Series Preview: 1931 UA SemiFinal

by Gordon Johnson for Uplantica Sport

September 21, 1931

TREFELLEN FIELD, NORTHSOUTH, SNOWGATE – The Northsouth Guardians will host the Delle Stars tomorrow night in Game 1 of the 1931 UA SemiFinal Series. The winner of the best-of-5 series will advance to face the Deerborn White Sox in the Windsor Cup Finals.

Both the Stars and the Guardians clinched playoff berths in the final days of the season as underdogs who overcame deficits in the standings. The Stars took advantage of a Roland Stags meltdown in the last 5 weeks of the season to win their 2^nd UA Wild Card in club history.

For the Guardians, the path was a bit more dramatic. After a rocky start in June, the defending Windsor Cup champion Platte Bears recovered and caught the Guardians in the standings over the month of July. By July 27^th the Bears had taken control of the UA West division, but the Guardians kept pace, managing to stay within a few games of Platte for first place throughout the rest of the season until the final week, when Northsouth ended their schedule on a 4-game win streak to come out tied with Platte, forcing a 1-game tiebreaker playoff. The Guardians took the tiebreaker game thanks to a grand slam from 1B Cal Oluoch and won their first pennant.

The Stars and Guardians played each other in 9 games during the Regular Season, and the Guardians won 5 of them. As far as runs for and against, the two teams are pretty close. Delle scored 474 runs, just 4 more than Northsouth’s total of 470. Delle also edged out Northsouth in runs allowed, with the Stars allowing 365 compared to the Guardians’ 372.

1931 batting champ Cal Oluoch hit .400 for the Guardians against the Stars for 6 RBI in 30 AB. As the UA’s highest-paid player, he has been playing like he has something to prove. Look for him to have a big series.

3B Mario Olivo and RF Antonio Teakowa will likely be factors for Delle. Both players hit 4 home runs against the Guardians this year. Olivo racked up 10 RBI and Teakowa drove in 9 runs in the Regular Season series between Northsouth and Delle.

The Guardians come into the SFS much healthier than the Stars. The Guardians will be missing one of their top relievers in lefty Dave Bowling, but the Stars will have to go without RH SP Stanley Quinn, RF Norm Hester, SS Gary Allaire, and RH RP Dan Sherman.

The Stars were able to ride to the Wild Card with good seasons from replacements for injured players with a “next man up” team mentality under manager Manny Mendozataka. The Guardians’ consistency over the course of the season under skipper Wilbert Guibert brought them their first UA West pennant after an unprecedented tiebreaker win against last year’s champs. Both managers are contenders for UA Manager of the Year, but it’s likely the award will once again go to Jim Holt after another brilliant season at the helm in Deerborn. Holt’s White Sox await the winner of this SemiFinal series in the Windsor Cup Finals.

It is likely to be a close and exciting series between Delle and Northsouth, but I predict Cal Oluoch and the Guardians will come out on top, 3 games to 2.

Stars ace RHP Ron Rivera will be on the mound in game 1, with RHP James Beach getting the nod for the Guardians. Best of luck to both teams!