1916 North Carolina State League — Carolina Champions Cup Recap
Champions Cup coming to the N.C. mountains
Asheville sweeps Hornets in three for first title
Game 1: Asheville 3, Charlotte 0 -- WP: Merlin McNeill; LP: Rudy Young
Game 2: Asheville 4, Charlotte 2 (in 11 innings) -- WP: T. Thompson; LP: B. Price
Game 3: Asheville 5, Charlotte 3 -- WP: J. Andres; LP: N. Ross
Even though Charlotte won the regular season, looking at the match-ups seemed to suggest that Asheville had the edge in this series. Even with the playoffs expanding to a best-of-five format, the No. 2 seed won for the fourth consecutive time. In fact, the regular season champ has yet to win a playoff series.
Asheville got off to a huge start behind ace pitcher
Merlin "The Wizard" McNeill. He gave up just three runs and out dueled Charlotte’s No. 1,
Rudy Young in Game One (one of the two likely will be the league’s best pitcher for 1916). McNeill only struck out one, but got Charlotte to hit a lot of harmless grounders.
Asheville gave their star pitcher a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. The Tourists also scored once in the third and once more in the fourth, then left the rest to The Wizard, who did not allow a hit after Charlotte lead-off man
Ivan Martinez singled to start the seventh inning.
Game Two remained scoreless until Asheville pushed a run across in the top of the eighth inning. The Tourists scored again in the ninth, but Charlotte answered with two runs in the bottom of the ninth to keep its chances alive. SS
Arnie Montgomery, 3B
Fred Belcher and 2B
Bill Ross each singled for the Hornets in that frame. Catcher
Marvin Young walked and ended up scoring the tying run, with many thinking that would propel the Hornets to the series tying victory.
But Asheville refused to go away.
Jose Perez, the Tourists’ 1B, tripled with one out in the top of the 11th. Johnson scored him with a single, then came home himself on an
Alan Graham fielder’s choice.
Tom Thompson got the win for Asheville, shutting the Hornets down in the bottom of the 11th.
The series went back to Asheville, with the Tourists up 2-0 and needing just one win to claim the Cup. Enter probable Rookie of the Year award winner
Jose Andres, who pitched a four-hit gem, striking out six. Charlotte’s
Manual Randin homered off Andres in the eighth but Asheville, which jumped to an early 3-0 lead, never really felt threatened.
Tourist CF
John Stewart, the team’s leadoff man, earned Championship MVP honors (pictured above). He batted .462 in the series, scored three runs and stole a couple of bases. In Game Three, he tripled twice and drew a walk. McNeill was runner-up in the Championship MVP balloting.
It should be noted that Asheville manager Ollie Spence won his second title, with his second team. He also directed Winston-Salem to a championship back in 1913.
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)
1916 - Asheville Tourists (defeated Charlotte 3-0)