Clearfield’s inning produced plenty of thrills. Farrar went out, shortstop to first, but Gordon drove a clean safety over second and went to third when Scott doubled to right. Cotner did his best to sacrifice to the outfield, but the result was a foul back of first and a second put-out. The Springdale catcher made two bluff throws to second, hoping to coax Gordon to the plate, but the trick didn’t work. With two balls and one strike against him, Captain Jones refused the next delivery and had the satisfaction of hearing it declared a ball. Then Newton floated a slow one over for a second strike and, with the Clearfield coachers howling like wildmen and the Purple’s supporters shouting from the stands, tried to cut the outer corner of the plate. Warner spoiled it and the ball glanced into the seats. On third Gordon danced and ran back and forth, while Scott, halfway between third and second, dared a throw. Again Newton wound up and again he stepped forward, and the ball sailed straight along the groove. Gordon dashed up the path from third, bat and ball met and Captain Jones sped to first. Scott rounded the last corner and headed for the plate just as the ball bounded into the hands of the second-baseman. The latter had plenty of time to peg across to first ahead of Warner Jones, but something, perhaps the sight of the two runners flying home, made him hesitate for one fatal instant. When the ball did reach the first baseman’s impatient glove Jones was crossing the bag.
Scott slid unchallenged past the plate and tallied the home team’s second run, and Clearfield exulted strenuously and waved purple flags. Two runs looked very large just then, but Dick wanted more and sent Lanny after them. Jones had instructions to steal on the second pitch and Lanny to hit it out if he could. Newton drove Lanny back from the plate with his first delivery and it went for a ball. Then, after throwing twice to first to teach Jones discretion, he sailed a low one over. Lanny swung at it but missed and Jones beat out the throw to second by an eyelash. Clearfield howled its glee. That steal upset Newton and he allowed a pass. With men on second and first and Joe Browne up another tally seemed quite within the bounds of reason, but Newton found himself again and, working Browne into the hole with two strikes and one ball, fooled him on an outshoot that looked very wide of the plate. Clearfield shrieked disapproval of the decision, but disapproval didn’t put the runners back on the bases or return Browne to the plate. Still, two runs were two runs, and, unless Springdale did a lot better than she had been doing, would prove sufficient to win the game.
The fourth and fifth passed uneventfully. Springdale worked hard and took advantage of everything, but luck was against her when Cotner ran back to the shadow of the fence in deep left and pulled down a long fly that might easily have been good for two bases. Springdale had a runner on first at the time and Cotner’s spectacular catch undoubtedly robbed her of a tally. After that Scott threw out the next batsman and Bryan tossed to Jones on the following play. In her half Clearfield got one man to first on balls, but watched the succeeding three retire on easy outs.
It was in the sixth that Springdale began to look dangerous. Dick had substituted Breen for Joe Browne, in the hope that the former would take more kindly to Newton’s delivery, and it was Breen who was directly responsible for what happened. Nostrand disposed of the first batsman easily enough, but the next man waited him out and finally, after popping fouls all over the place, secured a pass. The next man laid down a slow bunt toward the box and Nostrand fielded to Jones. The latter, however, failed to complete the double. The following batter hit safely past Scott and second and first bases were occupied. Springdale’s catcher was up now and he had so far proved an easy victim to Nostrand’s slow ball. But this time the signs failed. With two strikes against him he managed to connect with a waister and sent it arching into short right field. Gordon started back, but it was quite evidently Breen’s ball, and Breen was trotting in for it. But something happened. Perhaps the wind caught the sphere and caused the fielder’s undoing. At all events, the ball went over Breen’s head by several feet and two runs crossed the plate!
In the ensuing dismay and confusion the batsman slid safely to second. Springdale stood up and yelled like mad, and, after a minute of dismayed silence, Toby Sears managed to arouse the purple-decked seats to response. But the Clearfield cheering was lacking in conviction just then! Breen, feeling horribly conspicuous out there in right field, ground his fist into the palm of his glove and gritted his teeth. Captain Jones’ voice came back to him cheerfully:
“Never mind that, Howard! Let’s go after ’em hard now!”
And go after them hard they did, and when Newton, the subsequent batsman, slammed the ball into short center Breen was there as soon as Farrar and could have fielded the ball had not Farrar attended to it. As it was the batsman was satisfied with one base, although the runner ahead reached third in safety.
Tom Haley had begun to warm up back of first base now. That his services would be required was soon evident, for Nostrand put himself in a hole with the next batsman and finally watched him walk to first and fill the bases. Then Dick nodded, Nostrand dropped the ball and walked out and Clearfield cheered lustily as Tom Haley peeled off his sweater. Going into the box with the bases full, even when there are two out, isn’t a thing to rejoice and be merry over, but, as Fudge confided to Perry just then, Tom Haley had been put together without nerves. Tom sped some fast and rather wild ones in the general direction of Lanny while the Springdale shortstop leaned on his bat and watched satirically, and the Blue’s supporters expressed derision. But none of the Clearfield fellows were worried by Tom’s apparent wildness. Tom always did that when he went as a relief pitcher. And then he usually tied the batsman in knots!
Tom did that very thing now. He landed the first ball squarely across the center of the plate. He put the next one shoulder-high across the inner corner, and he wasted two more in trying to coax the batter to reach out. Then, finding that the blue-stockinged one would not oblige him, he curved his fingers cunningly about the ball and shot it away and, without waiting, swung on his heel and walked out of the box and across the diamond, while Clearfield applauded hysterically and a disgruntled Springdale shortstop tossed his bat down and turned toward the field wondering if he had really hit as much too soon as it had seemed to him!
The Purple went out in order in their half and the seventh inning, which Clearfield, according to time-honored custom, hailed as the “lucky seventh” and stood up for, passed into history without adding further tallies to the score of either team. Springdale went after the game savagely and succeeded in connecting with Haley’s offers so frequently that the Clearfield supporters sat on the edges of their seats and writhed anxiously. But, although the Blue’s batsmen hit the ball, they failed to “put it where they ain’t,” and sharp, clean fielding did the rest. For her part, the Purple did no better. One long fly to deep left looked good for a moment, but the nimble-footed player out there got under it without any trouble. No one reached first in either half of the “lucky seventh” and the game went into the eighth with the score still 2 to 2.