Series 17: Black Caps take two of three from Orators

Black Caps 25-24, Orators 22-25

Game One: Black Caps 15, Orators 9
WP: H Smith (1-2)
LP: Bayne (0-1)
HR: Serrell (2)

Game Two: Black Caps 14, Orators 6
WP: Currie (3-3)
LP: Sutton (5-5)
HR: Palm (7). Currie (1), T Jackson (5), Brouthers (3), Harris (4)

Game Three: Orators 4, Black Caps 3
WP: Jenkins (8-5)
LP: Cockrell (1-7)
Save: Danforth (6)
HR: Perkins (2)

The Lincoln Park Black Caps moved above .500 and into second place in the standings, but misfired on several opportunities to complete a series sweep going into a series against the first-place Guilford Quakers.

The Black Caps battered four Orators pitchers for 19 hits, 10 walks and a HBP in the opener and batted around three times. Bonnie Serrell drove in five runs, two on bases-loaded walks and three on an eighth-inning homer. Charles Blackwell (4-for-6) scored three times and had a triple. Art Pennington, Spoony Palm and Serrell each drew three walks. The Orators had 19 hits of their own and went through all four available Black Caps pitchers. Billy Herman and Kiki Cuyler each scored three runs.

The hitting continued in the second game. The Black Caps hit for the cycle in the first inning against Don Sutton -- triple by Jerry Benjamin, single by Alec Radcliff, double by Pennington, homer by Palm. Starter Rube Currie, working on one day's rest after a disastrous two-inning start to close the previous series, homered in the second and got through five innings of two-run ball. Lincoln Park had 16 hits in this one.

Ferguson Jenkins settled things down in the finale for Ortonville, He worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the first inning, and escaped the third when Heinie Manush gunned down Vic Harris at the plate. Manush broke the scoreless tie with a two-run triple in the fifth off Phil Cockrell, and while the Black Caps tied it with single tallies in the fifth and sixth, the Orators stung Cockrell for a pair of two-out runs, the last coming on a pinch-hit double by Ken Williams off reliever Sam Streeter. Bill Perkins homered in the eighth to make it a one-run game, but Dave Danforth surfed a wave of right-handed pinch hitters in the ninth to nail it down.

Pitcher availability: Ray Kolp sits the next game for the Orators. Danforth pitched one inning in the finale. For the Black Caps: Cockrell needs four games to start, two to relieve; Currie needs three to start, two to relieve; Mathis needs two to start, one to relieve; McDonald and Holland need one game for either purpose. Streeter faced two hitters in the finale.

Projected starters: Orators -- Wingard-Shocker-Sutton-Jenkins-Davis-Wingard. Black Caps -- Williams-Drake (or Streeter)-Streeter (or Mathis/Holland/Drake).