"Why don't you play?" asked Dave of Gus Plum, one afternoon.
"Oh, I—I don't want to push myself in," stammered Plum. He was now as retiring as he had formerly been aggressive.
"Come on out," went on Dave, and literally dragged him forth. Then he asked Gus to play first base, which the latter did in a manner that surprised many of the others.
"He's quicker than he used to be," was Phil's comment. "I rather think he'll make a good one if he keeps on practicing."
One Saturday afternoon a regular match was arranged, with Phil as captain on one side and a student named Grassman as captain on the other. Now, Grassman loved to go out in Nat's motor boat and so he put both Nat and Merwell on his nine—the former to cover third base and the latter first. He himself pitched, while Dave filled the box for Phil.
It was certainly a snappy game from the start and at the end of the fourth inning the score stood three to three. Then Grassman's nine "took a brace" and brought in two more runs, and thus the score remained five to three until the end of the seventh inning.
"Come, we must do something this trip!" cried Roger, who was on Phil's side, and he knocked a three-bagger. He was followed by Shadow with a single that brought in one run, and then came Buster with a hit that took him to second and brought in another run. The next man to bat knocked a liner to shortstop. The ball was sent over to Merwell on first, but he allowed it to slip through his fingers, and another run came in. Then Merwell muffed a pop fly, and after that the Grassman nine got rattled, so that when Phil's nine retired they had ten runs to their credit. To this they added three more runs in the ninth. In that inning Dave struck out two men and sent a third out on a foul; and thus the game ended with a score of thirteen to five in favor of Phil's aggregation of players.
"Hurrah for Phil Lawrence's nine!" called out little Frank Bond, and a great cheer went up. Dave was complimented for his pitching and Gus Plum also received much praise for catching a hot liner ten feet away from the base.
On the following Saturday the Oak Hall Baseball Club was formally organized for the season, by the election of Phil as president and manager, Ben Basswood as secretary, and Shadow as treasurer. It was voted to make the manager captain of the nine. After much talking Dave was declared the choice for pitcher and Roger for catcher, while, to the surprise of some, Gus Plum was made first baseman, something that greatly pleased the big youth. Merwell wanted to be first baseman, but he was not even chosen as a substitute, much to his disgust. Nat Poole was also left in the cold, but this did not worry him so much, for he preferred to dress in style and lounge around, rather than go in for anything which might dirty his hands or make them callous. When he ran his motor boat he always wore gloves.