THE SCORE TIED.
Jack Nelson sprang up from the bench, his face pale, his eyes flashing
with anger. Osgood had stopped abruptly on his way to first, realizing
that the double play sent Oakdale back to the field, and turned to cross
the diamond to his position at third base. Nelson met him near the
pitcher’s position.
“What do you mean, Osgood,” he demanded hoarsely—“what do you mean by
disobeying my order? I told you to sacrifice.”
“But it was a fine chance to hit the ball out and make some runs,”
returned the disobedient player defendingly. “Sacrificing with one man
down didn’t look like good baseball to me.”
“It makes no difference how it looked to you; your place was to follow
my instructions. Stone has been hitting Leach hard and safely, and, with
Grant on second, even a long single might have given us another score.”
“I beg your pardon,” said Osgood haughtily, “but I played baseball
before I ever saw Oakdale, and I know something.”
“That will do,” interrupted the wrathy captain. “I don’t care how much
baseball you know, you’ll have to obey me if you play on this team, and
you may as well understand that at once. You can see that you threw away
a chance for a run by hitting into that double play.”
Ned Osgood was not the sort of fellow to relish this style of talk even
from the captain of his nine, and for a moment he was tempted to make a
sarcastic rejoinder. Something prevented him from doing this, however,
and he walked onward toward third, shrugging his shoulders. His manner
was so irritating to Nelson that for the moment, even though Osgood had
shown himself to be the best available man for the position he filled,
Jack was tempted to bench him instantly. This temptation was put aside,
but it was followed by an immediate decision to stand no more
foolishness from Osgood.
The alarm that had been awakened in the bosoms of the Wyndhamites by
Grant’s safe drive was dissipated in joy over the defensive work of the
home team, which had prevented the Texan from advancing further. Boys
and girls of Wyndham High cheered in concert and waved their banners,
while the crowd of older sympathizers made a great uproar.
Like Nelson, Grant had been extremely annoyed by Osgood’s pigheaded
action, and the Oakdale pitcher was somewhat disturbed as he resumed his
position on the firing line.
“Hard luck, Rod,” said Stone, the somewhat taciturn catcher, as he
buckled on the body protector.
“It wasn’t luck,” denied Grant; “it was mulish foolishness, nothing
less.”
Laughing and well satisfied, the Wyndham lads capered to their bench,
where Leach, seeking for his bat, listened and nodded as Captain Baxter
gave him a word of instruction.
“Don’t try to kill that wild and woolly Texan’s speed, Lefty,” said
Baxter. “He’s burning ’em over like bullets, and we’re swinging our
heads off. Just try to meet ’em, that’s all.”
Grant’s annoyance was made still further apparent when he opened with a
weirdly wild heave over Stone’s head that would have counted against him
as a wild pitch had there been a runner on the sacks.
“Going up,” shouted some one from the Wyndham bleachers; and, in an
effort to rattle the pitcher, the crowd redoubled the racket it was
making.
Seeing that the pitcher was unsteady, Stone began to fuss over his mask
strap, which had suddenly become unsatisfactory and needed adjustment.
The entire Oakdale team felt the tension of the moment, and Stone’s
subterfuge met their approval. On the other hand, it led their opponents
to protest against the delay and urge the umpire to make them play.
Apparently getting the mask strap fixed at last, Ben resumed his
position behind the pan and squatted to signal between his knees. Rod
shook his head, and the catcher changed the signal. Then Grant nodded
and pitched.
Faithful to instructions, Leach took a short grip on his bat and brought
it round quickly to meet the ball. There was a ring of wood against
leather, and an instant later Nelson, flinging himself to one side,
reached for the grounder. It struck his gloved hand and carromed off to
the left. He went after it instantly, scooped it up and shot it to Crane
at first, but it arrived a bare second too late.
The Wyndham crowd cheered as madly as if Leach had reached the initial
sack on a clean hit instead of an error. Out in center field, Shultz
laughed with the satisfaction of a player who, lacking whole-souled
interest in his team, feels that his own bad work has been minimized by
that of a teammate. In this case his satisfaction was made the greater
by the fact that the minimizing error had been contributed by the chap
who had criticized him a short time before.
Nelson stood still for an instant, then held up his hand for the ball,
which Crane threw to him. Turning, the captain made a signal, which
caused Cooper to take his position on second. Tossing the sphere to
Chipper, Jack walked into the diamond and spoke in a low tone to Grant.
“Don’t let that rattle you, old man,” he said. “I reckon we’re both hot
under the collar, and we’d better cool off a bit. Take your time with
these chaps; they can’t hit you.”
“I’d like to punch Osgood’s head!” growled the Texan.
“So would I, but that wouldn’t help us win the game. Look out for a
sacrifice now. They’ve found they can’t steal on Stone.”
“Play ball! play ball!” howled the crowd.
“Play ball,” said the umpire sharply.
On first, Leach was seeking to add to the opposing twirler’s
unsteadiness by uproarious laughter and the repeated declaration: “We’ve
got him going! We’ve got him going!”
Nelson was most deliberate about returning to his post, and not until he
was there did he nod for Cooper to give Grant the ball. Like a flash
Rodney shot it to first, and the laughter of Leach was cut short by a
gasp as he barely ducked under Crane’s reaching hand.
“Almost gug-got him then!” shouted Springer from right field.
“Here’s the head of the list,” called a coacher, as Crispin squared
himself in the batters’ box. “Keep up the good work.”
In order to make it difficult for Crispin to bunt, Grant put one over
high and close—too high and too close. Crispin caught himself in his
swing and then pretended that he had been hit on the shoulder; but the
pretense was so palpably a fake that the umpire behind the pitcher, who
chanced to be an Oakdale man, refused to let him take first. Naturally,
the other umpire, who was in charge of the bases, said nothing, but
somehow his manner seemed to denote that he disagreed on the decision.
This led to a kick by the Wyndham captain, who dropped it quickly,
however, when reminded by a fellow player that the delay was giving
Oakdale a chance to steady down.
Again Grant attempted to put the ball over high and close, but he simply
got it across the inside corner slightly below the batter’s shoulders,
and Crispin made a successful bunt that rolled along just inside the
first base line. Jumping over the ball, the hitter sprinted hard for
first.
Grant scooped up the rolling sphere and heard Nelson’s sharp cry to put
it to first. It whistled past Crispin’s ear and spanked into Crane’s
mitt.
“Out at first,” said the Wyndham umpire, with something like a touch of
regret.
“Good work, Crispin,” gleefully called Baxter, giving the player a slap
on the shoulder. “That was a beauty bunt, old boy. Now we’ve got ’em
where we want ’em.”
Even as he spoke he signaled from his position on the coaching line for
Foxhall to hit the ball out; and Foxhall was liable to do it if anybody
could.
Grant worked carefully with this batter, meanwhile holding Crispin as
close to first as possible. Nevertheless, Foxhall swung uselessly only
once. The second time he whipped his bat round he connected with the
horsehide and sent the sphere skimming along the ground straight at
Cooper.
Eager and anxious, Chipper booted it beautifully. Like a cat he chased
it up and made a futile effort to get the hitter. The throw was a case
of bad judgment as well as a wild heave, which even long-geared Sile
Crane could not reach.
So while Crane was chasing after the ball, Foxhall, who should have been
out, romped on to second, and Leach scored amid a tremendous tumult.
Grinning broadly, Sam Cohen, Wyndham’s heavy-hitting left-fielder,
danced out to the plate, determined to keep things moving. Surely, it
looked like Wyndham’s opportunity, and, besides the desire to prevent
the visitors from settling down, there was a legitimate excuse for the
continued uproar of the home crowd. Although they well knew that Grant
was little to blame for the turn of affairs, the Wyndham coachers were
trying hard to “get him going” by pretending that it was his fault, and
behind Rodney’s back Foxhall capered on second, clapping his hands and
making gestures intended to encourage the shrieking spectators.
Never in his life had Chipper Cooper been more chagrined and ashamed.
His face beet-red, he begged Nelson to kick him.
“Get back to your position and play ball, Cooper,” said the captain, as
calmly as he could. “We’ve got to stop this foolishness right here. They
mustn’t make another run.”
Grant’s teeth were set and his under jaw looked grim and hard. He knew
well enough that Cohen was especially dangerous at this stage of the
game, for the nervy Hebrew was one of those rare batters who hit better
in a pinch than at any other time, the necessity seeming always to prime
him properly.
Trying Cohen out with a bender that went wide in hopes that in his
eagerness he would be led to reach for it, Rodney delivered a ball. The
next one was high and likewise wide, for Stone had seen Foxhall taking a
dangerous lead off second and called for a pitch that would put him in
easy position to throw. Nelson, awake to precisely what was transpiring
between the battery men, made a leap for the sack before the ball
reached Stone’s hands, and Ben lined it down with a wonderful short-arm
throw, which saved time and yet was full of powder.
Only for the warning shouts of the wide-awake coachers, who had seemed
to divine the move in advance, Foxhall might have been caught napping.
As it was, he barely succeeded in sliding back to the sack, feet first,
and the Wyndham umpire instantly spread his hands out, palm downward.
Foxhall drew a breath of relief.
A moment later Baxter shouted:
“Got him in a hole, Cohen! Make him put ’em over now! Make him find the
pan!”
Steady as a rock, Grant did put the next one over, and Cohen, “playing
the game,” let it pass for a called strike.
“He can’t do it again!” cried Baxter. “Make ’em be good!”
Grant used a drop, starting the ball high so that it shot down past the
batsman’s shoulders and across his chest. Even as the umpire called,
“Strike two,” the Oakdale players shouted a warning to Stone. It was
needless, for Ben had seen Foxhall speeding along the line in a
desperate and seemingly ill-advised attempt to purloin third. Craftily
Cohen fell back a step to one side, as if to give the catcher room to
throw, but with the real purpose of bothering him as much as possible
without bringing, by interference, a penalty upon the runner. Possibly
this was the reason why Stone threw high, forcing Osgood to reach to the
full length of his arms in order to get the sphere. Almost invariably
the Oakdale catcher put the ball straight and low into the hands of the
baseman, so that the latter could tag a sliding runner quickly and
easily; and had he been able to do this now, Foxhall doubtless could not
have slid safely under Osgood, which, however, was precisely what he did
succeed in doing.
“Who said we couldn’t steal on old Stoney?” shouted Pelty from the
coaching line back of third. “Great work, Foxy, old man. You put that
one across on him.”
With only one local player gone and but a single run needed to tie the
score, the tension of the moment was intense. No one realized the danger
better than Grant, and when he pitched again he made another clever
effort to “pull” Cohen; an effort that almost succeeded, for Sam caught
himself just in time to prevent his bat from swinging across the plate.
“Ball three,” came from the umpire.
“He’s going to walk you, Cohen; he’s afraid of you,” came from Baxter.
It must be admitted that Grant had considered the advisability of
handing Cohen a pass, but knowing Wolcott, the fellow who came next, was
almost as dangerous a hitter, he had decided that such a piece of
strategy would be ill advised. Taking into consideration the batter’s
ability to meet speed, Rod shook his head when Stone called for a
straight one on the inside corner. Ben knew at once that the Texan
wished to try to strike Cohen out, and so he swiftly changed the signal.
Now Cohen had brains in his head and was also a good guesser. Moreover,
he knew that Grant relied largely upon his remarkable drop when a
strike-out was needed. And so it happened that, seeing Rod decline to
follow the first signal, he was convinced that the pitcher would hand up
one of those sharp dips.
Having guessed right, the batter judged the drop beautifully and hit it
a tremendous smash. Away sailed the ball toward center field, some
distance to the right of Shultz, who stretched his stout legs to get
under it.
“He can’t touch it!” was the cry.
Nevertheless, when Foxhall started off third, Pelty, defiant of coaching
rules, sprang forward, grabbed him and yanked him back.
“Get on to that sack!” the little shortstop panted. “Get ready to run!
You can score anyhow; you don’t need a start.”
Thus advised, Foxhall leaped back to the cushion, upon which he planted
his left foot with the right advanced, crouching, his hands clenched,
his arms hooked the least bit, ready to get away like a sprinter
starting from his mark.
Shultz made a splendid run, leaping into the air at the proper moment
and thrusting out his bare right hand. The ball struck in that outshot
hand and stuck there.
An instant before the catch was made Pelty shrieked, “Go,” and Foxhall
raced for the plate.
It was impossible to stop that run. Cohen’s long sacrifice fly had tied
the score, in spite of the strenuous and sensational one-handed catch in
center field; and the crowd leaped and yelled, with arms up-flung and
caps hurled into the air.