The candidates for the freshman nine have been cut down to about twenty men all of whom will probably be kept through the vacation. The practice at present consists chiefly in playing games between the first and second nine and in batting at the nets. Many of the men show promise, but at present the play is wretchedly loose and slow and no such thing as team work is thought of. The make up of the nines yesterday was as follows: First nine, Coonley, p., Walker, c., Lighthall, 1b., Wadsworth, 2b., Wilder, 3b., Cassatt, s.s., Phelan, l.f., Bigelow, c.f., Adams, r.f. Second nine, G. Smith, p., McAdams, c., Caswell, 1b., Dodge, 2b., Manning, 3b., Mills, s.s., Dreyfus, l.f., Stevenson, c. f., Worman, r.f. The play was poor as a whole and the second nine decidedly outplayed the first.

Although it is still early to form an opinion of the men almost all of them have very obvious faults.

Coonley is slow, fields his position well, bats fairly; Walker is a good backstop, accurate but very slow thrower, poor batter; Lighthall is careless, weak on ground balls, poor batter; Wadsworth is uncertain, very poor on ground balls, fair batter but tries to hit too hard; Wilder is a fairly good man but is so slow that he cannot be counted on; Cassatt fields his position very prettily but is not a sure man, fair batter; Phelan is a good fielder; Bigelow is slow and is inclined to go to sleep out in the field, good batter; Adams is very uncertain and is a fair batter. On the second nine, Smith is very wild, fair batter; McAdams is a good catcher and batter but is a poor thrower; Caswell is very poor in practice, but braces up tremendously in a game, poor thrower; Dodge is a very quick and pretty fielder but is poor on thrown balls; Manning is a good batter but is very slow at third; Mills is very quick in backing up but is weak on grounders, fair batter; Dreypus is a fair batter, rather poor fielder; Stevenson is a fair man but is too slow; Worman is good at batting and base-running but is only a medium fielder.

There is material for a good nine, but there is need of a great deal of hard practice before anything like a strong team can be made up. Downer is coaching the nine at present. The first game will be played tomorrow afternoon on Norton's with Brown and Nichols.