To tell the truth, Tommy had looked for a quarrel between coach and captain and was not a little disappointed! Sidney took up the cudgels for Mr. Talbot.
“Bat knows what he’s doing,” he said stoutly. “Don’t you worry, Tommy. I dare say he just wants to show Frank that Pete isn’t any good against a hard-hitting bunch like Petersburg.”
“I like that!” exclaimed Tommy aggrievedly. “Why, you were just criticising Bat yourself!”
“Not at all,” returned Sidney loftily. “I only said——”
But what he said didn’t appear, for just then the home team was called on to take the field.
[CHAPTER XX]
AMESVILLE LOSES THE GAME
Pete Farrar had his troubles from the very first instant. After getting a strike on the batsman, he offered one in the groove and the head of the Petersburg batting-list cracked it out for two bases. That seemed to disconcert Pete a good deal. He passed the next man up, tried unavailingly to catch the first runner off second, and finally allowed the third man to send up a long sacrifice fly to the outfield, which scored one run and left a man on third. Good fielding disposed of the next two batters, and Amesville crawled out of a bad situation.
It was not until the third inning that the local team got her first man over the plate. Then a hit by Bert Meyers, a sacrifice by Frank Warner, and an error by third baseman allowed Bert to score. At one to one the game went into the fifth. Then, with the opposing pitcher at bat, Pete Farrar got careless. During four innings he had saved himself time and again “by the skin of his teeth,” to use a handy expression, or had been saved by the players behind him. Now, though, he went all bad. The Petersburg pitcher was handed his base on balls and promptly and unexpectedly stole second. The next man landed on Pete’s first offering and sent it down the right alley, scoring the pitcher. A two-bagger by the opponent’s third baseman put men on third and second and both players scored a minute later when Captain Warner pegged the ball four feet over Buster’s head. Then Pete struck a batsman on the shoulder with a wild ball and there were runners on first and second and still no one out. Pete made an effort to settle down then, after Frank Warner and Sam Craig had both talked with him, and succeeded in striking out the next batsman and causing the following one to pop a fly into shortstop’s hands. But with two out there was still trouble in store for Pete. He seemed quite unable to locate the plate and another man walked and the bases were filled.