Evening star., 1945-04-02
ShortfieId Weakness
Also Upsets Pilot;
Sailors Victors
BY JOHN B. KELLER,
Star Stafi Correspondent.

| oluCSC Woo iiOPiii6 eoday 40 VAAC
Mats prepared to take on the Coast
Artillery ball club here that he'll
have some pitchers able to get the
ball within reasonable distance of
the man at the plate and also some
shortfielding that can help in
pinches.
His ball club couldn't produce any
sound pitching yesterday until it
was too late and the shortfield de-
fense cracked just when it hurt
most.
AS a result, the Norfolk Naval
Training Station team walked off
Mcclure Field with a 4-to-2 win of
the first game Of series of three
the big leaguers and the sailors have
scheduled this week.
Ullrich and Burger Pitch.
Here this afternoon the pitching
of the Mats was to be turned over
to Santiago Ullrich. Cuban with a
part-season of Chattanooga hurting
behind him, and Larry Burger. a
former New York semipro, who
hasn't been on hill in ball game
since 1943. Tomorrow as the Naval
Air Station team is encountered in
the Norfolk Navy field, Dutch Leon
ard and Mickey Haefner will be
Blueges choices. If these oldtimers
can't display some control, the Mats
indeed will be in tough fix.
Coming right on the heels of the
wild pitching done by Luis Aloma
/ against Fort Monroe last Saturday,
the failure of Johnny Niggeling,
veteran. and Marino Pieretti, rookie,
to show reasonable control left Man
ager Bluege considerably upset.
Allowances were made for Aloma s
weird work, but in earlier exhibit
tions both Niggeling and Pieretti
had appeared steady.
On the hill yesterday, however.
they contrived TO issue eight passes
-Niggeling giving five in three in
nings before he settled to run out
his string of six rounds and Pieretti
with two of three walks in the sew
enth forcing over one run and leav-
ing packed bases to be cleared by
Clyde McCullough'S 400-foot triple
to the right-center barrier.
Shepard Shows Well.
| Steadiest pitching for the Mats
was done by Bert Shepard. one
legged flying Army lieutenant, who
took charge of the mound in the
eighth inning and looked far better
than his two-legged predecessors.
Shep walked the first man to face
him, then took good care of a sac
rificial bunt by the second batter.
Ace Parker. former Duke baseball
and football star. who had walked,
got to third on an infleld out, but
George Meyer, who used to be with
Shreveport of the Texas League,
could do no more than loft fly to
right.
Altogether it was a remarkable
inning for the war hero recently
signed as coach by the Mats. 1t
may be that the Mats profitably
could shift Silep to a regular play
ing status and employ him in
pinches after others not SO physic-
ally handicapped had failed
Mats Gather Nine Hits.
The Mats helped themselves to
nine hits. three of those doubles
and one triple, but pass led to
one of their runs and some tainted
hitting figured in the other. All
their scoring and all but one of
their hits came off the right handed
Joe Rustick. one-time Evangeline
League hurler, who went six innings
Russ Meers. left-hander of the Chi
cago Cubs chain, finished for the
sailors and had the Mats almost
completely at his mercy
Meers got in action in time to be-
come the winning pitcher, for 1t
was in the seventh inning that
Chuck Beihl blew the works at
shortstop and Pieretti took the beat
ing on the hill, The sailors had
wasted three hits off Niggeling. but
they made good use of the pair off
Pieretti
Parker opened the Sailors seventh
with bounder that most any short
stop would have handled fairly
easily, but Beihl played the ball
poorly and a single resulted.
- Still all might have been we'll had
not Beihl grabbed Meers' smash and
with double-play in sight thrown
wildly past Fred Vaughn covering
second. Pieretti then gave a pass
to crowd the sacks and after Meyer
popped out he walked another to
force over a score
Socks Out Triple.
1t was then that Mccullough, one
time Cub catcher, stepped up to
sock his tremendous triple. Pieretti
struck out the next man. but filled
the bases again with a pass to Bill
Mueller, a Chicago White Sox chat
tel This time, however, George
Binks raced to deep right to haul
down Baltimore Jack Conway's
hoist.
The Mats got their first run in the
fifth on an odd play. Al Evans
walked, then held first as Niggeling
made a poor attempt to sacrifice
George Case singled Al to second.
Joe Kuhel thumped the ball to deep
right and for a time it looked as
though it would be caught. So Case
was right eat Evans heels when AL
finally left second
Around the paths they tore, not
more than two yards apart. When
the relay reached the plate it was
just too late to get Evans, no speed
demon, but Case couldn't quite make
it, and Kuhel, who was slowed by
the race ahead of him, had to pull
up at second to get credit only for a
double when clear road perhaps
would have meant a triple.