Confidence is of great importance in a game of ball, but overconfidence is dangerous. Princeton had confidence, but knowing from past experience what she was up against, she was not overconfident.
The infield worked fast and sure, picking up everything clean, making handsome throws, and never hesitating, nor fumbling.
Lib Benson’s friends were together in a group.
“This is going to be a tight old game,” said Irving Nash anxiously. “There is no doubt about it.”
“Sure thing,” nodded Mat Mullen. “But Old Eli must win. It would be something awful to lose the series to Princeton!”
“Wouldn’t it!” gasped Chan Webb. “But there are some fellows who still claim that we’ll lose if the game depends on Mason in a tight place.”
“I think so myself,” asserted Gil Cowles. “Merriwell dropped Castlemon for work not so poor as that of Mason in the last Princeton game; but Castlemon was not one of his particular friends.”
“Oh, we all know Merriwell will not do any man an intentional wrong,” said Nash; “but it does seem he has been influenced for Mason by a strange liking.”
“Look at those chaps practise!” said Mullen. “I don’t think I’ve seen such clever work this season.”
“But you know that it often happens that a team shows up well in practise and plays a poor game,” said Webb.