“It’s nothing. Could have been much worse,” said Tad bravely, as he walked over to pick up his cage, limping slightly as he did so. Then he turned and shouted:
“Come on, fellows. Two down. Play the batter,” and he got a round of hearty applause from the bleachers and a rousing cheer besides, both for the fine play he had made and the gameness he showed after being spiked.
Play the batter they did. He was Dick Leslie, not a particularly strong hitter, and his best efforts netted Thatcher an assist for he scooped up a humming grounder and shot it over to Lafe Gammage with a will. Then the side came in and Captain Tad went over to the bench where Dr. Stout was waiting with some bandage and iodine to patch up his wounds.
Unfortunate Dave Gleason, still limping slightly from his injury sustained early in the season, crawled under the ropes and came over to the bench to congratulate Tad.
“Hope it isn’t as serious as mine was, old fellow,” he said as he slapped the captain on the shoulder.
“Nothing to it, old dear,” said Tad heartily as he made a wry face while Dr. Stout poured iodine into the wound.
But the Pennington players could not get to Wells as the Lawrencetown batters had reached Dixon. Wells never wavered and his port side delivery was as deadly in the fourth as it had been in the third, second and first; more deadly if anything for he struck the first and third men out while the second batter up, who happened to be Wade Grenville, was out on a high fly that the center fielder did not have to move twenty feet to get. The score at the end of the fourth was 1 to 0 in favor of the Lawrencetown aggregation, and the Pennington boys went into the field with the realization that they were up against a fighting team of ball players who were out to earn a victory and had a pretty clear idea of how they had to earn it.
The fifth inning opened auspiciously for the visitors. Shortstop Bradley lammed one just out of reach of Thatcher, for a single. But he tried to reach second while Dixon was pitching to Wells, the Lawrencetown pitcher. That was where he made his big mistake, for Captain Tad was waiting for just such an attempt, and he shot the ball down to Buck Hart, who had slipped over to second when the play started, and Bradley slid right into a neat put out, while the stands went wild with cheers for Tad and Hart. Wells went down after the next two balls were pitched, for he was a weak hitter, and Wild came up for the third man.
With two down Dixon played the batter, feeling that the support behind him could hold Wild down. The team so far had played an errorless game and he felt reasonably safe in pitching to the Lawrencetown batter.
The second ball across seemed to be just what Wild was waiting for and he leaned on it with all his strength. It was a wicked slash, and like a cannonball it crashed right back at Dixon. Before the pitcher could set himself to field it, it hit him on the elbow and made him double up with a grunt of pain. The ball bounded off between first and second and Daily fielded it and shot it down to Gammage in time to put out the runner.