THE FIRST INNING.
A white streak went shooting through the air; something whizzed high
and close past Dingley, who dodged a bit.
"Ball one!" called the umpire.
"Spare him, Phil--don't hit him!" cried Chipper Cooper, moving about
nervously.
"There's speed!" came from Sile Crane. "He can't see that kind."
"Get 'em over--please get 'em over, if you can!" entreated Bob Larkins,
who had taken a position on the coaching line, near first base.
"All right, Phil," said Roger Eliot quietly and reassuringly, returning
the ball. "You've got powder behind them."
Springer's nervousness had returned with redoubled force. He seemed to
feel something quivering somewhere within himself, and, having
forgotten to get a chew of gum, he suddenly realized that his mouth was
dry as a chip. When Roger called for an out, he bent the ball so wide
of the plate that Eliot scarcely succeeded in stopping it.
"Oh--dear--me!" whooped Larkins. "He can't find the pan. Take a
ramble, Ding; wait and he'll walk you."
To Springer's relief, Eliot did not seem disturbed. Roger signalled
next for a straight one, and held up his mitt behind the inside corner
of the plate. Doing his best to be steady, Phil responded by sending
one over that corner; and Dingley, waiting, heard the umpire call a
strike.
"Oh, yes, he'll walk him--not," laughed Cooper. "Let him wait. He'll
have a chance to ramble to the bench in a minute."
Phil saw Eliot smile a bit through the meshes of the catching mask, and
then, nodding at the signal for a drop, he started the ball high, but
gave it the proper twist to bring it shooting down across the batter's
shoulders.
"Two strikes!" declared the umpire, at which Dingley shook his head
protestingly.
"My eye! He is a good waiter," yelled Cooper gayly. "He's worked in a
restaurant some time. You've got him now, Phil."
Trying to "pull" Dingley, Phil again used a curve that was too wide,
and the third ball was called.
The batter gripped his club and stood ready, determination in his
manner. The infielders crouched on their toes, and the outfielders
were prepared to run in any direction. Springer leaned forward to get
the signal, then swung into an elaborate delivery which he had
practiced. Another drop was tried, but this time Dingley hit it. Up
into the air popped the ball, and Cooper, yelling "I'll take it!" raced
over behind second, to smother it surely when it came down.
Something like a sigh of relief escaped Springer's lips when he saw the
ball held by the lively little shortstop, and in a measure his
confidence was restored..
"They can't hit that kind out of the infield, Spring, old dandy,"
laughed Cooper. "You've got an elegant collection up your sleeve
to-day."
The home crowd cheered, and Barville sent out Pratt, the second batter.
"Here's the next victim," cried Jack Nelson, from his position near
second. "He'll be easy, too."
Pratt was clever at sacrificing, but without a runner ahead of him it
was up to him to try for a hit, and he fouled the first two balls.
"Now, you've got him sure, Phil," said Cooper. "He's a regular
hen-roost robber; he loves fouls. Don't let him get away, for if he
does he'll crow."
As two strikes and no balls had been called, Pratt apparently expected
Springer to waste the next one, and in that he made his mistake; for
Phil, growing steadier, put over a sizzler on the inside corner.
"You're out!" shouted the umpire, and Pratt turned sadly and
disgustedly toward the bench.
"Wonder what that Barville bunch is going to do with those horns and
cowbells," cried Cooper, as the Oakdale cheer died away.
Whiting, the next batter, poked a hot one directly at Chipper, who
plunged forward to get it on the first bound and made a miserable
fumble. Chasing the ball, the little fellow snapped it up and threw
wild to Crane.
Whiting improved his chance to take second, where he laughingly came to
anchor, chaffing Cooper, who was making some very uncomplimentary
remarks about himself.
"Here we go! Here we go!" roared Larkins. "Now we score. On your
toes, Whiting! Here's the boy to drive you home."
Springer shivered suddenly as he saw the stocky, red-headed catcher of
the visiting team step into the batter's box. Something told Phil that
Copley would hit the ball, and in keen apprehension he pitched the
first two so wide of the plate that Eliot was forced to stretch himself
to get them. Copley hunched his shoulders and grinned tauntingly at
the nervous fellow on the slab.
"Aw, put one over," he urged. "Lost your nerve? Going to walk me?
You don't dare----"
Apparently, he had relaxed and was holding his bat carelessly, so Phil
tried to push over a swift, straight one. With a smash Copley landed
on the horsehide, driving it toward right field.
"Ah!" gasped the spectators.
"Go!" yelled Larkins. "Score on it, Whiting! It's a two-bagger!"
Out there in right garden Rodney Grant was sprinting after that ball
almost as it left Copley's bat. There seemed scarcely a chance for
Grant to reach the whistling sphere, but he covered ground with amazing
speed and leaped into the air, thrusting out his bare right hand. The
ball smacked into that unprotected hand and stuck there, as Grant
dropped back to the turf.
A few too eager enthusiasts on the Barville bleachers had started to
blow horns and ring bells when they beheld Copley's drive shooting
safely, to all appearances, into that unoccupied portion of the field;
now, of a sudden, these sounds were drowned by the great yell--almost a
roar--of joyous relief and exultation which burst from the Oakdale
sympathizers. On those seats boys wearing the crimson colors jumped up
and down, shrieking wildly, while they pounded other boys, similarly
decorated, over their heads and shoulders; girls likewise screamed,
waving frantically the bright banners, on each of which was emblazoned
a large white letter O.
At the smash of bat and ball Phil Springer's teeth had snapped
together, as if to guard his heart from leaping from his mouth; and
despairingly he had whirled around to watch the course of the ball,
perceiving out of the corner of his eye Whiting, with a long start off
second, fairly tearing up the ground as he flew toward third on his way
to the plate.
Phil likewise saw Rod Grant stretching himself to get that whistling
white sphere, and even as a voice within the pitcher's brain seemed to
cry, "He can't touch it!" the Texan made that amazing leap into the air
and held the ball.
"Mercy!" gasped Phil. "What a catch!"
He waited for Grant, who came loping in from the field, his face
flushed, his eyes full of laughter.
"Oh, you dandy!" cried Phil, giving his chum a resounding open-handed
slap on the shoulder.
"That was reaching for it some."
"I sure didn't think I could touch it," confessed Rod; "but I was bound
to try my handsomest for it." Which was characteristic of the young
Texan.
"They're cheering for you," said Phil. Then jovially he reached and
lifted Rod's cap with one hand, at the same time using the other hand
to give his companion's head a push, thus forcing him to bow.
Newt Copley surveyed Oakdale's right fielder disgustedly. "That was a
fearful blind stab," he said sourly. "Didn't know you had it, did you?"
"Not till I looked to see," acknowledged Rod pleasantly.
Eliot gave the boy from Texas a look of approval. "That's the way to
get after them," he said. "That's playing baseball and supporting a
pitcher."
"I was pretty rotten, wasn't I?" said Phil with a touch of dejection.
"Far from it," returned the captain, "you were pretty good. Copley was
the only man who really made a bid for a hit."
"Sure," chipped in Cooper. "I was the real, rank thing, and if they'd
scored I'd been responsible for it. I should have nipped Whiting
without a struggle."
Phil suddenly felt better, as it was true that none of the first four
men to face him, the pick of the enemy's batters, had hit safely; for
which, cutting out Grant's performance, he was immediately inclined to
take the credit, due quite as much, however, to Eliot as to him.
Sanger warmed up a bit by whipping a few to Larkins at first, while
Copley was buckling on the body protector and adjusting the mask.
Oakdale had put her second baseman, Jack Nelson, at the head of the
batting order, and Jack did not delay the game by loafing on his way
into the batter's box.
"Get the first one, Sang!" barked Copley, squatting behind the plate
and giving a signal. "He looks like a mark. Keep him off the pan, Mr.
Umpire; make him stay in his box." Then, under his breath, speaking
just loud enough for Nelson to hear, he added: "Not that it makes any
difference, for you couldn't hit a balloon."
"Couldn't I!" muttered Jack, strangely annoyed, for there was something
indescribably irritating about the manner in which the red-headed
catcher had sneered those words.
This irritation grew when Sanger warped over two zig-zags, and Nelson
missed them both. Copley made no further remark, but his husky
chucklings over the batter's failures, sent the blood to Nelson's head
and assisted him in finally misjudging a high one on the inside corner.
"You're out!" pronounced the umpire.
"That's the pitching, cap!" laughed Larkins. "They had their fun with
you last year; now it's your turn."
Berlin Barker, regarded as an excellent batsman, was almost as easy for
Sanger. True, Barker did foul the ball once, but that was the only
time he touched it, and he likewise returned to the bench in a much
disturbed frame of mind.
"Mr. Umpire," called Eliot, "will you keep that catcher from talking to
the batters?"
"Go on!" growled Copley. "Who's talking to them? I can talk to the
pitcher if I choose, and I've got a right to have a little conversation
with myself."
"Don't pay any attention to him, Springer," warned Roger; "that's his
trick."
Phil also missed the first ball delivered by Sanger.
"This fellow thinks he can pitch," cried Copley. "He's had a dream."
"There he goes, Mr. Umpire," cried Roger. "He's talking to the batter
again."
"Oh, say, forget it!" scoffed the red-headed backstop. "I'm talking
about our pitcher. He can't pitch a little bit--oh, no! He just
dreamed he could, that's all. Put another one right over the pan, cap;
there's no danger."
But Sanger, taking Copley's signal, bent one wide, and Phil fouled it
off into the first base bleachers, where it was deftly caught by a
spectator.
"He's in a hole," said Copley. "I wonder how these people ever got a
hit off you, Sang."
The batter tried to steady himself. Two "teasers" he disdained, and
then bit at a drop and was out, Sanger having fanned the first three
men to face him; which seemed to justify the Barville spectators in
breaking forth with their horns and bells at last, and they did so
tumultuously.