Sugarcreek, Baltic, Gnaden and Stone Creek Win In Tourney (9-21-54)

Sugarcreek-Shanesville's defending champions will meet Stone Creek and Baltic faces Gnadenhutten in championship bracket games in the County Baseball League's tournament as a result of last night's opening action. The Sugarcreek-Shanesville crew downed Port Washington 9-2, Stone Creek swamped Mineral City 21-1, Baltic defeated Bolivar 7-5 and Gnadenhutten clipped Dundee 4-1. The next round is slated to be played Thursday with Port Washington taking on Mineral City and Bolivar facing Dundee in Consolation bracket contests on the same day. Sites of the games are to be decided upon by the respective coaches.
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BALTIC'S Eagles, runnerups last year and champions the previous two years, scored six runs in the first inning on four singles and several errors and went on to defeat Bolivar. The Cardinals came back with single runs in the second, third, fourth, fifth and seventh frames with Baltic adding the insurance run in the bottom of the sixth. Errol Jacobs was the starting and winning pitcher for Baltic with Jack Renner the losing hurler for Bolivar. Jacobs limited Bolivar to five hits. Jonas Miller, Baltic catcher, doubled.
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WITH TED BROWN and Bill Pfister leading the way on the offense, the defending champion Sugarcreek-Shanesville Pirates had little trouble fathoming the slants of Port Washington hurler Bob Welsch. Coach Bob Wise's crew collected a total of eight safeties with Brown getting two singles. Pfister's big bat accounted for a home run, a double and a single in the victory. The Pirates took an early lead and were never headed. Richard Menges started on the mound for the winners and got credit for the victory with John Schindler coming on in relief in the fifth. Port committed four bobbles while the Pirates had two errors charged against them.
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STONE CREEK slammed into the winning column with a bang under the guidance of Coach Leo Gower for the first time as the Panther hitters staged a spree. Ronnie Delbel had two hits including a triple, Stan Phillippi and Bernie Hothem each had two safeties and Mel MacAfee had a double in his only official time at bat as he scored four runs, getting on base via walks. MacAfee hurled the first two innings for the Panthers, giving up one hit and one walk. Bill Jones took over for the last five frames and was reached for but one safety as he walked three Mineral City batters. Mineral City collected its lone tally in the sixth frame on a walk, error and a single. Lindsay and Argento were the Mineral City pitchers.
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JIM MEEK'S homerun with a man on base put Gnadenhutten in front in the third inning and Coach Dick Scott's Indians went on to down the Dundee Bulldogs in a game played on the Gnaden diamond. Dundee had tallied a run in the first frame before Meek, who also collected a single to take batting honors for the day, connected for the roundtripper. Gnaden then iced the game with single runs in the fourth and sixth. Lloyd Porter hurled for the Indians, gave up only three singles, and struck out seven Bulldogs while Bob Baker, the losing moundsman, was reached for five safeties while fanning four Tribesmen.
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Tuesday, September 21, 1954
The Daily Reporter
Dover, Ohio