Page:Baseball Joe on the School Nine.djvu/219

Rh Ward cheerfully. "Kill it next time, Nat, and give Sister Davis a show."

Nat tried to, but he knocked an easy fly, which the pitcher gathered In, and the opportunity of the Excelsior nine was over for that Inning. A big goose egg went up In their frame. Score: 2—0, in favor of the visitors.

Joe took a long breath when he went into the box again, and facing Loftus Brown, struck him out in such short order that his friends began to breathe easier again. The game was far from lost, and as long as Joe did not allow his "goat" to be gotten. Excelsior might win yet. Then Harry Young, probably the poorest batter the visitors had, fanned thrice successively, and it was Dunlap Spurr's turn again. Joe knew just what to give him, and when he struck him out, after two foul strikes had been made, the crowd set up a yell.

The visitors did not get a run in their half of the second, and once more Excelsior had a show. Tom Davis singled, got around to third when Charlie Borden knocked a two-bagger, and slid home in a close play when Harry Lauter was thrown out at first. There was only one gone when Joe came to bat, and one run had come in. Joe knocked a safety, or at least it looked as if it was going to be that, but the shortstop, by a