CHAPTER XXVIII
IN THE TENTH
“Play ball!”
“Go on with the game!”
“We can’t stay here all day!”
These and other calls were coming not only from the mere spectators ofthe game, but from the students of the military academy who had come toroot for their side. Some of the Boxwood Hall boys, especially thosewho liked Jerry and his chums, and who did not have much use for thehigh-handed methods of Frank Watson, added their voices to the din.
“Better put ’em in,” suggested Bart, nodding toward our heroes, who, intheir uniforms, sat on the scrub bench, not a little embarrassed by theattention they were attracting.
“You mind your own----” began Frank angrily, when Oscar Durand, thecaptain of the Kenwell team, stepped forward.
“Say,” he remarked in his slow, good-natured drawl, “go on and put inall the new men you want to. We don’t care. We’ll play a whole newteam if you say so. Only do something, and don’t delay the game.”
Frank still hesitated. It was clear that he hated to give in to theboys whom he so disliked, but still he was enough of a ball player torealize that unless something were done Boxwood Hall would go down todefeat.
“Play ball!” came the insistent cries from the stands.
Ted Newton, the football hero of the school, hastened out to the sullenbaseball captain.
“Put the three in, Frank,” he said. “It’s your only chance.”
Ted was chairman of the athletic advisory board, and he had muchinfluence. Frank felt that his position was a shaky one.
“All right,” he said, sullenly. “I’ll let ’em play. Come on,Hopkins--Slade--Baker!” he called. “Get in the game.”
“Am I to pitch?” asked Ned.
“I suppose so.”
“And I hope you do better than I did,” remarked Jim Blakegood-naturedly. He was enough of a real sport to put the team ahead ofhimself.
“I ought to have a little warm-up practice before I go in,” Nedsuggested.
“Get over there and practice,” said Frank. “We’re at bat now, and JakePorter can catch for you. No, I’d better do it myself, as I’m going tobe behind the plate.”
Frank was a good catcher, and it must be admitted that he had not beenat fault so far in the contest. It was the other players. And oncehe had made up his mind to play our three heroes, he did not do ithalf-heartedly.
He did not act in a friendly manner toward Ned, but in practice he putforth his best efforts, and urged the new pitcher to do his best to“sting them in,” which Ned did.
“Now, boys, we’re out to win!” exclaimed Frank, when Charlie Moore wentup to bat to open the fifth inning, Kenwell having won the toss, and,as usual, chosen to go up last.
The mere fact that Ned, Bob and Jerry had been put in the game seemedto have inspired confidence at once, for Charlie, who was a notoriouslypoor hitter, singled for the first time in a long while, and went tofirst amid cheers. And when Jerry knocked a three bagger, bringingCharlie in, and adding to the slender score of Boxwood Hall, there wasa riot of cheers on the stands opposite those occupied by the militarylads. Then another single by Sid Lenton brought in Jerry, and made thescore eight to three, in favor of Kenwell.
“Oh, I guess we’ll pull up all right,” said Jim Blake, from hisposition in retirement.
“There’s a lot to do yet,” Ted Newton reminded him. “The game is a goodway from being in the ice-box, as far as Boxwood Hall is concerned. Butthose three fellows are going to help a lot.”
Two runs that inning was all the rivals of the academy could bring in,the succeeding batters being pitched out by “Sock.” But when Boxwoodtook the field for the last half of the fifth there was a differentatmosphere. Boxwood Hall’s team had “tightened up,” and the same mightbe said of the military academy players, for they realized they had tomeet some snappy players.
“Hold ’em down, Ned,” begged Bob, as he went to his position atshortstop.
“I will,” promised Ned.
“And don’t you make any wild throws, Chunky,” cautioned the tall lad onfirst.
“You watch me,” Bob remarked.
However, for all his promise, he nearly brought disaster in the nextfew minutes of play. For a bounding ball came his way, and though hescooped it up in a clever catch that earned him applause, he threw itso high to Jerry that the tall lad had to leap in the air, and spear itdown with one hand.
That he got it was due not only to luck, but to efficient playing, andas he came down on the bag with one foot just in time to catch therunner out, a yell of approval arose from the crowd.
Everything did not go as well as that, though, for one of the fieldersmissed an easy fly, thereby being indirectly responsible for letting ina run, making Kenwell nine. But that was all they got that inning--Nedpitching some wonderful ball, and retiring two men in successionwithout letting them even foul.
“Well, at that rate, we won’t beat ’em,” said Bob, gloomily, as hisside came in to bat. “We’ve got four more innings to play, and if weget two runs each inning that will make eight for us, or a total ofeleven. They’ve got nine now, and one run in each of the four left willmake them thirteen----”
“Which is unlucky,” broke in Jerry.
“I’d like to be unlucky that way,” said Ned. “Well, we’ll hope for thebest.”
It did look a little more hopeful when, instead of two, Boxwood Hallgot three runs that inning, making their tally six, as against nine.
“We’ve got a chance!” exclaimed Frank, and he seemed to smile at Jerryand his chums. But he did not offer them a friendly word.
There was much excitement now. Both teams were “playing their headsoff,” and the rooters, the cheerers and the coherents on either sidewere sending out song after song, and yell after yell. If Boxwood Hallcould win the game it meant that she would have an even chance for thelocal championship, for a third game with Kenwell would have to beplayed.
It was in the ninth inning that Boxwood Hall tied the score. For bydint of wonderful playing on the part of the whole team, and by athrilling exhibition of pitching on the part of Ned, Kenwell had beenallowed only two more runs, making their score eleven, and now, intheir half of the ninth, Jerry and his chums had tied it.
“If we can hold ’em down the remainder of this inning, it will meananother chance,” cried Bob. “We’ll have to play ten innings.”
And a ten inning game it proved to be. For not a Kenwell lad gotfarther than second base.
Up to the plate in the tenth inning came Bob. He was not a sure hitter,but he got his base on balls, and the crowd started gibing the academypitcher. But he tightened up and struck out the next man. Then cameJerry.
“Another three bagger!” begged the Boxwood lads. Jerry smiledconfidently and let the first ball go by.
“Strike!” snapped out the umpire.
“Oh you robber!” howled the crowd.
The next was a ball, and the next--well, they talk about it yet atBoxwood Hall. For Jerry with all his might and main smote the horsehidespheroid squarely on the “nose” and then he ran. And Bob spun aroundthe bases too.
“Home run! Home run! Home run!” yelled the wild lads.
The ball Jerry knocked went deep into centre field, and the franticfieldsman raced back after it. On and on ran Jerry. Ahead of him spedBob. And as Bob crossed home plate with his run, Jerry was not farbehind him. Nor was the ball a great way off, for it thumped into thehands of Ford Tatum, the catcher, with a vicious thump. But the umpirecried “Safe!” and Boxwood Hall had two more runs.
The score was thirteen to eleven, and only one man was out. But thatwas the best Boxwood Hall could do. “Sock” disposed of his next tworivals in short order.
“And now if we can hold ’em down--hold ’em down!” murmured Jerry asthey went to the field, and Kenwell came up for its last raps.
It looked like another break when Ned gave two men their base on balls,but then his nerve asserted itself. Amid a
riot of calls, designed todisconcert him, he stood his ground, and he and Frank put up a gamethat made a new record for efficiency. For not a man got a hit in thelast half of the tenth, and a goose egg went up in that frame forKenwell, while the score stood
Boxwood Hall, 13. Kenwell, 11.
Ned, Bob and Jerry at Boxwood Hall; Or, The Motor Boys as Freshmen Page 29
