"Here is where we show Oak Hall what we can do!"
Phil was very much worried and came to talk the matter over with Dave.
"Dave, can't you strike some more of 'em out?" he asked. So far the pitcher had struck out two men.
"I'm doing my best, Phil. They seem to be good hitters and no mistake. If you want to try somebody else in my place----"
"No, no, Dave! Only I'd like to keep down that score. Do your best."
In the next two innings Oak Hall managed to get two runs--one by a wild throw to second. This was a little encouraging, and the students rooted wildly. But in the seventh inning Roger made a wild throw to third and that gave the Rockvilles two more runs. At the end of the eighth the score stood, Rockville 10, Oak Hall 3.
"We ought to have another pitcher and another catcher," said some. "Porter and Morr are both off to-day."
"Phil, you can put somebody else in my place if you wish," said the senator's son, quickly.
"And you can put somebody in my place, too," added Dave.
"No, you stick and do the best you can," answered the manager of the nine.
"They can't do anything!" sneered Link Merwell, who stood close by.
"They can both play far better ball than you," retorted Phil. "If you were pitching or catching, the Rockvilles would have about fifty runs," and then he turned his back on the bully.
It had begun to rain a little, but both clubs decided to play the game out unless it came down too hard. Oak Hall went to the bat with vigor in the ninth and got two men on bases. But then came a foul fly, a short hit to first, and a pop fly, and there their chances ended. Then, to see what they could do, Rockville took the last half of the ninth and batted out four more runs, amid the wildest kind of yelling from the Military Academy cadets and their friends.
The Oak Hall boys felt as gloomy as the sky above them and they had little or nothing to say. They could now realize how Rockville had felt, when defeated on the football field, the season before. None of the players gave attention to the rain, which was now coming down in torrents.
"Told you we'd lose," said Link Merwell, to some of the boys near him.
"Oh, you're a croaker!" cried Messmer. "We can't win every time."
"You should have had Purdy in the box," said another. Purdy was a new student and it was said he could pitch very well.