Ty in right field had misjudged the only chance he had but had recovered the ball in time to catch his man at third with a quick throw and Delvin at the bag to receive it. [Illustration: “Ty misjudged the only chance he had.”] By the end of the seventh inning the score stood 8 to 0 in favor of Lowell in spite of the poor playing. The Varsity had batted well, nearly every one had made hits, Everson had 1; Honus, 2; Delvin, 1; Ty, 2; Tris, 2; Cap., 1; Gibbie, 1; Dill, 1; and even Babe Radams had dropped a Texas Leaguer over second. Hal had sat on the bench all the time with Ross and Miner and some of the second squad. At the beginning of the eighth, Jenkins turned to Ross and said: “You cover the first bag,” and then to Hal, “Go on in the box for a little real practice, Hal.” “That’s all right, Babe,” noticing a look of disappointment on Radams’ face. “You are doing fine, but you can’t have all the practice.” “Remember, Hal,” he called from the bench, “let them hit it, but we can’t have any scoring against us.” “All right,” said Hal, as he picked up the ball. The first man up hit the first ball pitched for a base. The second batter laid down a neat bunt along the first base line. Ross, the first baseman, came in for it, and Hal hustled over to cover the bag. Meantime the batter who was fast man, was tearing down the base line like mad. Ross made a good pick-up and turned to throw. By that time the batter was only a few feet from the bag where Hal was to receive the throw. Ross had to throw quick and in doing so threw the ball at Hal’s feet. Hal reached down, made a neat pick-up, and the umpire waved the runner out. There was now one out with a man on second. The third batter hit a hard one at Everson, who retired the runner at first, the man on second reaching third. The next batter hit a slow bounder between the box and first. Hal started after the ball, grabbed it on the bounce with one hand and without stopping raced to first base, which he reached just ahead of the runner, making the third out. As he walked to the bench Jenkins came up to meet him and patting him on the back, said: “Good boy, Hal,” which was fine, Hal thought. It was his turn at bat, and he walked to the plate with high hopes of making at least a two bagger. The first ball looked like a straight one so Hal took a good swing at it and missed. “That’s all right,” called Hughie from the coaching lines, “there will be two more better ones coming over directly.” The next was a ball. The third was a slow one, and as Hal noticed the left-fielder playing pretty far out he thought he would just tap it for a nice little short fly back of third. He thought of this as the ball was coming toward him from the pitcher’s hands. He whirled his bat with a short, quick swing and--thud--he heard the ball strike the catcher’s mitt.