CHAPTER XXIV

A TENTH INNING VICTORY

The excitement of that day was by no means all over with the conclusion of the water sports, for the baseball game with Nordham Academy, which commenced at half-past two, was replete with sensations. In fact the Nordham game was the best contest of the season, viewed from the point of the spectator. To be sure the final game with Broadwood, three weeks later, was better played, only two errors being scored against each team, but in that meeting Yardley developed a batting streak that surprised even her adherents and, after knocking one pitcher out of the box in the first two innings, touched up the second until a fine total of twelve hits for fifteen bases placed her the victor by the decisive score of 11 to 3. Satisfactory as the result was to Yardley, the game was at no time close enough to prove exciting. On the other hand, the Nordham contest was nip and tuck from the first inning to the tenth and last.

The Nordham pitcher, Keswick, proved as good as he was credited with being, while Servis, who started in the box for Yardley, was hit freely as long as he was kept in. That he escaped as well as he did was owing to the excellent support given him by his teammates. Dan on second, and Durfee at short made some stops that were well-nigh phenomenal, while Carey, at first, played the game of the season, more than once picking throws from the ground or knocking them down from overhead in a way that wrought the Blue’s supporters to a pitch of wild enthusiasm. Condit, at third, made two wretched errors, one of which was accountable for a run, but nevertheless at other times played brilliantly and performed well at bat. The outfield did itself proud, too, that day, and after the contest was over, the Yardley Baseball Team could have had pretty much anything in the power of its schoolmates to give.

Nordham scored first in the second inning, when Servis passed the second man up and subsequently allowed the enemy to hit him for two singles. Clever fielding held Nordham to one run. There was no more scoring until the last of the third, when Smith got to first on a slow bunt, reached second on Servis’s sacrifice and scored on a long fly to center field.

At one to one the game ran to the fifth. Twice Nordham filled the bases, and twice failed to score. Then Nordham’s catcher started the fun with a two-bagger. An attempted double play failed to work, and the runner was safe on second. The third man walked, and the bases were full with no one out. A sacrifice to left field scored the man on third, but a fine throw-in caught the next runner at the plate. With two out Yardley breathed easier, but the trouble wasn’t yet over, as was quickly proved when Servis passed the next batsman. The latter stole second unmolested, for a Nordham runner on third was waiting his chance to score. Then it was that Condit made his error that let in a tally. A slow grounder was batted toward him, and he should have assisted at an easy out, but in some way the ball got away from him, caromed off his shin, and rolled over the base line. By the time it was recovered the man from third was safely home, and there were still two men on bases. Nordham’s coaches were yelling lustily now, and it looked for a moment as though demoralization held the Yardley team. But Servis kept his head and, after getting two strikes on the Nordham captain, made him fly out to center fielder.

Yardley failed to get a man past first in her half of the inning. At the beginning of the sixth, Reid, who had been warming up for some time, took Servis’s place on the mound, and Yardley cheered approval. Reid, after passing the first man, proved too much of an enigma to the visitors, and the succeeding batsmen went out in one, two, three order. Then Yardley scored her second run on a hit through shortstop and a couple of infield errors, Wheelock crossing the plate. Nordham was harmless in the eighth. Yardley began badly with an outfield fly that put Carey down. Durfee beat out a bunt and was safe on first. Condit attempted a sacrifice, and Durfee was caught at second. With two out, Alf pushed a hot one past first baseman for two bags. Dan followed that up with one very much like it that proved too difficult for shortstop, and Alf scored. The next man struck out.

But the score was now tied at three to three, and the excitement, which had been increasing with each inning, became intense. Nordham started the ninth inning with the head of her batting list coming up. Reid worked a strike-out on the first man, but the next one hit safely into left field for one bag. Condit again fumbled, and there were runners on first and second. Then came a hot liner to Durfee, a one-handed catch that brought cheers from the spectators, and a quick double-play that again nipped Nordham’s budding hopes.

Yardley went to bat, resolved to finish the contest then and there. But Keswick steadied down and the Blue’s batters were helpless. Richards struck out, Smith was hit and got to first, Reid could do nothing against Keswick’s science, and Carey made an easy third victim, shortstop to first.

The tenth inning began hopefully for the home team, since Nordham’s dangerous batters had been disposed of in the ninth. The first man flied out to Wheelock in right field, the second laid a bunt down in front of the plate that Richards handled cleanly, and the trouble seemed over. But Nordham sprung a surprise when her catcher found a ball to his liking and sent it far into right field along the foul-line and tore off two bases. That performance, however, went for nothing in the end; for although Nordham put in a pinch batter in place of Keswick, that youth’s best was a pop-fly to Dan.

Yardley’s supporters cheered incessantly as the Blue team trotted in from the field, and Captain Durfee chose his bat.

With the head of the batting list up, something, it was felt, ought to happen. And something did. Durfee found the first ball pitched, and sent a clean one-bagger into left. Condit made a neat sacrifice, placing Durfee on second. Alf went to bat amid wild appeals for a hit. With two strikes and two balls on him, he got what he wanted, and slammed a long fly out to center. The yells of delight hushed as the center fielder ran back a few steps, and as the ball settled cozily into his hands. Durfee, one foot on the second bag, was poised for flight, and the instant the ball was caught he started for third. He was a fast man on the bases, but it seemed impossible for him to reach home on that hit. In came the ball to shortstop, and that player turned and launched it straight and hard at the catcher. But Durfee had already swung around halfway from third, and running wide he slipped across the plate behind the catcher before the latter, swinging down at him, could make the put-out. It was a desperate chance, but Durfee made it go, and the game was won, 4 to 3.

Yardley went back up the hill cheering and laughing, and the Nordham game was subject for discussion and congratulation for several days. But by the beginning of the next week the Dual Meet had become the uppermost subject at Yardley. A victory for the Blue meant the permanent possession of the Dual Cup, and all eyes were fixed now on the twenty-third. That Yardley would win, was universally granted, but that the final score would be heart-breakingly close was as generally agreed upon.

The hundred-yard and two-hundred-and-twenty-yard dashes were safe enough in the hands of Bufford and Rand and Teller. The quarter-mile would probably prove close with the chances favoring Broadwood. The half-mile was conceded to the Green. High and low hurdles were doubtful events, but Broadwood was expected to get slightly the better in each. The mile run was Yardley’s, for Maury was faster than any one Broadwood could put on the track. Now that Arthur Thompson was out of the pole vault, the field events would yield the honors to Yardley’s rival, only the shot-put and the hammer throw being credited to the Blue. With first place counting 5, second place 3, third place 2, and fourth place 1, much depended on the winning of seconds, thirds, and fourths, and Yardley fellows had to acknowledge that in many events the capture of third and fourth places would not be so easy. The fact of the meeting taking place on Yardley’s own field meant some slight advantage to her, but figure as they might, the Blue’s most optimistic prophets could scarcely see anything better than 70 points for Yardley against 62 for Broadwood, while many fellows figured the meet as a tie at 66 each.

Andy Ryan refused to indulge in prognostications regarding the score. “It’ll be close,” was the most he’d venture. And as for gaining any knowledge of his real thoughts from his countenance, why, one might as well have tried to guess what was in the head of a cigar-store Indian by studying his face! One thing, however, was certain, and especially to the members of the squad, and that was that Andy did not intend to lose a victory so long as hard work could secure it. Until the Thursday before the meeting he kept the squad, track and field men both, with their noses to the grindstone. On Wednesday afternoon the milers were sent away for a three-quarters at just under top speed. Maury had little difficulty in winning, by ten or twelve yards, and Goodyear, Norcross, and Pennimore finished in the order named, Gerald very nearly running even with Norcross at the line, with Goodyear some four yards ahead. It was a close race and a pretty one, and those who saw it applauded loudly. What the time was no one knew, for Andy was as chary as usual with such information. There were two sprints of a hundred yards after that, and then the quartette was sent off.

On Thursday there was light work for most of the squad, and on Friday a complete rest. By this time disquieting rumors had reached Yardley, from where no one seemed to know, to the effect that the Green was bringing over a team that was fifty per cent. better than any that had ever represented Broadwood, and that instead of proving easy in the two sprints Yardley’s rival stood a very good chance of winning the honors in each. Maury, who for the last week had been causing Andy not a little uneasiness by losing weight, became more anxious and worried than ever; and it began to be whispered among the other members of the team that he was to be sent home in the afternoon to remain until Saturday noon. As a matter of fact, the captain didn’t go home, but Andy went to his room with him Friday night and, it was presumed, ministered to him with baths and rubbings until he went to sleep. As for the others, there may have been plenty who were secretly a bit nervous that night, but none of them showed it, and by half-past nine all were in bed. Gerald laid awake a good while thinking of the morrow, but his wakefulness didn’t affect his nerves. After all there was no good cause for worry on his part, since the best that was expected of him was to nose out some Broadwood runner for fourth place. And, he thought, if he could do that and put himself among the point-winners for Yardley he would be quite satisfied. He did hope, though, that he’d be able to finish ahead of Norcross. And he meant to. Having reached this conclusion and heard it strike eleven o’clock, he went soundly asleep, and didn’t so much as turn over until Dan called him for chapel at a quarter past seven; and he sat up, rubbing his eyes, to find the spring sunlight streaming in at the window, and a warm breeze from the sparkling waters of the Sound stirring the curtains.