| Hillbury | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stevens, l. f. | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Hood, s. s. | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Franklin, c.f. | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Ribot, c. | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 |
| Kleindienst, 3b. | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| Haley, r. f. | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Webster, lb. | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Cunningham, 2b. | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Millan, p. | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Totals | 34 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 27 | 11 | 3 |
| Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seaton | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0-3 |
| Hillbury | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-2 |
Phil did not walk in from the field after that throw. How he came in he could not have told, for the wild horde from the Seaton benches met him near third, and heaved him into the air, and fought for him, and hustled him to and fro on the diamond like a hockey puck darting over the ice. When at length he was released, he sought long for Dick and Varrell, sadly disappointed that his two best friends should so unaccountably fail him at the moment of his triumph.
Threatened at last by the waiting players with being seized by force and crammed into the barge, Phil reluctantly abandoned his search and climbed in over the knees of his impatient friends. They drove down, hilarious, through hilarious crowds. No one who has never had the experience can picture to himself the delicious abandon with which a team, after long months of training and suspense, gives itself up to the glorious joy of victory. An exultant fire of explanations, reminders, and compliments ran from one end of the barge to the other.
“Do you know, Phil,” said Sands, giving the boy a hearty slap on the knee, “I never expect to feel again quite such a shock of happiness as I had when I saw the ball light in your claws and start home again with that old ‘gravity rise.’ When I felt it in my hands, I could have whooped! And to see that poor Kleindienst come sliding in so sweetly, with the ball there ahead of him, and Haley at his heels, rushing plumb at it,—and both thinking they had won the game! It was rich!”
“How did you get there, anyway, Phillie?” asked Vincent. “You belonged a long way out.”
“I knew where he was likely to hit and lay in for him,” said Phil, modestly.
“The note-book again!” shouted Tompkins, “the miserable, little, dirty note-book! Why, I pitched the whole game on that book! We ought to have it bound in red morocco and hung up in the trophy case with the ball.”
They were just passing the walk that led to the Principal’s house, when the twentieth howl of appreciation rolled up to them from a loyal group.
“Look there!” cried Watson. “Did you ever see that combination before? There’s aristocrat Varrell and that queer little Eddy ahead, and Dick Melvin and Bosworth behind. Something must have happened to bring those fellows together.”