JUNE 21, 1948COASTAL STATE WINS AIAA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Bruce Walker hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 8th inning to lift Coastal State to a 2-1 victory and a sweep of Carolina Poly in the best-of-three finals of the annual Collegiate World Championship Series tournament. It is the first national title in any sport for the South Carolina school, with Walker and two-time Christian Trophy winning shortstop Tom Miller leading the Eagles to the victory.
Coastal State opened the tournament with a hard fought 7-5 victory over Opelika State in the opening game Monday at the campus stadium of Boston's Commonwealth Catholic University. Miller and Walker had two hits in the game with both of Walker's being doubles to drive in 4 of the Eagles runs. A day later they held off Eastern Oklahoma, which had beaten top ranked Bluegrass State in Monday's opening round, by a 6-4 score with sophomore outfielder Neal Dawson doing most of the damage with a 3-run homer in the 6th inning.
For Bluegrass State it marked a third straight early exit from the tournament as the highly touted Mustangs, who won two National Titles early in the decade, were eliminated in the opening game despite being the top seed each time for three consecutive seasons.
The Eagles nipped Huntington State 3-2 in the semi-finals to set up the final series with their rivals from North Carolina. The Cardinals, who were making their first appearance since the tournament expanded to 16 teams in 1946, reached the finals with wins over Redwood, defending champion Grange College and finally Lane State in the semi's.
Coastal State's bats proved too much for the Cardinals in Friday's first game of the finals. Miller had a 3-hit game and scored twice but was overshadowed by Walker, who had a huge game with 4 hits including a homerun and a double while driving in 4 of the Eagles runs. Saturday afternoon the two clubs were back at Minutemen Stadium for the finals and it was a terrific pitching duel between Eagles freshman Herb Bloom and junior Joe Gallo of the Cardinals. Bob Anastas doubled in Dick Cunningham in the fourth inning to plate the opening run and stake the Cardinals to a 1-0 lead as they tried to force a third game. They would fall just short because of Walker's 8th inning heroics.
Walker was an easy choice as most valuable player with 12 rbi's and 2 homers to go with a .545 batting average in the tournament. The senior, who hit .292 with 11 homers and 58 rbi's during the season, was trying to make one final impression on Cleveland Foresters management. He was drafted by the Foresters in the 15th round following his junior season but could not agree on a contract so returned to Coastal State for one more year. Cleveland drafted him again -this time in the 10th round in January- and the 22-year-old is hoping to turn pro with the organization in the next couple of weeks.
AIAA GAME RESULTS
MONDAY JUNE 21: ROUND OF 16
Eastern Oklahoma 4 Bluegrass State 3 Player of the Game Johnnie Cloud, Eastern Oklahoma
Coastal State 7 Opelika State 5 PoG Bruce Walker Coastal State
Huntington State 4 Bayou State 2 PoG Frankie Ward, Huntington State
Maryland State 5 Central Kentucky 2 PoG Andy Green, Maryland State
Eastern State 7 Miami State 6 (10 inn) Sam Mazzotta, Eastern State
Lane State 7 Noble Jones College 4 PoG Frankie Williams, Lane State
Grange College 14 Cowpens State 5 PoG Don Berry, Grange College
Carolina Poly 6 Redwood 3 PoG Dick Cunningham, Carolina Poly
TUESDAY JUNE 22: QUARTERFINALS
Coastal State 6 Eastern Oklahoma 4 PoG Neal Dawson, Coastal State
Huntington State 7 Maryland State 2 PoG Danny Noonan, Huntington State
Lane State 5 Eastern State 2 PoG Frankie Williams, Lane State
Carolina Poly 10 Grange College 3 PoG Archie Cunningham, Carolina Poly
WEDNESDAY JUNE 23: SEMIFINALS
Carolina Poly 7 Lane State 2 PoG Mills Watson, Carolina Poly
Coastal State 3 Huntington State 2 PoG Tom Miller, Coastal State
FINALS
GAME 1, Friday June 24: Coastal State 7 Carolina Poly 4 PoG Bruce Walker, Coastal State
GAME 2, Saturday June 25: Coastal State 2 Carolina Poly 1 PoG Bruce Walker Coastal State
MILLER WINS SECOND STRAIGHT CHRISTIAN TROPHY
Not only did Coastal State celebrate an AIAA World Championship Series title last week but the school also learned that junior shortstop Tom Miller was awarded the Frank Christian Trophy for the second consecutive season. Miller, who was selected first overall by the Washington Eagles in this year's FABL draft and is expected to turn pro in the next couple of weeks, led all major school AIAA players in batting average and slugging percentage this past season. He joins Bill Moore (currently with Boston), Sal Pestilli (Chicago Cougars) and Bob Riggins (New York Stars) as the only two-time winners of the trophy, which was first awarded in 1927.
Miller claimed 6 of the 8 first place votes with Redwood University outfielder Red Hinton, who finished second in the balloting, earning the other two.
Florida high school outfielder Buddy Miller was named the winner of the 1948 Adwell Award, presented annually to the player judged to be the number one high school ballplayer in the country. Miller, who was selected 5th overall in the FABL draft by the Philadelphia Keystones, was a 4-year starter at Lakeland High School and selected to the All-American team each of his final three years. He also set a national high school single season batting average record by hitting .618 this season as a senior, improving on his .594 mark a year ago, which is also among the top ten single season totals ever recorded. Miller's career batting average as a high schooler ended up at .588, a number only surpassed going back to 1910 by Walt Messer's .601 during his three seasons at McKinley Tech in Washington DC before he joined the New York Gothams.
Miller was named first on 5 of the 8 ballots cast while Rick Masters, a junior outfielder from Brooklyn, NY, finishing tied for second with two first place votes. Pug White, a senior pitcher out of Monterey, CA., who was tied with Masters for second place after a perfect 8-0 season with a 0.33 era, garnered the final first place vote. White was a fifth round selection of the Montreal Saints.
COAST HEAVY MILLER ENDS SLIDE WITH DECISION OVER BAILEY
Dan Miller got back on the winning track with a unanimous decision over Allen Bailey in Los Angeles on Friday night. The win -the 37th of his career- was much needed after Miller had absorbed a disqualification loss in his last outing against Canadian Daniel Hout. It marked the second defeat in a row for the 31-year-old San Francisco native who on January 10 fell to world champion Hector Sawyer before a record-setting fight crowd at Santa Ana Stadium.
Bailey (36-7-2), a 29-year-old Maryland native known as the Annapolis Assassin, gave as good as he got in the ten-rounder that went back and forth and its outcome was very much in doubt until the judges' cards were revealed. All three scored it 96-94 in favour of Miller, who sees his record rise to 37-9-1.
The post-fight stats were nearly identical for the two veteran pugilists with Bailey being slightly more active and connecting on 25% of his blows while Miller landed 24% of his punches. The difference was Miller strung together three very strong rounds late in the fight, certainly making a positive impression on the adjudicators.
UPCOMING MAJOR FIGHTS- Jun 21- Detroit, MI: MW contender John Edmonds (24-3) vs Willie Binion (19-6-1)
- Jun 24- Houston, TX: rising MW Tommy Campbell (20-0-1) vs Joe Moore (19-4)
- Jun 27 -Atlanta, GA: WW Dale Roy (29-6) vs Harry Larkin (16-1)
- Jun 28- Detroit, MI: WW Carl Taylor (22-6-2) vs Brian Pierce (9-0)
- Jun 30- Baltimore, MD MW contenders Nick Harris (23-4-1) vs Brooks O'Connor (27-4-2)
- Jul 10 - Sailors Memorial: World MW champ Frank Melanson (33-1-2) defends his title against Edouard Desmarais (40-1)
- Jul 10 - Sailors Memorial: undercard HW Scott Baker (17-3-2) vs Glenn Hairston (26-10-2)
- Jul 16 -Philadelphia: HW Lewis Jones (17-1) vs Pete Roe (27-10-5)
- Jul 20- Bigsby Garden, New York: MW Todd Gill (24-4-6) vs Jack Rainey (24-5)
- Jul 23- Jacksonville, FL: WW Dennis O'Keefe (22-3) vs Robert Schultz (22-8)
- Jul 30- Brooklyn: MW Danny Morse (34-8-1) vs Jim Gilmore (29-8-2)
The Week That Was
Current events from the week ending 6/20/1948
- In a blistering indictment, President Truman demanded "an end to Soviet obstruction and aggression" to ease the fears of a troubled world. The address was broadcast live by four networks as the President told the nation there is nothing to negotiate "when one nation disregards the principles of international conduct to which all members of the United Nations subscribe."
- House debate on the draft bill opened with a stormy exchange in which opponents attacked it as contrary to the "democratic way" and advocates warned that "liberty throughout the world may very well fall" unless Congress passes the preparedness measure.
- The week ended with the House passing the draft bill, but before sending it to the Senate added a change delaying inductions until February and reducing the length of service for those drafted from two years to one.
- The Senate replied quickly with a compromise bill making men from 19 through 25 years of age eligible to be drafted for 21 months of service.
- the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee blasted the Senate's $6.1 billion foreign aid bill. Chairman Tabor contended that the previously-passed House bill, providing millions less for global aid, was "sufficient" and demanded a halt to "arbitrary action" to boost the funds.
- The Western Allies announced a drastic currency reform in Germany to reduce the money in circulation in their zones of occupation and pave the way for German participation in the European Recovery Program.
- The Arab League has rejected a proposal from the United Nations mediator to declare Jerusalem an open city.
- After the latest mine talks broke down, the President order a board of inquiry to investigate the dispute over a new contract between John L. Lewis' United Mine Workers and soft coal operators in a move designed to head off a possible mine strike next month.