trekked to their homes for the weekend? Well, a new sport is now raging on the campus on the weekend, and it might be called sun-soaking. One who is watching at such a time (Continued on Page Four! Elon 13, Guilford 3. Klon 11, Williams 1. Elon 11, Williams 2. Elon 8, A.C.C. 6. Elon 4. A.C.C. 3. Elon-Guilford (Rain). Elon 3, Bur-Gra 10. Elon 2, Greensboro 8. (Remaining Games) April 19—Guilford, away. April 23—E. C,C. away (DH). April 25—H. Point, home (DH). .April 30—A.C.C., home (DH). May 4—H. Point, away (DH). May 6—E.C.C., home (DH). The Elon Christians continued to unload with the heavy artillery a.'' they hammered out an II to 2 victory over the Williams College nine at Greensboro on Tuesday night. April 6th. It was the second ■successive victory over the Massa chusetts collegians. Charlie Swicegood and Ronnie McIntyre, a pair of Elon's senior pitching stars, split the pitching chores for Coach Doc Mathis’ >(|uad. and they held the Williams team to six hits, three of which came in a belated ninth inning rally that accounted for the New Englanders' only scores. Swicegood, with three All-Con- lirence seasons behind him, baff led the Williams batters through the first six innings, allowing hem only two hits while striking •)Ut nine and walking four. Mc Intyre added three strikeouts in the final innings. Klon grabbed the lead with -ingle runs in the second and fourth and a pair of markers in the second inning, but the Christ ians we-re really off to the races in the big fifth inning, when five runs crossed the platter. After a walk to Hobgood, Larry Dofflemyer and Charlie Swicegood slugged successive two-baggers to start the big inning, and three singles in a row by Nick Thomp son. Bobby Green and Charlie Cassell finished out the rally. Dofflemyer was the big gun in the Elon attack with a triple and double in four trips, but Bobby Green qontributed a double and single in two tries, and Charlie Cassell had two singles in three attempts. Charlie Freeman led the Williams batting with a double and two singles. R. H. E. Williams ■ 000 000 002— 2 6 3 Elon 012 i51 lOz— 1 10 2 Shaw, Flood (6) and Leinbach, Welles: Swicegood, McIntyre (7) and Hobgood. Christians Top Bulldogs Twice In Eastern Race Combining timely hitting and counted for four runs. Conger sharp fielding behind the steady pitching of Luther Conger and Sherrill Hall. Elon's senior All- Staters of a year ago, the Christ ians grabbed a double victory over the Atlantic Christian Bulldogs at Wilson on Saturday afternoon, April 9. The Christians took the opener by an 8-6 count and then copped the nightcap by a 4-3 mar gin The two wins shot the Elon out fit to tne top of the heap in the North State Conference's eastern division, in which the Christians had chalked three straight wins and no defeats. The victories also boosted Elon’s full-season mark to five wins in as many starts. Elon grabbed the lead with two runs in the first inning and went on to score all their markers in the first five innings. Alton Myers topped the Christian attack with a pair of double, but Don Packard Bobby Green and Charlie Cas sell had two singles each to con tribute to the scoring. Don Percise ind Bob McPhail each hit twice for the Bulldogs. Luther Conger, starting on the mound for Elon, held the Atlantic Christian nine scoreless in the jarly innings and was in trouble inly in the final frame of the 7- inning battle when four hits ar- stopped the Bulldogs’ Jerry Wil- ■ ams without a hit in the game. Sherrill Hall was Elon's winning pitcher in the nightcap battle, in which he let the Bulldogs down with three hits. The big right hander fanned eight and allowed five walks and duplicated Conger’s feat in holding Jerry Willlam.s, Bulldog outfield star, without a safety. Alton Myers again hammered two double doubles, and Charlie Cassell and Homer Hobgood had two singles to pace the Elon bat ting. No Bulldog batter had more than one hit. The score by innings for the two games follows: (FIRST GAME) R. H. E. Elon 203 210 0—8 12 2 A.C.C 000 1014—6 8 I Conger and Hobgood: Rogeri, Horne (4) and R. Fulghum. (SECOND GAME) R. H. E. Elon 130 000 0—4 10 2 A.C.C 101010 0—3 3 4 Hall and Hobgood: K. Fulghum, J. Williams (6) and R. Fulghum.