The first three batters for the visitors fanned the air, seeming utterly bewildered by the curves and speed of Weaver, the Indian pitcher.
“Oh, you’re pretty stickers!” derided a small boy. “You won’t git a hit to-day!”
In the second inning neither team scored, although it seemed more by bungling good fortune than anything else that the Merries held their opponents down.
The fact was that Cameron had warned his players not to get too long a lead. He was perfectly at his ease, fully believing his team quite outclassed the visitors and could win the game by heavy batting in a single inning, if necessary.
In this manner the game slipped along with neither side making further runs until the sixth inning.
In the last of the sixth the visitors sprang a surprise on Cameron’s men. Morgan led off with a hit, Badger sacrificed him to second. Hodge sacrificed him to third, and Frank brought him home with a slashing two-bagger.
That made the spectators sit up and take notice.
It also aroused Carey Cameron, causing him to realize the possible danger that the amateurs might make a spurt when such a thing was least expected. He was relieved when Weaver struck Gamp out.
“We must have some more runs, boys,” said Cameron, as his players gathered about him. “Jump right in now and make them. Not too many, but enough to have the game safely in hand.”
They responded by getting a single score, and it seemed that pure accident prevented the piling up of several more.