1915 North Carolina State League — Playoff Recap
Take Two: Winston-Salem knocks off Durham again
Game 1: Winston-Salem 3, Durham 2 -- WP: Caden Anderson, S: Joe Holder
Game 2: Winston-Salem 6, Durham 3 -- WP: Wayne Grant
In a repeat of 1913, the second-seeded
Winston-Salem Twins upended the top-seeded
Durham Bulls in the playoff series. This time, the Twins only needed two games.
Durham outhit Winston 14-6 in the opener but just couldn’t push runs across. The Bulls stranded 11, leaving five men in scoring position with two outs.
The Twins broke open a scoreless game in the bottom of the fourth when 2B
Howard Knapp stroked a two-run homer. Knapp had only hit three long balls in the regular season, so his round-tripper came as quite a surprise. Durham got a run back in the top of the fifth but the Twins answered with a run in the bottom of the fifth.
Ken Lee scooted home with two outs on a passed ball.
Durham pulled within a run at 3-2 in the sixth, but 38-year-old
Joe Holder (a great last name for a reliever by the way) pitched out the last 2.2 innings to get the save. He allowed just two hits for the first save of his NCSL career. With a runner on first in the bottom of the ninth, Holder struck out reigning batting champion
Antonio Arevalo to end the game.
Arevalo looked at the third strike. A nice story for the Twins‘ “old man," who hails from Phoenix. (He would be released by the club after the season, landing in Greensboro in the fall for another run in 1916).
The Winston bats came out in force in game two. OF
Angel "Sweetness" Pellicar went 4-for-5 with a double and two runs. OF
Will Hollis went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and a run. Pitcher
Wayne Grant went the distance for the win.
The score was tied 3-3 after seven innings. Winston-Salem scored two in the eighth and one in the ninth to pull away. Grant helped his own cause with a run-scoring double.
Pellicar went 5-for-8 in the two games and was named the Championship Series MVP (my new use for the custom award). In five career post-season games, Sweetness is 9-for-19 (.474) with six runs scored. His nickname might need to be Mr. Clutch.
Durham went out with a whimper the last few innings of Game Two. That make its three years in a row that the No. 1 seed has lost to the No. 2 in the playoff series. The push to make the playoff series best-of-five or best-of-seven likely will come up for more discussion in the off-season.
NORTH CAROLINA STATE LEAGUE CHAMPIONS
1913 - Winston-Salem Twins (defeated Durham 2-1)
1914 - Durham Bulls (defeated Raleigh 2-1)
1915 - Winston-Salem Twins (defeated Durham 2-0)