CHAPTER II
TIEING THE SCORE
Ping! The ball came in between Joe's palms with a vicious thud, butthere it stuck, and a moment later the newcomer had tossed it back overthe fence with certain and strong aim.
"I guess some one will pick it up," he said.
"Sure," assented Tom. "Say, that was a good stop all right. Have youplayed ball before?"
"Oh, just a little," was the modest and rather quiet answer. In fact JoeMatson was rather a quiet youth, too quiet, his mother sometimes said,but his father used to smile and remark:
"Oh, let Joe alone. He'll make out all right, and some of these days hemay surprise us."
"Well, that was a pippy stop all right," was Tom's admiring, if slangy,compliment. "Let's go in, I may get a chance to play."
Joe turned toward the main entrance gate, and thrust one hand into hispocket.
"Where you going?" demanded Tom.
"Into the grounds of course. I want to get a ticket."
"Not much!" exclaimed his companion. "You don't have to pay. Come withme. I invited you to this game, and I'm a member of the team, though Idon't often get a chance to play. Members are allowed to bring in oneguest free. I'll take you in. We'll use the players' gate."
"Thanks," said Joe briefly, as he followed his new friend.
"Here's a good place to see it from--almost as good as the grandstand,"said Tom, as they moved to a spot along the first base line. "Though youcan go up and sit down if you like. I'm going to put on my things. I mayget a chance at first."
"No, I'll stay here," said Joe. "Then I can see you make some goodstops."
"I can if Sam doesn't put 'em away over my head," was the reply.
"Oh, yes, that's so. You started to say that you thought our side--yousee I'm already a Silver Star rooter--that our side would win, ifsomething didn't happen."
"Oh, yes, and then that ball came over the fence. Well, we'll win, Ithink, if Sam doesn't go to pieces."
"Who's Sam?"
"Sam Morton, our pitcher. He's pretty good too, when he doesn't getrattled."
"Then we'll hope that he doesn't to-day," said Joe with a smile. "But goahead and dress."
"All right," assented Tom, and he started off on a run to the dressingrooms. It was only just in time, too, for at that moment Darrell camehastening up to him.
"Why haven't you got your suit on?" the manager asked. "You'll probablyplay some innings anyhow, and I don't want any delay."
"All right--right away," Tom assured him. "I'm on the job."
"Who do you think will win?" asked a youth sitting next to Joe on thegrass.
"Oh, I don't know," began Joe slowly. "I haven't seen either team play."
"Oh, then you're a stranger here?"
"Yes, just moved in."
"I saw you with Tom Davis. You must be that Matson lad he told me livedback of him."
"I am, and I hope Tom's side wins."
"That's the stuff! So do I. But those Resolutes have a good nine."
"Aw, go on!" broke in a lad back of Joe. "They haven't any good battersat all."
"What's the matter with Hank Armstrong?" demanded some one.
"Well, he's pretty good, but Ford Lantry or Seth Potter on our team canbat all around him."
"How about their pitcher?" asked Joe.
"Well, he's pretty good," admitted the lad who had first addressed Joe.
"But he can't come up to Sam Morton when Sam is at his best," said someone else, joining in the conversation.
"Yes--_when_ he's at his best," repeated another lad. "Those Resoluteshave it in for us, but we're going to wipe up the ground with themto-day all right."
"Like fun!" exploded a Resolute sympathizer. "I'll bet you----"
"Play ball!" broke in the voice of the umpire, and the clanging of thegong warned the players and others to clear the field.
"We're last at the bat," said Tom, "and that means a whole lot."
"Yes," assented Joe, and then the Silver Star pitcher took his place inthe box and exchanged a few preliminary balls with the catcher, BartFerguson.
"Play ball!" yelled the young umpire again, selecting some pebbles withwhich to keep score.
Hank Armstrong, the sturdy left fielder of the Resolutes, was the firstat the bat for his side, and with a vicious swing he hit the first ballwhich Sam pitched to him. Squarely on the bat he caught it with aresounding ping!
Away it sailed straight over Sam's head and over the head of the secondbaseman. Farther and farther it went, until the centre fielder beganrunning back to get it.
"Oh, wow! Pretty one! Pretty one!"
"Go on! Go on!"
"Make a three bagger of it!"
"Run, you beggar!"
These and many other cries speeded Armstrong on. He was running fast andreached second well in advance of the ball. But he dared not go on tothird.
"Hum, if they hit Sam like that too often he won't last very long,"commented Tom.
"Oh, that was a fluke," declared Rodney Burke, who sat behind Joe.
There was a surprised and disconcerted look on Sam's face as he gazed atthe next batter. No sooner had the ball left Sam's hand, that Armstrongwas away for third like a shot, for he was a notorious base stealer.Bart threw to third, but the ball went too high and the baseman jumpedfor it in vain. Armstrong came in with the first run.
"Begins to look bad!" yelled Tom in Joe's ear, for the cheers andexultant yells of the Resolute crowd made ordinary talking impossible.
But that was all the visiting team got that inning, for Sam struck outtwo men, and the third fouled to Bart.
"Now we'll see what our fellows can do," commented Tom.
Seth Potter, the left fielder, was first up, and he had two strikes andthree balls called on him in short order. Then he got under a pretty oneand made first.
"Watch out now, and run down when he throws!" cried Darrell, who wascoaching.
Seth did run, but was caught at second. Jed McGraw, the centre fielder,was next up and knocked a safety, getting to first.
Then came Ford Lantry, who played right field, and he knocked a prettythree-bagger which brought in McGraw and the run. At that the SilverStar crowd went wild with joy, but it was all they had to crow over asthe next two men struck out and Lantry died on third.
The next two innings were marked by goose eggs for both sides, and inthe fourth inning the Silver Stars brought in two runs, while theiropponents could not seem to connect with the ball.
"Old Sam is doing fine!" cried Tom.
"Yes, he seems to have good control," commented Joe.
"But he lacks speed," said Rodney Burke.
"Oh, cheese it! Do you want to give all our secrets away to thesefellows?" asked Tom in a low voice, indicating the many Resolutesympathizers who were all about.
"Well, it's true," murmured Rodney, and Joe felt a sudden wild hope comeinto his heart.
The game went on enthusiastically, if not correctly from a professionalor college baseball standpoint. Many errors were made and several ruleswere unconsciously violated. The young umpire's decisions might havebeen questioned several times, and on numerous occasions the game wasstopped while the respective captains, and some of the players, arguedamong themselves, or with the umpire. But the disputes were finallysettled, though there was a growing spirit of dissatisfaction on bothsides.
"Play ball!" yelled the umpire, at the conclusion of an argument in thefifth inning.
It was then that the Resolutes did some heavy stick work, and talliedthree runs to the enthusiastic delight of the team and its supporters.
"We've got to do better than this," murmured Darrell to Captain Rankinand Sam when they took the field at the end of that inning, and a bigcircle stared at them from the score board as the result of theirefforts.
"I'm doing all I can!" snapped Sam. "I'm not getting decent support."
"Aw, cut it out! Of course you are!" asserted Rankin.
A single tally by each side in the sixth, and two for
the Silver Starsand one for the Resolutes in the seventh, brought the game to that usualbreathing spot. The score was now a tie, and the excitement was growing.
"For cats' sake beat 'em out, fellows!" pleaded Darrell. "Use your bats.They're to hit the ball with, not to fan the air!"
Perhaps his frantic appeal had some effect, for in the next inning theResolutes only got one run, while, when the Silver Stars came to bat toclose the inning, they hammered out three, putting them well ahead.
But there was trouble brewing. Sam's arm was giving out. He realized ithimself but he dared not speak of it. Grimly he fought against it, buthe saw that the other side was aware of it.
"Come on now, we'll get his goat!" yelled the captain of the Resolutes.Then began what may be regarded as the cruel practice of yellingdiscouraging remarks at the man in the box. Sam was plainly told that hewas "rotten" while other and less mild epithets were hurled at him.
These had their effect. He gave two men their base on balls, and he madea number of wild throws to first where Tom Davis had replaced DarrellBlackney. However, by a strong brace Sam managed to hold his opponentsrunless, though in this saving work he was nobly assisted by hisfellows, and by the quickness of Tom in not letting the wild balls getby him. Tom was a magnificent high jumper, which served him in goodstead.
The ending of the eighth saw the score nine to seven in favor of theSilver Stars, they having brought in three runs.
It began to look, in spite of Sam's trouble, as if the home team wouldwin. There was a riot of cheers when the Resolutes went to bat in theninth inning, and despite the fact that they were two runs behind, theirsupporters did not fail them.
"Win! Win! Win!" they yelled.
"Oh, we'll win all right," said Captain Littell grimly.
And he and his men gave good evidence of doing so a few minutes later.Sam literally "went to pieces." He lost all control of the ball, and wasfairly "knocked out of the box." There was a look of despair on thefaces of his mates.
"What's the matter with him?" demanded Joe, who was surprised at thesudden slump.
"Oh, that's what he does every once in a while," said a disgusted SilverStar supporter. "You can't depend on him. Wow, that's rotten!" for Samhad delivered a ball that was batted over the right-field fence.
Instantly there was a wild scene. Two men were on second and third baserespectively when this "homer" was knocked and they came racing in. Thehome-run batter followed.
"Ring around the rosey!" yelled the Resolute captain. "If we had more onbase they'd all come in. Hit at anything, fellows! Hit everything."
It looked as if they were doing it, for they made six runs that inning,which brought the score to thirteen to nine in favor of the visitors.
"Five runs to win, and four to tie," murmured Darrell as his men camein from the field for their inning. "Can we do it?"
How it was done even he scarcely knew, for so fierce was the rivalrybetween the teams, and so high the excitement, that several times openclashes were narrowly averted. But the four runs were secured, andthough the Silver Stars played their best they could not get anotherone. But even to tie the score after Sam's slump was something worthwhile.
"Ten innings! It gives us another chance for our white alley," murmuredTom to Joe, as the first baseman made ready to go on the sack again. "Ifwe can get one run, and hold them down to a goose egg it will do."
But the Resolutes seemed to have struck a winning streak. Sam could notpull himself together, and got worse. Darrell was in despair, and therewas gloom in the hearts of the Riverside residents.
"Haven't they another pitcher they can put in?" asked Joe of one of hisneighbors.
"No, and if they had Sam would raise such a row that it might bust upthe team. He'll play it out."
In the tenth inning the Resolutes pounded out three more runs, battingSam all over the field, and when the Silver Stars came up the score wassixteen to thirteen against them.
"Oh, for a bunch of runs!" pleaded Darrell, as his men went to bat.
But they couldn't get them. The Resolute pitcher with a grin on hisfreckled face sent in curve after curve and struck out two men in shortorder. Then Tom Davis knocked a little pop fly which was easily caught,and the game ended in a riot of yells, as a goose egg went up in thetenth frame for the Silver Stars. They had lost by a score of sixteen tothirteen, and there were bitter feelings in their hearts against theirrivals.
"Why don't you get a pitcher who can pitch?" demanded one of theResolutes.
"Don't you insult me!" cried Sam striding forward. "I can pitch as goodas your man."
"Aw, listen to him! He's dreaming!" some one yelled, laughingly.
"I am; eh? Well, I'll show you!" cried Sam angrily, and the nextinstant, in spite of the effort of Darrell to hold him back, he hadleaped for the lad who had mocked him, and had struck him a heavy blow.