The progress of the nine was quite satisfactory to Hughie and the coaches and they began to feel as though they had the championship again in their inside pockets, and they were right in thinking so, because never before in all the ball teams put together, in college or out, had there been so many individual stars on any one team.

“This,” said Hughie, talking with Penny who had been down for a week, “has been the greatest luck that any baseball manager ever had, to find himself at the beginning of the training season with five of the most important positions of the team vacant and then to discover among the freshmen, a bunch of fellows like Case, Hagner, Robb, Talkington and Radams who make good right away. Of course, I’d not tell them so to their faces, but those fellows are playing their positions better than any fellows who ever played those corners before. They ought to be world’s champions. Those boys, especially when steadied by the more experienced bunch we have left, Everson, Larke, Gibbs, Black and Delvin, ought to beat any team in the world.”

“They haven’t been beaten yet,” said Everson, who just came up, “and I don’t think we are going to be licked this year. Did you ever see such a bunch of stars?”

“If Jefferson College has anything like our kind of luck in discovering stars among the freshmen, there will be the hottest series of ball games that ever was played anywhere between two teams,” said Penny.

“It’s hardly possible that Jefferson should have anything like the same kind of luck,” remarked Hughie.

Meantime, however, some very similar talk was going on at Jefferson.

“They licked us at football this year all right and I still think it was mostly luck that they did,” said Captain and Manager Frank Church to his coaches and captains about this same time, “but we’ve got them this year on the ball game. Won’t Lowell be surprised though when we turn ’em inside out on the diamond.”

“Did you ever know of anybody else having the kind of baseball luck we have had this year?” asked Tommy Beach, center fielder on the Jefferson team and good friend of Church’s.

“No,” said Church, “I’ve seen the bad luck come in bunches often before, such as having a half dozen of the team put out of the game on account of injuries in a day, but no one ever had the good luck we have had in picking out fine kids from a bunch of freshmen recruits, and have them develop into stars after the few games we have played.”

“This Lowell crowd has put it over us in the past,” said Big George Mellen, star pitcher of the Western college, “but methinks that when we have finished our games with them this year, with the team we have now, this bunch of fellows will have wiped out not only all the disgrace of the football defeat, but also the long string of baseball beatings they have handed us in the past years.”

About this time, too, various graduates of Lowell who lived in the West and had had a chance to see some of the games which Jefferson had played with other Western colleges, began to think that Church had finally succeeded in putting a team together that would, if they kept up the pace which they had set for themselves, give Lowell a pretty hard tussle.

They could not quite speak what was really their true opinion because of their great belief in Jenkins, but when they looked way down deep in their hearts they not only felt these Western boys might give Lowell a pretty good tussle, but they were very much afraid they would take the championship. So they began sending what seemed at first to their friends at Lowell to whom they wrote some wonderful stories of the star players on the new team at Jefferson College, and gave many warnings that at last Church had a real ball team, and that when he brought his boys to Lowell the championship would at least be in danger.

George Davids wrote to Delvin about a fast shortstop, who, strange to say, had come from the East to attend this Western college. “His name is Eddie Hollins,” wrote George, “and he is a star performer. He came direct here from Columbus College and I am surprised that you didn’t hear of him in time to induce him to go to Lowell. Of course, you wouldn’t be looking for a shortstop if you still had Brinker, and I hope you have had some luck in getting a new one. Hollins, however, is very fast on the bases and a wonderful fielder. Besides he is a crack-a-jack with the bat. You know I once had an idea about playing short myself, but this boy acts as though he had years of training under Joe himself.”

From Amos Russell came a long report to Black about a wonderful pitcher that had been discovered. “His name is Cam,” wrote Russell, “and his curves are longer and wider than his name. He was born in Kentucky which explains why he happened to come to Jefferson. He is a right hander, with great speed, sharp curves, and he is long on control. I really think you had better send some one out here to look the whole team over. You may be able to discover some weak points. I have looked them over several times, and I think that for once dear old Lowell will have to hustle if they beat this team.”

Dear old Pop Anderson took particular pains to write about the Jefferson team in general. “I don’t want to scare you, my dear Hughie,” wrote Pop, “but you had better be prepared to outdo even yourself when you come out here to play this year’s Jefferson team. We didn’t have such a very easy time with them last year, though the effort it cost made the victory just that much sweeter. You asked me to write you fully of what I think and I will do so.

“At first base they have, of course, Frank Church who is, as you know, still the captain-manager. I need not say much about him because you know he is one of the greatest first basemen ever known, and it was his ability as a manager you had to beat last year. I hope you have found some one nearly as good as Penny to play first. You will need him.” Hughie chuckled to himself as he thought of his own wonder at first base.

“At second,” wrote Pop further, “they have as you know La Joy who is one of the best batters around in the West. He also is as fine a fielder as ever, but, of course, you have Johnny Everson and you need not worry about that position. At third, Laird was on last year’s team, the best third sacker they ever had out here and better this year than ever. At short they have a youngster named Hollins. He is a wonder and a great batter. He is brilliant, heady and fast, and is a dangerous player both at bat and on the bases. He can play second even better.

“They seem to have had a good deal of luck in picking up freshmen youngsters who can fill the holes in the team made by the graduations of last year. I think this Hollins is a great shortstop, and I hope you have found a good one in Joe’s place, as you will surely need him.” Again Hughie smiled to himself. He was no doubt thinking of Hagner, his big awkward-looking shortstop. Whenever Hughie wanted to feel real good he drew a mind picture of Hagner going after a hot grounder or a Texas Leaguer out his way.

“They have a great right fielder out here named Twitchell, also a new man in the position. He is a fine batter and a good thrower. In center is Thomas Beach, just as good in the field chasing flies as he was a couple of years ago at third base. You will, I know, never forget the trouble this young Beach person has caused Lowell teams. In the past, reports of the first inning in so many games read ‘Beach got a double or triple to left.’

“One thing I have noticed, though, Beach is still weak when it comes to getting caught at third. Do you remember how last year King caught him off third three times when with Church on first and Tommy on third, they attempted a double steal? I’ve seen him get caught twice this year the same way. Funny, isn’t it, that he can’t get over that play. He just can’t resist the temptation if the catcher makes a motion as if to throw to second to stop a steal, to make a false start toward the plate, and when the catcher throws to third instead of second, Beach gets caught almost every time. Hope you can work it on him this year again.

“Warcford in left is only a fair fielder, but a wonder with the bat. He comes from Kansas and is likely to make trouble at any time with his stick. He hits all kinds of pitching.

“You will have finally to deal with George Mellen in the pitcher’s box. He is better than ever. He has won twelve straight games this year and is almost as good a batter as any man on the team. There is also a young pitcher named Cam who promises to be a wonder. For catcher they have a youngster, a freshman named Roger Brest. This fellow is a wonder also. Of course, with Gibbie on the team—and I think he ought to be fine this year—you may have the advantage of a catcher with experience on big college teams, but Brest seems to be a find, and I think is as good as any. On the whole, they seem to have had remarkable luck out here with the team this year.

“It will take all your ability as manager and as good a team as you had last year to beat them, and if they keep up the pace they have set with the smaller colleges out here, you may have the fight of your life on your hands. They haven’t been scored on as yet. I hope you have something good up your sleeve. If you have had any luck with your recruits, we ought to have the best series of games of college ball ever played between two nines in the history of the sport, and with an even break of the luck, it will be the best team to win.”

Of course all of the reports from all sources were laid before a committee consisting of Hughie, Everson, Larke, Gibbie, and one or two others. It made even Hughie a little anxious. In the enthusiasm over his team he hadn’t given much thought to Lowell’s great rivals, because he couldn’t see how another school could have such luck as he had in finding stars. Every fellow on the nine was a wonder, in his opinion. It looked like an all-star team.

They went over the reports together and compared the two teams, man for man, as best they could. The result was enough to make them anxious and they finally decided to send Young, the coach, who could tell a real ball player across a fifty-acre lot, out to Jefferson to look over the rival team and get as many pointers as he could.

No doubt some fellow from Jefferson had already been looking the Lowell team over in action or would be around soon, but of course there was no way to prevent this, and besides there was no reason why it shouldn’t be done. The rivalry between the two schools was of the keenest, in every way.

On the whole the boys decided that if the team kept on as they had been—working together like a machine—and if they could avoid a slump, they would have just as good a chance to win as the other fellows, and perhaps a little better. They were the champions and had been for years; and this would give them a slight advantage.

So they worked a little harder in practice, trying to perfect themselves more and more in their signal and other inside work, and every man on the team pledged himself again and again to Hughie to try a little more earnestly than he had before, if that were possible, for the honor and glory of the university. And this helped them to keep from getting nervous when they thought of these reports of Church’s team at Jefferson.