BEACON WINS 1951 CROWN ECUSTA FINISHES FOURTH The Beacon Blanketeers of the Beacon Manu facturing Company copped the 1951 Western North Carolina Industrial Baseball Crown with a record of 31 wins and 8 losses. The Berkeley Spin ners, defending champions of 1950 gave the Blanketeers a race for the pennant and finished in second place, one game behind with a record of 30 wins and 9 losses. The Enka Rayonites finished in third place with a 24 win, 15 loss record and our Ecusta team, after a poor start came out of the cellar and finished fourth with a record of 15 wins and 24 losses. Clearwater and Tryon finished in fifth and sixth places respectively. Finishing in fourth place our Ecusta team showed much improvement in the last half of the season by turning in eleven wins out of eighteen games played. In making our final report on the 1951 season continued from the August ECHO, Ecusta was defeated by the Berkeley nine on Sat urday, August 25 by a score of 18 to 3. The team bounced back to win its two final games of the season by defeating Tryon and Enka. The team defeated Tryon 14 to 1 on Tuesday, August 28 and finished the regular schedule with a win over the Enka Rayonites by a score of 8 to 7. These two final wins along with the fact that the Clearwater team lost its last three games, gave our Ecusta team a berth in the post-season’s play off series. The League champion Beacon team roared through the double elimination play-off series with three straight wins to cop the 1951 play-off tro phy, as well as the league pennant. Although our Ecusta nine failed to gain a win in the play-off series, two Ecusta pitchers, Jim Kilpatrick and Grover Suttles turned in the top pitching performances of the play-off. Kilpatrick held the Beaconites to four hits in dropping the first game by a score of 3 to 0. Suttles kept ten Bsrkeley hits well scattered in the second game which Ecusta lost in the top of the ninth as the Berkeley team pushed across one run on an error to win by the score of 4 to 3. In winning the play-off trophy the Beacons de feated Ecusta 3 to 0; Enka 5 to 3; and Berkeley 17 to 10. WNC INDUSTRIAL BASEBALL Final Standings LEAGUE Team W L PCT Beacon .. 31 8 .795 Berkeley 30 9 .769 Enka 24 15 .615 Ecusta .. 15 24 .385 Clearwater ’0 29 .256 Tryon ... 5 30 .143 CARDINALS WIN PLAY-OFF SERIES The Cardinals baseball team of our Ecusta League won the Post Season’s play-off series by defeating the Indians and Tigers respectively. This play-off series formally known as the Camp Sapphire Series is played at the close of the season with the league’s four teams competing for the Sapphire Trophy. The Sapphire Trophy will be retired however and an appropriate trophy will be awarded the Cardinals at the annual baselsall ban quet. In the first round of the play-off series the Cardinals walloped the Indians by a score of 8 to 0. Leonard Jones held the Indians scoreless on two hits while his teammates banged out eleven hits good for eight runs off of York. Jackson, Clayton and Kilpatrick led the Cards at bat, each collecting two hits for four times at bat. The Tigers edged out the 1951 League Cham pion Yankees by a score of 9 to 8 to gain a berth in the finals of the play-off series. Dennis Norton was the winning pitcher and John Ashe the loser. Marshall Gillespie led the Tigars at bat with three hits for four times at bat, while Fred Miller col lected two for four to lead the Yankees. Leonard Jones and Dennis Norton hooked up in a pitchers duel for the Cardinals and Tigers in the Championship game with Jones emerging the the victor. However Norton held the Cards to two hits while his teammates banged out five off Jones. Norton’s wildness in the first inning cost him three runs and the victory on three free passes, a single, a wild pitch, one error and a stolen base. After this Norton pitched very ef- (Continued on page 18)

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