But Bobby was not to carry off the pitching honors of the game without a struggle. Larry Cronk, the Belden pitcher, was in splendid form, and he had had the benefit of being coached by his brother, who was a student at Yale and a member of the Varsity team. The result of this training was shown in a new “hop” ball that Larry sprung on them for the first time. It came singing over the plate with a jump on it just before it reached the batter that at first puzzled the Rockledge boys completely. Two of them struck out and the third was an easy victim on a foul.
Now it was Belden’s turn to howl. And howl they did.
“Bobby’s got his work cut out for him to-day,” remarked Sparrow to Skeets, as they went out into the field.
“That’s just the time Bobby’s at his best,” returned Skeets confidently.
“Bobby’s got that fadeaway of his when it comes to the pinch,” added Mouser, “and I’ll back that against Larry’s hop any time.”
Bobby was not daunted by this showing on the part of his opponent. But he knew that he must not slow down for a second. He must put brains in his work as well as muscle, must study and outguess the batters and give them just what they did not want.
So he worked with exceeding care, mixing up his curves and his fast and slow balls so skillfully that in the first four innings only two hits were made off him, and one of them a scratch, and no one got as far as second base. And in doing this he nursed his strength, so that he felt almost as strong and fresh as at the beginning.
“Talk about a fox,” chuckled Fred, “he isn’t in it with Bobby.”
Larry, too, had kept any one from denting the home plate, but he was so exultant over the success of his new delivery that he relied upon it almost entirely. And by and by the Rockledge boys began to find him more easily than they did at first. They had not yet made more than one clean hit, but the bat was beginning to meet the ball more solidly and it was only a matter of a little time before they would be lining out base hits, unless Larry changed his style and mixed in his other curves.
“We’ll straighten them out in the next inning, see if we don’t,” remarked Spentz confidently.