More than 3,000 rooters crowded Lenoir-Rhyne College Park for the Hickory Rebels’ 1945 opener in the North Carolina State League against the visiting Landis Millers. Few people around Hickory were anywhere else except the ballpark – with much of the chatter centered on just how badly the Rebs were going to beat their visitors.
As it turned out, it was a lopsided game.
The final score: 12-3, with the victors pounding out 19 hits and scoring eight runs during an eighth-inning salvo.
Only it wasn’t the Hickory dugout celebrating afterward. The Landis Millers had played absolutely out of their minds – surprising even their young manager Boone Tucker, who had never seen his guys play at such a peak level all spring. Reporters asked him after the game if his team had been sandbagging during exhibition season.
“If they were, they certainly didn’t tell me,” Tucker retorted.
Leadoff man
Phil Durham set a franchise record with five hits in six at-bats. The veteran centerfielder tripled twice (also a franchise record), including a two-RBI race to the third sack in the eighth.
John Meeks, Ross Stokes and
Chris Vance each had three hits. Stokes added another triple.
Eric Gossette doubled twice. It was a whitewash against Hickory ace Dan Hamilton, the preseason favorite for pitching MVP. Hamilton gave up 12 hits and eight earned runs before being chased.
At least for one day, the projected cellar-dwelling Landis Millers stood atop the North Carolina State League standings!
Other NCSL opening day results:
Salisbury 11, Statesville 1
Concord 7, Thomasville 2
Lexington 4, Mooresville 0
Phil Hennington pitched a complete-game, three-hit shutout for Lexington. Six different Salisbury batters had at least two hits in the Pirates' pillaging of Statesville, even starting pitcher
Zach Gardner (2-for-4)...