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-
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