Lanterna Rally

Author: Burt L. Standish

Publisher:

Published: 2020-10-25

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13:

At the beginning of the sixth inning, Sam Kates went into the box against the Tufts freshmen. The score then stood seven to one, in favor of Yale Umpty-ten. Tufts had shown no ability to connect with Dick Merriwell's shoots and benders. This was the opportunity to give Sam a good try-out, and so, at Dick's suggestion, he changed places with Kates, who had been playing first. At the opening of the game, Tufts had professed a hilarious confidence in its ability to hit Merriwell, but within a short time this confidence oozed away, and the game was proving tiresomely one-sided and monotonous when Yale changed pitchers. Immediately Tufts braced up and took heart. Kates was nervous, and the visitors seemed to know it. They whooped and barked joyously as the first man to face Sam lined out a sizzling two-bagger. "Never mind that, Kates," came reassuringly from Dick. "Those things will happen occasionally. They can't all do it." Nevertheless Kates realized that he was trying to fill the position just vacated by one vastly his superior, and he also knew the Yale men who had been cheering lustily in the stand were aware of the same fact. This placed him at a disadvantage, for he was extremely anxious, and a pitcher who gets anxious in the box is almost sure to be an easy mark for the opposing batters. Kates, under the manly influence of Dick Merriwell, had broken away from former undesirable associations and was now putting forth his best efforts to redeem his past mistakes.