Wild was a wily batter. He drew three balls before Dixon settled down to pitch to him, and then he poked the first good ball down to Buck Hart on a sizzling liner that Buck fielded to perfection and plunked into Lafe Gammage’s hands in plenty of time.
“Two gone. One more left,” coached Captain Tad, as he thumped his mitt and gave Dixon the signal. And Dixon, pitching to Freeman, the big left fielder of the Lawrencetown team, the heaviest hitter of them all, settled down and struck him out with four pitched balls, retiring the side.
The team came in and as Jeff walked toward the bench he looked up into the crowd along third base line and grinned, for there he saw Mr. Davidson, President of the Third National Bank of New City, sitting in the stand beside a charming lady whom Jeff concluded was Mrs. Davidson. As the banker caught Jeff’s eye he waved to him and called:
“I’m out to see you fellows win the big game, Jeff.”
“All right, we’ll win it for you, Mr. Davidson,” said Jeff lifting his cap.
Long Lafe was at the plate tapping his bat on the rubber and pulling down his cap when Jeff took his seat on the players’ bench beside Wade. Lefty Wells, the southpaw pitching ace of the Lawrencetown team was in the box adjusting his glove, and Captain Tad was on the first base line coaching.
“Show ’em where you live, Lafe,” called Tad.
The good-natured first baseman grinned as Wells wound up and shot a swift one over for a strike. He tried another of the same kind but Lafe, who was set for a slam, slashed at it and sent a Texas leaguer humming over the second baseman’s head into short center for a single.
“Wow, the first man on. Here’s where you score, Lafe,” shouted Tad, as he passed the signals he took from the coach on to Mickey Daily the next man up.
Obedient Mickey struck at the first ball over and hit it, trying hard to make the sacrifice play he was instructed to. But Bradley, the Lawrencetown shortstop, covered a little more ground than Daily thought he could and what was meant for a sacrifice resulted in a neat double play, Gammage and Daily going out in quick succession.