Show PRANK FRANK I K BAKER BAKER- There is s nothing flukey about U. U S. S Mines being on top of the Industrial baseball league for besides boasting the best team hitting average in the circuit and a fairly steady infield the club has been getting good pitching and has the r best cst outfield in the league Frank Zaccaria in left Joe Vecchio in center and Dee Matton Matt Matt- Ion eon in right Each is an outstanding ball hawk fleet enough to pull down a lot of drives which many fly chasers couldn't touch and they have powerful arms Defensively the three cannot be excelled by any other regular outfield in the league and they haven't been doing so badly at the plate either Vecchio has been in a batting slump this summer but he came tame out of it long enough last week to blast a home run out of the park with a mate aboard to beat Pinney Beverage in a game that meant undisputed first place Zaccaria is now fourth in the batting race with being excelled by only Alvin Shafer of Magna at Doty B Bush 5 of Gemmell at and Al AI Kastellic of Gemmell at Mattson 1 hasn't helped his game any by playing softball but he is still dangerous at the plate and ho be can go get flies files with most of the outfielders Zaccaria has been bee especially brilliant in the tho last few weeks He pulled down three well labeled blows at Pinneys Pinney's expense last week one right back against the fence and the theother theother theother other two after long runs In addition he fielded a single with witha a B runner on first and threw the runner out when the latter carelessly wandered beyond second on the blow The Mines infield has taken on considerable luster this year because of Joe Meyers' Meyers brilliant work around the hot corner Joe has been playing the best defensive game of his career fielding and throwing with a a. sureness that has stamped him as one of the leagues league's best third basemen a aShafer Shafer is likewise having one of his brightest campaigns He has bas driven in 33 runs uns played good ball in the field and turned in some creditable pitching performances With him in left and big ig Earl Owen in center Magna has had the makings of another extremely fine set of ga gardners Shafer generally elects however to play very deep because he is not as fast going back after long drives as Zaccaria or Les Los the Gemmell vet veteran ran Zaccaria's superior speed therefore there therefore therefore fore enables him to cover more ground than the M Magna gna a astar star Owen might ight readily be the e best outfielder in the league He covers a lot of territory with his long easy strides and he is a powerful hitter itter but he has not been nearly as consistent as s he could and I believe his slump he hit only for the first half hail Is traceable to his attempt to mix mic softball with his hard ball activities s. s a It is remarkable that Pinney has has- been able to stay so high in the title races with such feeble hitting The Salt SaU r. r Lakers are now in second place only half a game behind Mines Nines They led the race until two weeks ago They survived sueI sur sue r I as a possible menace to Magnas Magna's pennant conquest J I in the first half longer than any of the other challengers 1 I yet ret et they ey have bave the weakest batting average in the lot b batting g only co compared pared to C for Mines lines 30 for Gemmell for Magna Wagna and for Provo S. S Manager Claude Engberg has been blessed with some of the best pitching in t the e circuit These hurlers and Engberg's to keep ep the club hustling most of the time tim have offset the low ow output in base hits R Ronnie nnie Peacock was the clubs club's pitching ace of the first half and Bill McDuffie has been the mound mainstay mainstay main main- I stay this h half lf pit pitching hing good enough ball to have hav won I IVen even Ven more than he has had he had a trifle more support at the plate Promising work by young Lee Sharp has helped the pitching problem a great deal It is hard however to beat the pitching staff of Mel Me Scott Don Ha Harrison r n and Sammy Oliver who do the flinging for Gem Gem- mell They weren't so cons consistent stent earlier in the campaign but butS S Scott st Q t seems to th have found himself in recent weeks and Harrison has likewise become becom more effective Their improvement explains to a large extent why the 1935 champions have been able to climb back into th the pennant scrap after virtually falling out ot the of-the the running running running run run- ning in iii the first halt half dozen games |