1 r STAGE SET FOR ANNUAL TILT to' IS IS ( By “Anc” Ancrum Lindsay Returns to Form Ae delirious and enthusiastic throng will greet two formidable foes—the Blue and Black of Livingstone College, and the Gold and Blue of Johnson C. Smith University, contenders for the 26th annual base ball joust, when they enter Wearn Field Mon day and begin forming battle lines. If weather predictions are correct fully 9000 fans will sit under a basking sunshine and watch these two rivals engage in a hectic duel, for between 2:30 and and 4:30 o’clock the national Negro college base ball classic will be hanging in the balance. The stake is not only the honor which goes to the winner of this classic; it is al so an advance towards the championship of North Carolina. The principal players will be Yokely for Livingstone and Pitch- ford or Hayes for Smith. Two new faces will be seen in the Bulls’ line-up on the Wearn Field battle ground— “Pop” Horne, youthful first sacker, and “Runt” McDowell, 16 year old thii'd sacker. These two youngsters have been mainstays in the Bulls’ machinery this season and with Captain McKeithan, “Mose” Ellis and Tucker, are expected to bear the brunt of the Bulls’ offense. “Red” Ellis, who took a conspicuous part in subduing the Blue and Black on the grid iron Thanksgiving mak get a chance to show his wares in the Bull’s line-up. Ellis was making a fine showing in center field the first of the season and was given a regular berth by -Coach Scales, but did not play in a game because of an injury received the day before the opening game. Nothing definite has been learned yet as to whether Wiley Williams, Bull letter- man, will be permitted to play. The return of Wi'l’ams to the line-up would give the -^"o^a'-aJfe ^lue- a uetter chance for victory; for in Williams the Bulls would have a flashy, brilliant fielder, a heavy cloutter and a clever base runner. “Red” Lindsay, who has been off form the first of the season, has struck his stride. His bludgeon is expected to play an important part in the fray. The Bulls are doped to win by a narrow margin. This dope did not cause the Bulls to let up in -their training. Coach Scales carefully drilled his , charges and warned them not to take the field over-confident, but to go out with stern determination to meet a speedy, aggressive and fighting combination. Although the Bulls boost a better record than the Methodists no sable pall has cov ered their squad. They will take the field with the moral support of over 4,000 hope ful fans and a world of confidence in the crafty right wing • of Yokely. . Captain McKeithan, who is playing his third year in a Smith uniform, and who is qn-obably the most experienced player on the team, after carrying the young, strong- I armed infielders through a stiff work-out, stated in a confidential tone: “With that in field in action we will be hard to stop. Our . out-field strengthened, we are bound to ^win.” The stage is set for the biggest base ball game ever played between two Negro colleges. A close game is predicted with 'the Bulls being the favorites. Can Hayes or Pitchford hold the Blue and Black in check? Can the Bulls overcome the rugged re- " sistance of the Blue and Black? Will Ellis, Horne and Tucker unlimber their mighty willows? On Monday afternoon the answer to these pertinent queries promises to en gage the largest crowd in the history of Negro college base ball. Coach Scales- has ironed all the wrinkles out of his machinery and his proteges are waiting the call of Umpire Wiley to “play ball!” “They’re off!” Pitchford and Ellis, Smith Pitchers AVALANCHE OF HITS MARK OPENING GAME. March 19.—The Smith Bulls opened their bag of willows this afternoon and pro ceeded to lambast the offerings of seven A. & T hurlers to all corners of Biddle field for a twelve to six victory in the opening game of the season. Hits came from the Bulls’ bludgeons so fast that the crowd that witnessed the game became dizzy. “Mose” Ellis who was filling in at center field, twice lifted the horsehide over the short side of the right field wall for two bases. “Pops” Bynum, Farmer Coach, sent 7 twirlers to the mound in an effort to stop the Bulls but twice that number of such twirlers as were sent out on the mound at once would have fallen before such a terrific onslaught. “Bun” Hayes, ace of the Bulls’ pitching staff, woi-ked masterfully on the hillock. At no time was this clever veteran in dan ger. His fast hooks, cutting the corners of the plate made seven fai;mer batsmen whiff the air for the third strike. Goelely for A. & T. hit a long fly over the right field palings for a home-run. A. &T. . 20000120 1—6 8 Smith. - - - .0 4 0 0 1 4 3 -12 8 Umpires: Wiley and Anderson. BULLS DOWN STATERS Score by innings: N. C. College . .00100004 0—57 Smith .... .... .. .00000600 —69 Batteries: State, Johnson, Benson and Harris. Smith: Ellis, McKeithan. Umpire: Wiley. PITCHFORD TWIRLS INVINCI BLE. April 2.—“Monk” Pitchford let the Shaw Bears down with two hits today and sent them back to the capital trailing the Gold and Blue in a game which ended in a score of eight .to two. Shaw’s two scores came as a result of two hits, an error, and a base on balls. Not a Bear reached first base until the fourth inning when Tucker muffled a slow grounder hit to him by Armstrong, Bear short-fielder. “Mose” Ellis, on his first two trips to the plate, smashed out triples. His second tri ple came with the bases drunk. A wildly cheering throng of the fairer sex robed in the colors of Spring itself yelled and yelled for a Shaw victory. This yelling was to no avail. The Bears had met a team much stronger than their own. A Charlotte lad. Diamond, nailed out a double to score the only two Shaw runs. This lad also showed up well at the initial bag. Reginald Hayes played well at the hot corner for the visitors. His single opened the rally which netted the visitors their runs. Tucker, for the Bulls, hit for the cir cuit. Score by innings: Shaw .... ... .... ... 00000020 0—22 Smith . . — 0 1 3 0 0 0 1 3—86 Batteries: Shaw, Campbell and Brown ing. Smith: Pitchford and McKeithan. LTmpire: Wiley. PROSPECTS OF J. C. SMITH UNIVER SITY BASEBALL TEAM. March 23.—In a game featured by flashy fielding, clever base running and brilliant pitching, the Smith Bulls downed a formi dable foe. North Carolina College, on Bid dle field today 6-5. “Mose” Ellis, hefty Bulls’ moundman, worked out a fine game on the rubber. He kept the visitors’ hits scattered. Only once was he threatened—in the eighth— when the Staters pulled over four runs on four errors and a single and Vanstory’s home run bringing their total to within one run of tieing the Bulls. Ellis immediately tightened up retiring the side without fur ther scoring. In the seventh inning, “Bun” Hayes, who was playing centerfield, nipped a State rally by driving a liner from Centerfield to third base to catch Moore who was trying to make third on Benson’s single. A Smith rally was checked in the first inning when with one out and the bases loaded the Staters executed a fast double play—Johnson to Harris to Cook. Time after time Coach Hicks’ charges nipped Smith rallies by snagging fast grounders and liners to catch the lunnei at first. This, however, was not enough to stop the Bulls. Nothing the Staters could offer would stop the Bulls until they had iced the game. This happened when Tuck er’s mighty bat sent one of Johnsons fast ones over the right field wall for a homer scoring Marshall and Horne ahead of him. Roy Thompson, Smith letter man, mak ing his first appearance of the season in the Bulls’ line-up, crashed out fast liners twice for singles. more than two scores and fanned seven men. None of our players fanned during the game. The above is presented in order that the public might get a true account as to the condition our team is in, and it should be of interest and assurance to those who in tend to support them in their annual base ball classic of the South which is played on Easter Monday at Wearn Field with Livingstone College. For the past two seasons our team has entered this annual battle and has come out triumphant. At the last Smith-Living- stone game there were about seven thous and enthusiastic spectators, the number of supporters for the two teams being about equal, as was shown by the cheers. ^ There are numbers of others on our team who could be named as outstanding play ers but the mentioning of their names will be saved until another game. We must say, however, a word about “Runt” McDowell, the sixteen year old boy wonder, who is performing at third. Runt is a natural base ball player and shows promise of developing into a dangerous batter as well as the greatest infielder in the whole history of Smith base ball. The old followers of the game here say that he handles himself with a style similar to that of the veteran “Dog” Gordon when “Dog” was at his best in 1923. We cannot afford to make any definite predictions concerning the outcome of the Easter game, but now it appears that it will be a pitchers’ battle. Still with an ar ray of sluggers like “Pop” Horne, Tucker, Lindsay, McKeithen, Ellis and Hayes we have no fear that ere nine innings have rolled around there will be some slugging done. OMEGA PSI PHI By J. B. Davis, ’28 Nothing pleased us more at the beginning of the season than the fact that quite a bit of new material went down to prac tice and those persons have made very fa vorable impressions. Eight men having letters in baseball, or rather, the “vets,” continue to display their ability as star base ball players. G. W. McKeithen is the captain and proves himself to be a very efficient lead er. The team lifted the base ball curtain of 1927 in a game with the A. & T. players. The score was 12-6 in favor of Smith Uni versity. The initial stand on the mound was taken by “Bun” Hayes. The second game of the season was played with the N. C. State team. Our team has always found this team to be hard and this necessitated hard fighting on our part to defeat them. The score was 6-5. Tucker, Horne and McDowell were the outstanding batters of the day. Horns and McDowell are victims of the suspense that is usually experienced by new play ers. On Saturday. April 2, we played the Shaw University nine. We understand that rivalry is always manifested between op posing teams and this is particularly true of the Smith and Shaw nines. Shaw did not have her last year pitcher, but the substitute did equally as well, holding our heavy hitters with no more than 3 scores up to the seventh inning. But the tide changed when we yelled to Tucker that we needed a home-run; and as though noth ing but a home run would give satisfaction Tucker socked the old pill over the right field fence, scoring himself and two oth ers. The score was 8-2. Ralph “Mose” Ellis is also playing reg ularly in centerfield. During the season he has accredited himself with two home runs and in the last game added two three- base hits to the list. “Monk” Pitchford, another Alexander, allowed the Shaw sluggers to make no Spring has dawned upon us, a season when all is taking- on new life; a season that we all enjoy. Birds are singing within the foliage of the trees, welcoming Spring. The gardener is pruning his trees, cutting away the useless and barren boughs in order that the flourishing ones may thrive to the best advantage. Likewise Rho Chapter of Ome ga Psi Phi Fraternity is doing away with all useless items, grasping only those things which will make for the progress of the Fraternity at large. Tired of living barbaric lives and consci entiously seeking “shelter” in the portals of Omega, on the night of March 17th be tween eve and dawn, Rho Chapter wel comed into her fold seven struggling neo phytes who by continuous fight conquered the rustling waves of the mighty, blue and anchored safe in the arms of Omega.,They were: Messrs. T. A. Jenkins, J. H,. White- man, T. A. Steele, J. 0. Pope, P. R.,,Dusen- bury, G. E. Williams and W. A. Ozier. We do not welcome these brothers for the sake of increasing our number, but because we feel that they are men of scholarship, man hood, uplift and perseverance; men that the world are in need of today. The men of Rho are striving to maintain the four cardinal principles of Omega. We are ever mindful of the fact that virtues, accom plishments and other attributes that for a symmetrically developed college cam pus are keynotes of distinction. Next we realize that Omega men must attract as pirants by reason of sound principles and merit rather than lower the Fraternity to aspii’ants. We are ever striving to grow high in the ideal of Omega. Life is a constant succession of con struction and destruction. The term ana- balism is applied to the constructive pro cesses and katabalism to the destructive. The resultant of these forces is life. When anabalism exceeds katabalism we have growth; when the converse occurs, we have decline and death. Here is that anabalism may stamp out katabalism in Rho Chapter and that she may flourish as (Continued on page 3)