CHAPTER XXIVBUNCHED HITS
“First man, Tom!”
Sam Craig pulled his mask down, looked over the field and then knelt behind the plate. Tom, his arms at his sides, watched, nodded, himself turned and viewed the fielders, and pulled his cap down a bit further over his eyes.
“Come on, Tom! Let’s have him!” called Gordon Smith.
“Here we go!” cried Hale.
Tom’s hands came up to his chest, his foot went forward, cunning fingers wrapped themselves around the clean, new ball. At the plate Wiley, third baseman, squared himself and tentatively swung his bat. Behind him Captain Craig placed his feet apart and with slightly bent knees and out-thrust hands waited. Behind the third base line the visitors were still cheering and two noisy youths were encouraging the batsman from the coachers’ boxes. Tom’s arms went back above his head, his body lurched forward, his right hand shot out and a white streak sped away for theplate. A yellowish flash as the bat swept the air, the thud of ball against leather mitt, and the stentorian voice of the umpire:
“Shtrike!”
Amesville cheered, while a chorus of approval arose from the fielders, and Sam, thumping the ball into the deep hollow of his big mitten, cried to Tom: “That’s the stuff, Tom! Keep after him!”
On first, or, to be exact, well off of first and behind the base-path, Joe added his encouragement to the rest and, a bit nervously, perhaps, hitched at his trousers, which didn’t need a particle of attention. Again the wind-up, leisurely and carefully made, and again the sphere flew toward the plate. It was a ball this time, and the batsman judged it correctly and let it severely alone. The cheers from the stands had died away now. A few latecomers were searching for points of vantage well back of the foul lines. The hot June sunlight fell radiantly on the backs of spectators and straw hats had already begun to wave in front of flushed faces. A second ball followed and then a drop that fooled the Petersburg third baseman brought the second strike.
“Two and two!” called Sam cheerfully. “Let’s have him, Tom!”
Joe, on his toes, waited. The ball shot forward again, the bat met it, Joe leaped to the base as Hale, coming in on the run, scooped up the trickling sphere and jerked it across the diamond. Squarely into Joe’s glove it thumped, his left foot touched the bag, and the runner, puffing hard, swerved aside.
“One gone!” called Joe. “Let’s have the next one, Tom!”
“One!” echoed Sam, pointing a dramatic fore-finger aloft.
The next batsman, however, was not to be disposed of in any such manner. He picked out Tom’s second offering and sent it speeding between Smith and Peddie and raced across the first bag without challenge. The coachers redoubled their vocal energy. Twice Tom threw to Joe and twice the runner threw himself back to safety. Then Tom gave his attention to the Petersburg shortstop. With a strike and two balls on that youth, Tom tried to sneak one across in the groove. The shortstop was ready for it and the ball went screeching into right field. Cummings came in hard and got it on the bound, throwing to second. The first runner was on third by that time and Petersburg was yelling madly on stands and bench and coaching lines.
The runner on first stole on the first ball, and Sam, faking a throw to second, slammed the ball to Tom. But the man on third held his place. With only one gone there was no use taking any chances. The Petersburg left fielder got himself into a hole at once, swinging twice at deceptive offerings. Then Tom wasted a couple and, finally, cut the outer corner of the plate and the batsman withdrew with trailing bat. But the trouble was not over yet, for the next man, the Petersburg left fielder, was more canny. He disdained the first two deliveries and the umpire called them both balls. Tom tried to fool him on an inshoot and again missed it. With three balls against him, Tom decided to pass the batsman and so threw wide and the bases were filled. A hit meant two runs, and the hit was forthcoming a moment later when the Petersburg captain, Lyman, picked out something to his liking and raised it far and high into centre field. Morris and Cummings both went after it, but it was Sid’s ball and Sid should have had it. But when it dropped it failed to find its way into his hands, and amidst consternation and gloom in the Amesville ranks, two tallies crossed the platter!
There was a pathetic hunch to Sid’s shoulders as he turned and went back to his position. ThenSmith’s cheerful “Never mind that, Sid! Here’s another!” went back to him and he waved a hand answeringly. They were certainly finding Tom Pollock, Joe reflected ruefully, and glanced toward the bench to see if Toby was pulling off his coat. But there was no sign of anxiety there. After all, Joe added consolingly, it was only the first inning. Then he stopped thinking about it and sprinted across the line to pull down a high foul and make the second out. Then came the Petersburg catcher, a sturdy chap with a knowing manner. But Tom was taking no chances and presently Beale walked to first, filling the bases for the second time, while Petersburg hissed.
“What’s wrong with Pollock?” asked Beale as he put a foot beside Joe’s on the bag.
“He’ll settle down in a minute,” answered Joe. “You chaps want to make the most of this inning.”
“That’s what we’re doing,” replied Beale with a laugh.
The Petersburg pitcher started toward the plate, but was called back, and a tall youth took his place. He was Middleton, a substitute fielder, Beale explained as he danced away to a lead. But for once a pinch-hitter remained true to precedent.Tom tried him on a low ball, put a wide one across and then offered one of his famous “knuckle balls.” That did the business effectively, for Middleton struck at it and Sam pulled it down three feet behind the plate. Amesville cheered encouragingly as their team flocked to the bench, and cheered again when Gordon Smith stepped to the plate. Gordon studied two deliveries from Calvert and heard one called a ball and the other a strike. Then he fouled off two, and, with the score two and one, landed against the next offering. But it went straight to shortstop and Gordon was an easy out. Sid Morris had no better luck, for his attempt at a hit was pulled down by centre fielder. Jack hit safely to left. Hale tried hard to get one out of the diamond, but failed, and Jack made the third out, short to second baseman.
Tom found himself in the second inning and only four batsmen faced him, the third man up getting to first on a weak hit to Hale that jumped so erratically that it couldn’t be handled in time. Returning the compliment, Calvert also disposed of the enemy in three chapters, George Peddie striking out, Joe getting his base on balls, and Cummings and Craig fanning.
In the next inning Petersburg got a runner tothird, but had to leave him there when, with two down, Cummings gathered in an easy fly that just escaped going foul. Tom Pollock opened things up in Amesville’s half with a smashing drive into deep right that proved good for two bases and Amesville waved her banners and shouted wildly in acclaim. For awhile, however, it seemed that Tom would get no further, for Smith’s best was a fly to second baseman and Sidney Morris, after fouling off a half-dozen, struck out. It was Jack who was destined to bring in the first tally. With two strikes against him he slammed a sizzling hit down the first base line, scoring Tom and taking second himself. That unsettled Calvert for the moment and Hale bunted toward third and barely beat out the throw. By this time Amesville clamoured triumphantly and Sam, at first, and Smith, behind third, added strident voices to the bedlam. With Jack on third, Hale’s steal of second went unchallenged, Peddie swinging harmlessly. Calvert followed that strike with two bad ones, one of which nearly got past the catcher, and then made the mistake of offering a fast out-shoot. Peddie was fond of those and he liked the present one especially and sent it arching into short right field. The fielder scuttled in for it and Captain Lyman, at first base, ran back.But the ball fell harmlessly to earth between them, by which time Jack had scored, Peddie was on first, and Hale was sprinting for the plate. Unfortunately, Hale had pulled up momentarily at third, in spite of Gordon Smith’s urging, and Captain Lyman’s quick, straight throw to the catcher killed him off at the rubber.
But the score was 2 to 2, and Amesville settled back with sighs of satisfaction. Five hits for a total of seven bases was not bad in three innings, they argued, and a continuation of such work should win without trouble. But a continuation proved more than the Brown-and-Blue was capable of. Petersburg went down one, two, three in the fourth inning, but so did Amesville, and in the fifth and sixth she did little better so far as results were concerned. Calvert, after that first wobble, settled down to a fine, steady pace. In the fifth Sid Morris got to first on a pass and in the next inning Joe made his first hit of the game when two were down. But, although Cummings was passed, Sam Craig struck out.
In the meanwhile Petersburg made the most in the fifth inning of a pass, a hit, and an error. Tom presented the first batsman with his base, thereby paving the way for trouble. The left fielder, who had already tasted blood in the third, got a safehit past Smith and first and second bases were occupied with no one out. Captain Lyman’s drive got away from Tom Pollock’s glove and when he had recovered it the bags were all filled. The next man proved an easy out, retiring after four pitched balls, but Catcher Beale came through with a two-bagger to right that brought two more tallies across. Tom struck out the next pair.
With the score 4 to 2, Amesville, as has been said, failed to help herself to anything in that inning or the sixth. Calvert was pitching his best, and Calvert at his best was a hard nut to crack. Petersburg retired in order in the sixth and seventh, Tom adding two more strike-outs to his growing list.
When Tom Pollock went to the bat in the last of the seventh Amesville arose and demanded runs. “Here we go! It’s the lucky seventh! All up, High School! Here’s where we tie them!”
The cheer leaders waved their megaphones and brought forth lusty encouragement, while Petersburg, fewer in numbers, but possessed of willing lungs, hurled back defiance from across the sunlit field. Joe, squeezed in between Jack and Steve Hale on the home bench, listened silently to the discussion. Coach Talbot was talking to Gordon Smith, next up, but the others were having it backand forth. Manager Mifflin, his black-covered score-book across his knees, was biting the end of his pencil nervously.
“Someone’s got to start something this inning,” Sid Morris was saying. “He’s going to crack again before this game’s over, you mark my words. And when he does we want to be right there, fellows.”
“Calvert’s gone twelve innings,” said Speyer, “without shedding a feather, and it looks to me as if he could do it today.”
“He’s shed a few feathers already,” replied Jack. “We had him going nicely in the third, and if things had worked right we might have been running yet. What happened at third, Walt?”
“My fault, I guess,” answered Hale. “I thought that hit was shorter. Still, I ought to have kept on when Gordon was telling me to. I suppose I got rattled.”
“I’ll take it on first,” said Captain Craig. “Toby, take third, will you? Play this safe till they’re two out and then pull ’em along any old way!” He walked apart with Gordon Smith and then hurried down to the coacher’s place at first, shouting encouragement to Tom as he went.