The News And Views

Break Up The
Duke's Grip
So. Conf. Coaches

By The Associated Press

It's high time now you can expect Southern Conference baseball coaches to begin to holler for a breakup of Duke's big lead and Richmond's Spiders.

In the case of Duke the Blue Devils have established such a lead in the Southern division that they're almost out of yelling distance of the rest of the pack.

Such is not quite the case with Richmond in the northern division. George Washington's Colonials are only half a game apart but they're not finding any help in getting the Spiders their first defeat.

The Spiders knocked Washington and Lee out of a second-place tie with GW yesterday by dealing the Generals an 8-1 beating while the Colonials were outlasting VMI in a thrilling 18-inning 9-9 tie.

This combination gave the Spiders a 4-1 record and dropped W&L back to third place with a 3-2 standing.

Sophomore Ed Ketchie hurled steady seven-hit ball for Richmond in its victory, while the Colonials staged a six-run eighth inning rally on the Keydets after the score was tied 3-3 after the seventh.

There were three games on the southern division card and Duke padded its lead record to 12-1 by whipping erstwhile second-place Wake Forest. The defeat dropped the Deacons to a 6-4 mark and enabled South Carolina to move into the runner-up spot with a 5-2 record by beating Davidson 7-4. North Carolina shut out North Carolina State 3-0.

South Carolina scored five runs, three of them with a first-inning homer. The South Carolina triumph was a low-scoring affair with the Gamecocks breaking open the game in the ninth. Phil Porter's seven-hitter and Connie Gravitte's hitting were the deciding factors for North Carolina.