Then he made a delivery that seemed to put all the speed possible into the ball, which started as if to go straight over the plate.
Frank had made no mistake in his reasoning. Costigan bit, but, as it was an outcurve, he did not touch the ball.
“Two strikes!”
Bart tossed the ball back to Frank.
Costigan looked disgusted, and Capt. Hardy cried:
“It would have been a ball if you had waited.”
No one knew that better than Costigan himself.
Without delay Frank sent in another. This time it was an outcurve, but it was started straight at the batter. Costigan was a trifle mixed and he started back. Too late he saw what kind of a ball it was, and weakly swung his bat at it.
He missed.
“Three strikes—man is out,” called the umpire.