And they gave a special yell for each of the particular stars of the first game. It was enough to make any player nervous and anxious and it’s a wonder it didn’t. What it did do, however, was to make every one of the boys take a special vow to play the game of his life that day. Again the two men in the blue suits and blue caps trotted out on the field. Again the umpire, who was to work behind the bat (this time it was M. S. Lee), consulted with Hughie and Church. The gong sounded. The umpire said, “Play ball.” The Lowell boys trotted out onto the field to their positions. Again the umpire took off his cap, faced the stands and said: “Ladies and gentlemen: The batteries for to-day’s game are Cam, pitcher; Brest, catcher for Jefferson. Radams, pitcher; Gibbs, catcher for Lowell. Cam and Brest for Jefferson. Radams and Gibbs for Lowell--Batter up.” This time Laird of the Western school stepped quietly to the plate. He looked at Radams and Radams looked at him. Each was studying the other, though to-day Radams had a little advantage. He had seen Laird at bat and Black had gone over the other game carefully with him so he knew something about each of the batters. At least he was sure he did have a slight advantage, and so he did not hesitate an instant, but began to shoot them over. The second big game was on. CHAPTER XXIII THE SECOND STRUGGLE LOWELL JEFFERSON Everson, 2b Laird, 3b Larke, lf Beach, cf Talkington, cf Church, 1b Robb, rf Hollins, ss Hagner, ss La Joy, 2b Case, 1b Warcford, lf Delvin, 3b Twitchell, rf Gibbs, c Brest, c Radams, p Cam, p When the teams lined up at Lowell for the second game, the batting order was the same but there was a somewhat different air to be noticed among the players. The boys who hit the ball were not satisfied with their batting records in the first game, and they were determined to knock somebody out of the box. This time it was Jefferson’s first turn at bat, and as Laird came up Radams prayed for a little luck to enable him to get a good start. Thinking about it so much spoiled his control, for when he had pitched six balls the count was two and four and Laird was walking down to first as a result. Beach was true to his first inning record and got a nice single to right field and Laird got to third. Captain Church came up with lots of confidence and tapped the ball smartly, but it was an infield fly which Everson caught near the pitcher’s box. Radams was having a hard time with his nerves, apparently, for he gave Hollins four bad ones in succession and he walked to first also. This brought La Joy to bat and he hit a fast grounder over second, but Hans made a one-hand stop right at the bag, touched second forcing Hollins and threw to first for the third out. [Illustration: “Hans made a one hand catch.”]