The ball reached Packard before Ready got down, and he lined it to first, completing a pretty double play.
“Now ye’re playing ball, me bhoys!” cried Barney Mulloy, in deep satisfaction. “Kape it up! Kape it up!”
Morgan smiled again when Bart Hodge faced him. It seemed that his temper had been restored, and he was perfectly confident. He used his head in working Hodge, but found Bart a fine waiter. With two strikes and three balls called, Bart declined to swing on the next pitch, though to many the ball looked good.
Hodge wore a grim smile as he trotted down to first. Then he got a fair lead, and went for second on the first ball pitched. Mulloy threw, but Hodge sprinted like the wind, and slid under safely.
Hodge was a great worker, and he never quit, no matter how poor the prospect. But all were surprised when Bart went to third on a “dope ball” sent in by Morgan to Browning. The ball hung in the air, and, having a lead on it, Bart set his teeth and fairly flew along the line.
Mulloy threw as soon as he could when the ball reached him, but the runner went round behind Skelding and was safe.
“Gentlemen,” said a Yale man, rising amid the group on the bleachers, “you see the kind of a man we lost when that fellow got his sheepskin! He is in every respect a jim-dandy!”
Somehow the success of Hodge seemed to rattle Morgan, for he followed with a wild pitch, and Bart came scampering home with the run that put the Merries in the lead.
But Morgan settled down after that, and proceeded to strike Browning out.
“Now hold ’em, boys!” cried Ready, waltzing down to third. “We must show these fresh chaps that they are not in the same class as our great and mighty aggregation.”
Dismal Jones really tried to smile when he walked out with a bat, but the effort seemed to cause him pain, and it was very distressing in its effect.
Dick found that Jones was determined to make him put the ball over, and he finally did so, which gave Dismal the opportunity he wanted. It was a gentle little hit, but the ball dropped beyond the infield, and Jones landed on first base.
It is possible that Dick regarded Skelding as too easy, but Gene did not hit the ball fair and hard. It went down to Ready on a slow bound, and Jack stopped it awkwardly, letting it get out of his hands. When he picked it up to throw it was too late to make a double play, and Skelding was well down toward first.