[“Again Ross muffed the ball.”]
The next man up, who was the pitcher, dropped an unexpected hit in short right, but Ty who had crept in pretty close made a quick pick up and threw to first ahead of the runner who had expected the throw to go to the plate and had come down slow. But Ty had seen at once he could not catch the man going home, so he did the unexpected and caught the man at first, and as good luck would have it Ross caught the throw while everybody felt that he would have muffed it again if it hadn’t been so unexpected. Brain, the next batter, hit an easy grounder to Ross who touched first and the side was retired. Score, Lowell, 4; Armour, 2.
It was easy for Armour to see that the weak spot in the Lowell team was first base and they directed all their play toward that point, the batters trying to drive the ball down that way continually. Then for three innings and in Lowell’s half of the sixth, the sides went out in one-two-three order. Miner knew he must make them either strike out or put them up in the air, and the flies were all caught by Lowell’s fielders, so the other boys made no runs. Practically the same things happened to Lowell. We got one or two more hits but they were scattered and nothing happened.
But in the last half of the sixth inning came more trouble. The first man up batted a pretty swift grounder toward first base and it passed through Ross’ legs though Ty came racing in and held the runner on first. It was a sure thing there would be more runs if they continued to direct the attack on Ross. Everson and Miner stalled to give Ross a chance to cool off and Jenkins was tearing his hair on the bench because he had no one to send to take Ross’ place. Dill, the only other man who had ever played the bag, was not with the team, and Huyler was unexpectedly hurt. Once Hughie turned to Hal and said, “Do you think you could cover that bag?”
“I have never tried it,” said Hal, “but if you order me in there, I’ll do my best for you and Lowell.” By that time, however, play had been resumed. The whole team was nervous. They felt that any ball batted to Ross would be missed, and that if they did stop anything, Ross would miss the throw. Miner temporarily lost control again, giving another base on balls, making a man on first and one on second, with nobody out. This helped to increase the nervousness of the whole team, and even Hughie began to lose his nerve apparently. Webb, the batter, hit the next ball pitched for a line drive over Honus’ head, who did the best he could and knocked it down, but too late to get his man at first. Three men on bases and nobody out, and any kind of a hit meant a run, and possibly two. The next man up again directed his attention to Ross, and hit another easy grounder toward him. Ross made a beautiful stop and setting himself deliberately for the throw, for he had plenty of time, threw straight for the plate, but ten feet over Gibbie’s head, and two runs came in, tying the score. Hughie was wild, the team was wild, the Lowell “rooters” were wild, the score was tied, no one out, and Marsh of Armour was on second. Hughie walked over to Hal and said:
“Go in; you can’t do any worse than that.”
Hal said: “I’ll do my best.”
Hal’s entry into the game didn’t help the rest of the team back to confidence any. The whole team was up in the air, and now they had an entirely unknown quantity to deal with at the initial sack. Hal was most nervous of all of them, of course, although as soon as Honus saw what was up he walked over to meet him and said:
“Don’t worry, I told you several times you would make a good first baseman, and you paid no attention to me. Now you got to do it.”
Of course, the Armour team knew Hal must be untried, or Hughie would not have hesitated so long about putting him in, and they decided if they could, they would continue their attack upon the custodian of first base. The situation now was a tied score, no one out and a man on second.