Coach Floyd Stahl finally got his nine hot and cold diamond experts really warmed up last Friday at Soldiers Field, and the result was a sizzling 13-5 blasting job, with the Boston Hellenic Association the maltreated victim.
This sudden rejuvenation of Crimson slugging propensities was accomplished at the expense of two pitchers on the Boston Park League outfit whose unsubtle offerings were unmercifully thrashed by a Crimson lineup determined to have itself a field day after last Monday's whitewashing at the hands of Brown.
The gratifying hit-splurge was not the only cheering aspect of the fray since Irv Rudman, Sophomore curveballer, showed plenty of tricky stuff, in addition to some control and general mount savvy unusual for a first year man. The fact that the Hub team managed to work the Crimson moundsman for five runs does not detract much from a very creditable performance, since he allowed only six hits.
Walks Plague Rudman
The five runs scored against Rudman, an unusually large total for such a paltry assemblage of hits, can be attributed to over anxiousness on the '45er's part. On more than one occasion, with two away, a situation which usually calls for less spot-pitching and more "fat" ones in order to retire the side, he attempted to pitch to the corners. Several times these tactics backfired, resulting in bases on balls for the Hellenics which ultimately resulted in runs.
Had Rudman adopted a "let 'em hit" policy in these situations and not worked so hard for strikeouts via the spot pitching method, he might not have suffered the fate of allowing five runs to be scored despite his masterful six hit effort.
The Crimson batsmen wasted no time in getting to work on the opposition pitcher, Olsen. In the initial frame three runs dented the plate as Vince Leahy, Bill Fitz, Bart Harvey, and Ned Fitzgibbons hit singles that went to all fields. This barrage seemed only to whet their appetites, for there was no let-up in the third as three more runs resulted from Ned Fitzgibbons's home run (welcome proof that his batting eye has returned after an almost disastrous slump), Heath's walk, and successive singles by Gallagher and "Hoss" Hamlen. Four successive blows in the next inning added two more runs as the rampage continued. After the opposition had registered three times in the bottom half of the fifth, the Harvard stick-swingers roared back with single runs in the fifth and sixth, and in the seventh again turned the three run "hat trick" on hits by Fitzgibbons, Heath, and Harvey.
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