“They won the toss,” he said. “Get your bat ready, Harry; you are first on the list.”
I stepped forward to the homeplate, the Park men took their various positions; the crowd became still; the umpire tossed the snowy white ball along the ground to Arnold, then raised his hand and cried, “Play!”
Instantly the ball came in like a flash of light. I was unprepared for it, but struck at it fiercely, and to my own surprise, drove a fine two base hit out toward right field. It was an auspicious beginning, and was greeted by an uproar from the benches.
This sobered Arnold, who began more cautiously with George Ives, who followed me, and succeeded in striking him out. Then came Alfred Burnett, who knocked to shortstop, and was thrown out at first base; I in the mean time reaching third base. Dick Palmer was next at the bat, and proved himself worthy of the trust we had always reposed in his batting abilities by making a single base hit, and bringing me home, thus scoring the first run. The half inning was closed by Percy Randall’s knocking a high fly which was captured by the Park left fielder. We then took the field.
I had pitched only a few balls when I discovered that the Park men had improved considerably in batting since we last met them, and that I would need all the strength and skill I could summon to manage them. They hit hard nearly every time, and it was only good fielding on the part of our men that prevented their scoring several runs in the first inning. As it was they earned one run, and the score stood 1–1. In this condition it remained for two more innings, but in the ending of the fourth inning, their strong batting secured two more runs for them.
In the fifth inning Ray Wendell opened with a base hit, stole second base by a good run, and was followed by myself, who made another base hit which sent Ray to third. George Ives knocked a fly ball straight up in the air, which was caught by Arnold. This was unfortunate, for neither Ray nor I gained a base thereby. Then Alfred Burnett struck out—a most exasperating piece of ill luck.
The fate of the inning now hung upon Dick Palmer, whose safe hit had been so timely before. I scarcely dared hope that he would repeat his exploit, but almost before I had time to think of the matter, bang! went another base hit and Ray ran in, scoring our second run, while I reached third base. Then came Percy Randall, who struck the second ball pitched and sent it out between center and right fields.
Amidst a great outburst of cheers, he dashed around the bases, Dick Palmer well ahead of him. I reached home in safety of course, and was expecting Dick to follow me, when, to my surprise, I saw him standing still on third base. His action was explained by the fact that the right fielder had stopped the ball sooner than we had anticipated, and had promptly passed it in to the first baseman, who stood ready to throw it home if Dick attempted to run.
Percy Randall had not seen this, but supposed the ball was still in the outfield; so, with his head down, and not noticing Dick, he kept on running around the bases. We shouted to him in warning, but, to our consternation, we saw that he misunderstood us, and it was not until he reached third base and found Dick Palmer also there that he realized the situation. He was badly cut up about the blunder, as were the rest of us, for it robbed us of an opportunity to win the lead by securing two more runs. It was too late to be helped. Dick Palmer was promptly thrown out at home plate, and we were retired with the score 3–3. The loss of this opportunity was still more keenly felt in the last half of the inning, when, after one man had been put out, we found ourselves with two men on bases and Arnold at the bat.