The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1943-07-22
BEHIND
HOME PLATE
BY DOUG STEWART

Staggering home last Monday,
with their wings clipped and most
of their tail feathers plucked, after
losing seven straight games on the
road, our Owls suddenly dug deep
down into their bag of tricks Mon
day night and came up with an al
most perfect game.
Evidently inspired by the big
crowd and the pre-game antics of Al
Schacht, who put on great show
for the crowd and then sold two
autographed baseballs for the bene-
fit of the American Legion Smokes
for Yanks" fund, those Owls took
the field against the second place
Lancaster Red Roses and proceeded
to give them a beautiful coat of
whitewash.
AS far as this reporter is con-
cerned, the game had two highlights.
The first was Miller's three-hit
pitching performance, the second
was the base running.
Miller, who didn't allow a Lam
caster player to get as far as second
base, retired the first twelve Lam
caster batters in order. In the fifth
inning, Manager Wheaton led off
with a single, but Miller. after
calmly striking out Levy (who Al
Schacht referred to as countryman
of his), forced Greenwald to hit in
to double play. In the sixth, after
Males had struck out, Selfick got
single, but again Miller settled right
down by striking out Gerkins, fol-
lowing which, Hoffner lined to third
to end the inning. He gave up a
walk in the seventh and another in
the eighth, but neither batter got
beyond first. After two were out in
he ninth, Kell lined a single to right,
but Flick sent an easy fly to Maier
in center to end the game.
The Owls went right to work on
Gerkins in the first inning, scoring 2
runs on four hits and they kept right
on, winding up with seven runs on
10 hits, but those ten hits weren't all
the story by jugful.
This was the game in which the
boys suddenly woke up to the fact
that base running was still one of
the key plays in baseball. In previ-
GUS home games we have bemoaned
the fact that our runners seemed
glued to the bag at times, but on
Monday night they really were on
their toes.
In the second inning, after slam
ming a double to left, Sabena pro-
coded to steal third. Actually he
stole it twice in the same inning.
The first time he was off with the
start of the pitch and by the time
Chew took his cut at the ball, Sa-
bena was safe a third, but Chew
fouled the pitch off and Sabena had
to go back to second A few sec
onds later, after worrying the day
lights out of Gerkins with his leads
off second, he was off again, and
with belly slide, came in under
meath Selfck's throw.
Not to be outdone, Riley proceeded
to steal couple of bases in the
fifth. After singing to right, he
stole second SO easily that Selfick
didn't bother to throw the ball and
second later there was a swirl of
dust around third and when it
cleared away, there was Pat COM
fortably perched on the bag.
Don't count those Owls out of the
pennant by any means. Eddie Phil
lips told us last Monday that he ex-
poets another catcher in the next
few days and that will be a big help,
as Chew has been carrying too much
of burden and badly needs a rest.
All we need, to get back on top, are
few more games like last Monday
nights and I've bunch we're going
to get them.
Don't let me down fellars