We were accorded the compliment of a round burst of applause, as the Halford men came in from their practice, and we ran out on the field. This put us in the best of spirits, and we set to work picking up the balls, catching them on the fly, and throwing them from base to base with a brilliancy and dash that elicited frequent acknowledgment from the grand stand. We had only ten minutes for our preliminary exercise; then the signal sounded, and the game was called. Now that fortune had turned, it persisted in our favor, for we won the toss, and chose the field. Full of confidence we ran to our various positions, and their first batter took his place. Not being quite warmed to work yet, I made the mistake of placing the first ball directly over the plate. The batter caught it about the center of his bat, and sent it away out to center field. It had not occurred to us in our calculations that the outfield might prove as advantageous to our opponents as to ourselves in case they hit hard; but this was brought forcibly to my mind, for, before the ball was captured on the ground by Lewis Page, the batter reached second base. This was greeted by a round of applause, but nothing daunted, we settled down to work, and put out the next man in short order. Then came a hard ground hit to George Ives, who threw the batter out at first base, but this enabled the first batter to reach third. Then a safe hit was made just over Ray Wendell’s head, and the runner on third base scored. The next man I succeeded in striking out, and we took the bat. George Ives opened with a good safe hit, and according to Ray Wendell’s direction, he dashed down to second base at the first ball pitched. The catcher hardly expected this, threw over the second baseman’s head, and George reached third. The next two, Percy Randall and myself, were thrown out at first base, and it looked almost as if George Ives would be left on third, but Holland saved us from this by hitting safe and bringing George home. We made no more runs, and the inning closed with the score 1–1. In the second inning neither scored. In the third inning Halford made one run, while we were blanked. But in the fourth inning we returned the compliment by making a run and blanking them. In the fifth inning they made one more run, making the score 3–2 in their favor. In the sixth and seventh innings they kept this lead, and prevented us from scoring. In spite of their being ahead, we had felt no anxiety, for we were sure of our superiority both in the field and at the bat, and we believed that our time would come. It was only at the end of the seventh inning that we felt the least uneasy. “Boys,” said Ray, “this won’t do. We are nearing the end of the game, and they are still in the lead. We must break this up. You see, it is just as I told you: they play a fine game while they keep the bases clean. We haven’t pushed them hard enough. We must set the ball rolling. Start her off, Alfred.”