"I don't want to put a crimp in your wing," muttered Wells.
"That's all right. It's a tough wing. Don't let the Centrals score anything on us in this inning."
"I'll do my best to help you hold 'em down," promised the South
Grammar catcher as he hurried to his place behind the plate.
Dave Darrin, to his intense disgust, was struck out on three of the most crafty throws that Teall had on his list. Hazelton followed. Another player reached first on called balls, but the next Central boy struck a fair, short fly that landed in Ted's own hands.
"That was more like," grunted Ted, as he met his catcher at the bench. "In that first inning these Centrals had me almost scared."
In the second half of this second inning the Souths scored one run. They did the same in the third and the fourth innings, meantime preventing Prescott's fellows from scoring again, though in the fourth inning Prescott saw the bases full with Centrals just before the third man was struck out.
In the fifth and sixth innings neither side scored. At last the spectators began to realize that they were watching two well-matched nines.
"I can't see that the Central Grammars are doing such a lot of a much," grunted Hi Martin to a High School boy.
"The Centrals are playing fine ball," retorted the High School boy. "The only trouble is that the Souths rank pretty close to them."
"I'd like to play both teams again," asserted Hi. "All that happened to us was that we struck a few flukes when we played."