n the ninth.

But Springer was strengthened and steadied by a great desire, and,
although Oakdale's lead was not increased, he pitched so well that the
slender margin was sufficient to give the visitors the victory. Not a
Wyndhamite reached first, and two of the three who faced Springer were
mowed down on strikes.

The overjoyed Oakdale crowd charged onto the diamond and surrounded the
winners as they were giving Wyndham a cheer. Springer was swept off
his feet and caught up on the shoulders of the crowd, who bellowed his
name again and again. Looking downward, he saw that his right leg
rested on the shoulder of Rodney Grant, who was cheering madly.

In the dressing room, a little later, Grant came up quietly and put
forth his uninjured left hand.

"Put it there, partner," he begged. "You sure turned the trick, and
you held them down handsomely. It was a great victory."

Springer seized the proffered hand, laughing to hide the fact that joy
threatened to blind his eyes with tears.

"It was a great victory," he agreed, thinking, however, of the victory
he had won over himself.

"Sure," beamed the Texan. "And now Oakdale ought to win the
championship; she ought to win it with you and me--and Hooker, for
pitchers." He said this laughing in a way that robbed his words of any
touch of egotism.

Oakdale did win the championship, without the loss of a single game.
Grant and Springer did the greater part of the pitching, the work being
divided almost equally between them; but Hooker was not wholly
forgotten, and he obtained some opportunities, actually pitching one
complete game in a most creditable manner.

Herbert Rackliff saw no more baseball after the Wyndham game, for his
parents were notified that he had contracted a pronounced case of
pulmonary trouble, and, this being confirmed later by the family
physician, he was hurriedly shipped to Colorado, in hopes that the dry
and bracing atmosphere of that State might restore him to health.
Although the boys of Oakdale charitably refrained from making much talk
about him, he was little missed by them.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RIVAL PITCHERS OF OAKDALE***

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