CHAPTER XXVI
THE GAME WITH HAMMOND
_Ferry Hill_ _Hammond_
EATON, 2b MULLEN, 3b BACON, ss O'MEARA, ss THURLOW, 3b STONE, cf PRYOR, lf YOUNG, rf KIRBY, cf HARTLEY, 1b PATTEN, 1b HYDE, 2b COLE, c TAFT, lf WELCH, rf SMITH, c POST, p ROLLINS, p
Post showed his ability in that first inning. Not a man reached first.Three strikes and out was the invariable rule, and Ferry Hill went wildwith joy. If Post could serve Hammond's best batters in such fashionwhat hope was there for her tail-enders?
But Post was not the only one who could strike out batsmen. In thesecond half of the inning Rollins disposed of Chub, Bacon and Thurlow injust the same fashion, and so far the honors were even. Ferry Hill, whohad loyally cheered each of the warriors as they stepped to the plate,looked less elated. The game speedily resolved itself into a pitchers'battle in which Rollins had slightly the better of it. Two inningspassed without a man getting safely to first base. Then Sid, who wasstill rather bulky in spite of the hard work he had been through, got inthe way of one of Rollins' in-shoots and trotted to first ruefullyrubbing his hip. He made a valiant effort to profit by Post's scratchhit to shortstop but was easily thrown out at second. Not satisfied withthis, Hammond played the double, catching Post a foot from the base.That was in the last of the third. So far the game had dragged alonguninterestingly. But now things began to happen.
O'Meara was the first man up for Hammond. Perhaps Post let down for aninstant. At all events, the Hammond captain lined out the first hit ofthe contest, a long, low two-bagger which made the cherry and blackflags wave ecstatically. Then Stone sacrificed and O'Meara sped tothird. Young fouled out to Patten, who made a brilliant catch after along run. Hartley hit to Bacon who threw home. O'Meara doubled back tothird and Hartley was safe on first. Hyde, with a record of threestrike-outs against him, managed to find something quite to his likingand knocked out a sharp grounder between Chub and Bacon. O'Meara camehome for the first run of the day amidst wild cheers from the Hammondside, and Hartley got to third. The coaching was incessant and Post gota little bit rattled.
Taft bunted along first base line and Post ran for it, scooped it up andthrew, to Patten. The throw was a little wild, but it seemed that Pattenshould have got it. As it was it went over his head and had not Sid beenon the spot to back him up things would have been worse than they were.Hartley scored, but Hyde was put out at the plate, Sid being the hero ofthe play. Two runs to nothing.
Ferry Hill went in with Bacon up. A scratch hit to third followed byslow fielding took him safely to first. Thurlow flied out to pitcher,Pryor sacrificed and Bacon reached second. Kirby got four balls and tookhis base. Patten struck out miserably.
Again, in the fifth, Hammond scored and an error went down in Thurlow'scolumn. Ferry Hill had begun to have listless moments which boded illfor success. Errors were becoming too frequent to be merely accidents;it was a case of discouragement. Post, however, in spite of the gradualweakening of the most of the nine, held up his end nobly. And Chub neverfor a moment eased his pace. But the rest of the team, if we exceptCole, who was catching Post steadily and well, were plainly sufferingfrom a fit of stage-fright. Whether the attack was to be temporary orpermanent remained to be seen. Ferry Hill's supporters were gettinguneasy; three runs to nothing seemed a pretty long lead with the gamemore than half over!
Cole got his round of applause when he stepped to bat in the last of thefifth and it seemed to hearten him. Rollins was still pitching the bestof ball, but Cole was a weak batter and the Hammond twirler proposed torest his muscles when the chance afforded. So he started out to disposeof Cole with as little effort as possible. The first two deliverieswent by and were called balls. Then came a strike; then another ball. Itwas time for Rollins to get down to work. Cole let the next one passhim, hoping that it would give him his base, but the umpire announcedstrike two. Cole gripped his bat a little farther toward the end and gotready. Smith, the Hammond catcher, read this to mean that he wasresolved to strike at the next ball no matter what it looked like andsignalled for a drop. It came. The umpire glanced at his tally and wavedtoward first.
"Four balls!" he called.
Roy and the other cheer leaders leaped to their feet as Cole trotteddown the line.
"Start it going now!" cried Roy. "Regular cheer and make it good!"
They made it good. Then they made it better. Chub, back of first, wasbegging Cole to take a longer lead and assuring him that Rollinswouldn't throw. Sid selected his bat and stepped up to the plate. Therewas one excellent thing about Sid; he didn't know what it was to getreally nervous. He had his instructions to sacrifice and proceeded to doso by hitting the first ball thrown and trickling it slowly towardthird. Third baseman and pitcher both made for it with the result thateach interfered with the other and when the ball reached second Cole hadbeen there for ages. And Sid, to his own surprise, was safe on first.With none out it looked like a score at last, and the cheering becamecontinuous. But Post, although a good pitcher and clever fielder, was amiserable batter. It took just four balls, three of them straight overthe plate, to send him back to the bench.
Chub went to bat looking determined. With two foul strikes on him andtwo balls he found something he liked the looks of and let go at it. Itresolved itself into a long high fly to deep center. Stone was under itin time to gather it in, but not in time to field it home to preventCole from scoring. Ferry Hill jumped and shouted. They had made a run atlast! Then Bacon tried to bunt Sid home and himself to first and onlysucceeded in rolling the ball out for a foul. After that he swung at adrop and missed it. He let the next two go by and found the fifthdelivery for a safe drive into shortstop's territory, a drive that wasso hard and ugly that it was beyond handling. Sid romped home like aPercheron colt and Bacon got to first. Thurlow killed time until Baconhad stolen second, and then in an effort to knock the cover off the ballmerely sent up a pop fly that was easily pulled down by second baseman.That ended the fifth inning, but Ferry Hill was vastly more encouraged.Two to three wasn't so bad; a run would tie the score.
But they were reckoning without Mr. Right Fielder Young. Mr. RightFielder Young started the sixth in a way that made the Hammondsupporters hug themselves and each other ecstatically. He drove out athree-bagger over Kirby's head. Then when Hartley found Post's firstdelivery for two bases, sending Young home, the Ferry Hill pitcher wentup into the air. Hyde advanced Hartley and went out himself at first.Taft waited and trotted to first and the bases were full. Things lookeddark for the home team just then. But there was some comfort in the factthat the batters coming up now were the poorest of the Hammond string.
Smith, Hammond's catcher, knocked a weak liner which Bacon got on thebound and fielded home in time to cut off Hartley. Ferry Hill took heartand cheered. Rollins came to bat, struck at the first ball pitched andsent a foul far back of the boards. Post steadied down now; possibly heforgot his nervousness in his desire to even matters with Rollins forthe summary way in which that youth had dealt with him. Post scoredanother strike against his rival and then Rollins let go at anout-shoot.
The ball bounded off the tip end of the bat and went whirling along thefirst-base line. Rollins lit out in the track of the ball. To field itPatten had to run up a few steps directly in Rollins' path. He got theball on a low bound and tried to step aside and tag Rollins as hepassed. He tagged him all right but he didn't get out of his way intime, and the runner with head down collided with him and sent himsprawling three yards away. The inning was over, but Patten was in a badway. Rollins' head had struck him between chest and shoulder and as aresult his shoulder blade was broken. It was not serious, said thedoctor, but it ended his playing for that day. Patten begged to have hisshoulder bandaged and be allowed to return to the game, but the doctorwouldn't consider the idea for a moment. And Chub, watching Patten beingled away to the gymnasium for repairs, felt as though the
very bottomhad fallen out of things!
Pryor opened the last of the sixth with a "Texas Leaguer" behind firstthat gave him his base with seconds to spare. But Kirby went out onstrikes. Carpenter, a substitute batting in Patten's place, followedsuit and the inning came to an inglorious end when Cole sent a linerstraight into Rollins' glove.
Chub brought Kirby in from center to first and placed Carpenter incenter. Kirby was not a wonderful baseman by any means, but he was thebest at Chub's command. Carpenter was merely a common or garden varietyof player who couldn't be depended on to hit the ball, but could pulldown flies when they came near him and field them home with some chanceof their reaching the plate in course of time. Chub was pretty welldiscouraged by this time; only Mr. Cobb kept a cheerful countenance.
"It's never over until the whistle blows," he said. And Chub was toomiserable to notice that the coach had confused baseball with football.
The seventh opened with the score four to two and ended with it seven tothree. For Post went quite to pieces and the only wonder was thatHammond didn't score six runs instead of three. Mullen, the head of theHammond batting list, found Post for two bases, O'Meara, the captain,hit him for two more, scoring Mullen, and Stone hit safely to rightfield. Sid couldn't get under that ball in time, but he did field itback so as to keep O'Meara on third. Then Post presented Young with hisbase, and the bags were full. Hartley hit to Bacon and a doubleresulted, O'Meara scoring. Hyde, after hitting up six fouls, none ofwhich were capable of being caught, lined out a hot ball that escapedChub by a foot. Stone scored the third run of the inning. Then Taftobligingly brought the slaughter to an end by putting a foul into Cole'smitten.
Sid opened the last half of the seventh for Ferry Hill by a splendiddrive into deep left field that brought a throb of hope to the breastsof the wavers of the brown and white flags. But stupid coaching by Baconresulted in his being caught off of first. Post surprised everyone byhitting to third and reaching his base ahead of a slowly fielded ball.Chub flied out to left fielder. Bacon got his base on balls. Thurlow hitweakly to second who tried to tag his base, slipped and fell and onlyrecovered his footing in time to keep Post from scoring. Pryor knocked ahigh fly back of third which that baseman allowed to go over his headand Post came in with Ferry Hill's third tally. Kirby struck out. Score,7--3.
* * * * *
Harry had viewed proceedings with a sinking heart and when Post went topieces, making it evident that Kirby would have to be taken from firstand placed in the box if only to keep the opponents from entirelyrunning away with the game, she felt desperate. Perhaps she would havecontinued to feel that way with nothing resulting had she not, whileglancing dejectedly about her, spied Horace Burlen in the throng belowher. Post had just reached first at the moment and in the resultingdelight Harry's departure was not noticed by the Doctor or his wife. Shecalled to Horace over the heads of the throng surrounding him.
"Horace! Please come here a minute. I want to speak to you!"
When he had made his way out of the crowd and joined her she led him toa quiet corner at the back of the stand. Harry's cheeks were flushed andher eyes were sparkling excitedly.
"Horace," she began breathlessly, "Kirby will have to pitch and there'sno one to take his place on first! We'll be beaten as sure as anythingif Roy doesn't play. You've got to tell the truth to Dad, Horace!"
Horace flushed a little but only laughed carelessly.
"You've just got to, Horace!" she cried. "If you don't tell I will. Idon't care if I did promise Roy!"
"Say, Harry, what's the matter with you?" Horace asked. "What are yougoing to tell?"
"About this!" She held up the crimson sweater before him. "You know whatI mean, Horace, and there's no use in pretending you don't. You've gotto go to Dad this minute and tell him!"
Horace's eyes fell and the blood rushed to his cheeks. He turned away.
"I can't stay here and talk nonsense with you," he muttered, "I want tosee the game."
"'About this!'"]
But Harry seized him by the arm.
"Why won't you own up, Horace?" she pleaded. "You might. Roy saved youand--"
"How did he?" asked Horace, pausing.
"Why, by not telling. He knew yesterday. But he wouldn't tell; hewouldn't let us tell; he said if he did you'd lose your place in theboat and we'd get beaten. He made us promise not to tell Dad, but Iwill, just the same, if you don't promise this minute to do ityourself!"
"I don't know anything about the sweater," muttered Horace.
"Oh, you big fibber! Jack and Chub were under the bed and saw you takeit out of your trunk and put it under Roy's mattress! And we told Roy,and he wouldn't tell on you because he said--"
"Oh, I've heard all that once," he interrupted roughly. "I guess if hedidn't tell he had a mighty good reason for it!"
"I've told you why he didn't!" cried Harry impatiently. "Do you supposehe _wanted_ not to play to-day? He spared you and I think you might dothat much to help him--and me--and the school."
"It was just a sort of joke," murmured Horace, his eyes on the ground."I didn't know it was going to cause so much bother." He laugheduncertainly. "What's the good of making more rumpus now? Roy can't winthe game; we're beaten already."
"You don't know!" insisted Harry. "Anyhow, it would be only fair andsquare; and you want to be that, don't you, Horace?"
"And get fired?" he asked glumly. "Oh, sure!"
"You won't be fired! Why, it's almost the end of school!"
Horace was silent a moment, his gaze on the diamond where the Hammondsecond baseman was picking himself up from the ground in a successfuleffort to head off Post at the plate.
"Look here, Harry," he said finally, "do you really think Roy kept quietso that I could stay in the race? Honest injun?"
"I know he did! Chub and Jack will tell you the same thing! Honest andhonest, Horace!"
There was another moment of hesitation. Then Horace squared hisshoulders, laughed carelessly and turned away.
"All right, Harry," he said. "Lead me to the slaughter!"
* * * * *
"You go into the box," said Chub to Kirby, "and for goodness sake hold'em down, old man! Post, you go out to center, will you? Who've we gotfor first, sir?"
And Chub turned in perplexity to Mr. Cobb.
"Thurlow; let Reynolds take his place at third."
Chub groaned.
"Maybe I'd better try it myself, sir. And let Reynolds take second."
But Mr. Cobb shook his head.
"Won't do," he answered. "You're needed where you are."
"All right. Where's Reynolds? Hello, Roy! Isn't this the limit? If onlyyou hadn't been such an idiot!"
"Why?" asked Roy, his face one broad smile.
"Why? Why! Oh, go to thunder! Because if you were playing first wewouldn't be in such a hole, that's why."
"I'm going to," answered Roy.
"Going to what?"
"Play first, if you want me to."
"Want you to!" shouted Chub. "But what about Emmy?"
"He's given me permission. Horace has 'fessed up. It's all right."
Chub hugged him violently and deliriously.
"Oh, good boy!" he cried. "It's all right, sir!" he called to Mr. Cobb."We won't need Reynolds. Porter's going to play!"
Mr. Cobb hurried across from the bench and nearly wrenched Roy's handoff.
"Doctor willing, is he? That's good! That's fine! Do your best, Porter,do your best. Eaton's a bit discouraged, but I tell him it's not overtill the whistle--that is, till the umpire--er--Well, good luck!" Andthe coach hurried over to the scorer to arrange the new batting list.
"Come on, fellows!" cried Chub. "Let's win this old game right here!"
And Ferry Hill trotted out to the field for the first of the eighth.