But when Saturday morning came, Steve Walker couldn’t be found, and Prentiss refused to go without him. On the following Monday it was Dolph who couldn’t get away, and so the visit was put off and delayed until a whole fortnight had gone by, by which time Walker and Prentiss had lost interest in the matter and even Dolph showed a strong inclination to let things slide. Dolph had sufficient excuse, however, for the captain of the Baseball Team has plenty of work and plenty of problems to keep him busy. In that fortnight Maple Ridge played four games, winning two and tying one. The latter contest, with Dixon Academy, ran to twelve innings, and then was called, with the score 8 to 8. That was Maple Ridge’s fifth game of the year, and in it the home team showed a vast improvement over its work in the Charlemont game. The single defeat was suffered at the hands of Blue Ledge School, Maple Ridge being shut out without a run, and with only three hits to her credit. But Blue Ledge was a big school, and its baseball team was a rattling aggregation of hard-hitting fellows, who averaged two years more than Maple Ridge in the matter of age. Sam pitched the entire contest, and was lucky to hold the opponents down to seven hits and four runs.
It was in the following game, that with Holt School, that Jack finally ousted Cook from the position of first substitute right fielder. It was a close game all the way, with the score seesawing back and forth for six innings, first Holt and then Maple Ridge being in the lead. The seventh began with Holt one run ahead. It ended with Maple Ridge leading by two tallies, 9 to 7. Mort Prince, who was pitching, held the enemy scoreless the first half of the eighth. Maple Ridge was unable to add to her figures in the last half. In the first of the ninth, Prince weakened. A pass put a man on first; a sacrifice bunt advanced him to second. The next batter was out on an infield fly. With two down, a slow grounder to Cassart at third put a man on first and advanced the first runner to third. The man on first stole on the first ball pitched. Holt’s centre fielder, a powerful hitter, was up. Dolph signaled Prince to pass him, and Mort began to throw wide of the plate. All went well until three balls had been sent in. Then Prince slipped up and sent one that cut the edge of the plate. The batter, who resented being passed, leaned against it, and it went sailing out to short left field, well over third baseman’s head, and yet so close behind him that Jack, who had been playing in left since the beginning of the sixth inning, was unable to reach it, although he came running in at top speed. As it was, the ball struck the ground two yards in front of him, just as the man from third crossed the plate. Jack got the ball on the bound, poised and made a hard, straight throw to the plate, just in the nick of time to head off the second runner, who was trying his best to bring in the tying run. It was a nice bit of fielding, and the Maple Ridge supporters cheered long and loudly as Jack trotted in, peeling off his glove.
“That was a dandy throw-in you made,” said Sam later. “As straight as an arrow, Jack, and right into Dolph’s mitt.”
“Well,” replied Jack modestly, “I saw I couldn’t catch that fly, so I slowed up for the bound. The man from second was just leaving third then, and I heaved as quick as I knew how. And when I did throw, Sam, I remembered what you’d told me and I kept my eyes and my mind on Dolph; and I said to that ball, ‘Get there!’”
“And it got!” laughed Sam. “And I dare say, it saved us a licking, or, at any rate, another tie game. You keep on improving, Jack, and you’ll make Tyler hustle to keep his place.”
“I guess I’ll never be as good as Wicks is,” answered Jack. “He seems to know just where the ball is going the minute it leaves the bat.”
“So will you when you’ve played as long as he has. Study the game, Jack. Keep at it.”
“Of course. It’s pretty good fun, anyway, even if I don’t get into the big games.”
“Well, you keep on batting as well as you have been, and you’ll do that, too. You’ve got Cook settled already, I guess.”