“Out,” said the umpire and Talkington trotted up to the plate.
He hit the first ball pitched far out to right field but Mellen had motioned the fielders to play back and the ball went straight into Twitchell’s hands for the third out.
The sides now changed places amid the cheers of the crowd, for the game promised to be particularly interesting.
Laird, the first man up, after missing one, hit a pop foul over by the Jefferson bench which Delvin caught after a quick run.
Beach drove a hot grounder to Delvin, who made a fine stop and throw to Case and there were two out.
Captain Church of Jefferson was next up. Miner sent one of his fast inshoots to cut the inside corner of the plate, but it was a little wide and as Church couldn’t get out of the way, the ball grazed his shirt and Church got his base.
Hollins was next at bat, but Gibbie got the idea that Church would try to steal second right away, so he motioned Miner to send up a fast wide one. Church tried it but was caught a dozen feet off the bag by Gibbie’s perfect throw to Everson.
In the second inning Robb was first up. He struck hard at the first ball pitched, and missed. Then he bunted the next ball, but it rolled straight to Mellen and he was an easy out, Mellen to Church.
Then Hagner came up for his first turn at bat. The Lowell crowd began a great noise of cheering, for they had a feeling that something would happen now. They had long been in the habit of expecting action in the game when Hans came to bat. But Hans showed no signs of excitement as he walked to the plate. He stood there in his loose, awkward way, studying Mellen, and Mellen was studying him. Perhaps Mellen had better thoughts than Hans, for he served up a ball that looked good to Hans and he struck at it hard and missed. The second one looked just as good and he missed that one too. When Mellen delivered the next one, Hans thought he would look it over carefully and if it looked like the other two he would let it go by. It did look like the others, coming straight for the plate, and so he waited for it to curve, but it came straight over the plate and Hans didn’t move, but the umpire said, “Three strikes. Batter up,” and Hans had struck out.