1919 Western Carolina League — Season Recap
Cooleemee chills Mooresville again
Weavers get the best of Moors for second-straight season
It’s still cool to be Cooleemee. The Weavers won their second straight Western Carolina League crown, defeating the Mooresville Moors 3-1 in a best-of-five playoff series. Three of the four games went extra innings!
The same two teams met for last year’s title, with Cooleemee winning the best-of-three series in two straight over Charlotte’s minor league affiliate.
The Weavers won a tense Game One by a 4-1 score. This contest went 11 innings before Cooleemee erupted for three runs in the top of the 11th.
Jerome Edwards got the pitching victory, going all 11 innings and surrendering just four hits. He was efficient, throwing only 104 pitches. The Weavers outhit the Moors 17-4 but just couldn’t get runs across until the end.
Cooleemee won Game Two by 2-0 count. Starter
Fernando Avalos (who grew up in Goldsboro, NC) threw a complete-game six-hit shutout.
The series moved back to Cooleemee, and the Weavers looked ready to celebrate a sweep but Mooresville won Game Three 4-3, in 13 innings. Back to back errors brought in the winning run for the Moors in the 13th. The Weavers recovered the next day, though, to take a series clinching 3-2 victory in 12 innings.
In the bottom of the 12th, the vastly underrated and underappreciated
Joe Unknown 
doubled home the winning run with two outs. His lined shot over the centerfielder’s head scored catcher
Cal Wilson, who had gotten aboard with a one-out double. Wow, fans got their money’s worth out of this series for sure. And fans are continuing to ask, “Just who is Joe Unknown and how come we haven’t heard about him before?” He seemed to come out of nowhere to win the game and vanished shortly after the celebrations in Cooleemee died down.
Mooresville won the regular season banner by one game over Cooleemee. The Lexington Indians (Durham) finished seven games out in third place. The Mount Airy Graniteers (Winston-Salem) have become the Greensboro Patriots of the WCL, posting their second-straight dreadful campaign. But Winston, the parent club, is still chugging along strong, and that's what counts the most.
This year’s Most Outstanding Batter Award went to
Clint Moran of the Hickory Rebels. The 23-year-old first baseman put up a .408 average and a .470 on-base percentage, piling up 71 hits, 6 doubles, 2 triples, 6 home runs, 26 RBIs and 22 runs scored. Asheville brought him up mid-season, and the Tourists are hoping he'll help them hold on to first place in the NCSL standings.
The Most Outstanding Pitcher for 1919 was Mooresville’s
Kenny Craft. The 27-year-old excelled with an impressive 15-6 record in 23 starts. In 195.2 innings he yielded 141 hits and 30 walks, while striking out 92 and compiling a fine 1.70 ERA.
A few other Western Carolina League highlights:
•
John “Cats” Rocha, the No. 1 overall draft pick before the season, had a blazing debut with Cooleemee. He finished 13-4 with a 1.70 ERA and got votes for Most Outstanding Pitcher. Cats threw a no-hitter against the Lexington Indians on May 10. He fanned 15 in 7.2 innings of work against Mooresville in an early July regular season game. Welcome to the league, big fella!
•
Jerome Edwards threw two one-hitters against the Mount Airy Graniteers -- for two different teams. His first one-hitter came for the Lexington Indians. But then Edwards was traded to Greensboro in June, where he nailed the Graniteers with another one-hit effort wearing the green and white of the Weavers.
• LF
Aiden Arispe of the Statesville Owls had the top batting average in the WCL, .304 with five home runs. The junior circuit was definitely a pitcher’s league in 1919.
• Three WCL players had 5-for-5 games -- 2B
Colton McQueen (Mount Airy), 1B
Andy Smith (Statesville) and 1B
Aaron Brown (Mooresville). Brown’s perfect day included two home runs and four RBIs.
• Mooresville’s
Logan Lorn led the WCL with 156 strikeouts. Cats Rocha wasn’t far behind with 153.
• Bob Neal has been the manager of the Greensboro D-League team since that league began in 1914. He now has five championships to his credit (three with the Greensboro Junior Patriots and now back-to-back WCL titles with Cooleemee). In 1914, Neal’s team finished third. He’s only 45, so maybe a NCSL team will bring aboard at some point. Maybe Greensboro should fire its top brass and let him run the show...
FINAL 1919 WESTERN CAROLINA LEAGUE STANDINGS
Code:
Team W L PCT GB Pyt.Rec Diff Home Away XInn 1Run M# Streak Last10
Mooresville Moors 53 37 .589 - 56-34 -3 29-16 24-21 10-6 19-17 Clinched W1 7-3
Cooleemee Weavers 52 38 .578 1.0 56-34 -4 24-21 28-17 4-8 22-21 L1 5-5
Lexington Indians 46 44 .511 7.0 49-41 -3 21-24 25-20 6-6 17-18 W3 6-4
Statesville Owls 45 45 .500 8.0 43-47 2 22-23 23-22 7-7 19-23 L1 6-4
Hickory Rebels 41 49 .456 12.0 43-47 -2 14-31 27-18 4-10 16-23 W1 2-8
Mount Airy Graniteers 33 57 .367 20.0 27-63 6 15-30 18-27 8-2 17-8 L3 4-6