Although the University baseball team has won but seven of the eighteen games which it has played up to the present Yale series, it may yet win the championship of the "Big Three" by scoring victories, today and tomorrow. By winning two of the three contests with Princeton, the nine put itself in a position to end a previously mediocre season by victories over its two chief rivals.
With little experienced material from last year, and with almost no good pitchers, Coach Duff's task in developing a winning nine was unusually difficult this spring. W. T. Reid '01 was called to assist him about the middle of the season, after a long losing streak, and his aid was instrumental in bringing about a decided improvement in the work of the nine.
The season opened on April 9 with a 4-3 victory over Bowdoin. Although the team showed early season raggedness, the batting strength of K. W. Perkins '20 and R. W. Emmons '20, and the pitching of S. H. Johnson '20, gave grounds for encouragement.
On the following Saturday, the defensive weakness of the University infield gave Bates a 9-7 victory. Poor pitching and unreliable fielding more than offset the heavier hitting of the University nine.
Springfield took a one-sided game played at Soldiers Field on April 19. Listless fielding and ineffective pitching again brought about the defeat of the University. The Crimson defense showed a tendency towards "bad, innings" in which many mishaps and mistakes in judgment gave the visitors many unearned tallies.
Colby was shut out 6-0 on April 23 due to the pitching of F. K. Bullard '20, who field the visitors to three hits, while his team, mates drove out twelve safeties, R. P. Hallowell '20, who was playing in the outfield for the first time, starred at bat.
On April 28, Colby scored a 1-0 victory over the University. The home team showed a decided improvement in the field, but was unable to hit in the pinches.
By a ninth inning rally which netted two runs, Maine beat the University 9-8 on May 1. Three Crimson pitchers were ineffective in stopping the visiting hitters, while four errors in the infield were costly to the Crimson defense.
On May 3, Pennsylvania's hard hitting nine scored a 6-2 win at Franklin Field. By scoring all six runs in the first four innings the home team held a safe lead throughout the contest which the University could never threaten.
On May 7, the University suffered its fourth successive defeat by losing to Holy Cross 8-6. Two bad innings, in each of which the visitors scored four runs, gave the Holy Cross nine the game. With the exception of the third and sixth sessions the work of the University nine was much improved.
The losing streak of five games was culminated on May 10, when air-night pitching by J. T. Murphy of Dartmouth shut out the University 9-0 in a game which was called on account of rain at the end of the sixth inning. The Crimson infield showed poor fielding and poor judgment, and the two Crimson pitchers were ineffective.
A decided improvement in the University hitting and a stiffening of the defense, gave the University a 11-4 victory over Williams on May 14. The work of the team was better in every respect than it was against Dartmouth.
In a closely contested game played on May 19, a ninth inning rally turned impending defeat into a 4-3 victory for the Princeton nine, at Princeton. The Crimson batters out-hit their opponents, and E. S. Hardell '21 pitched flawless ball for seven innings.
On May 21, W. B. Felton '14, by allowing only three hits, shut out Amherst 5-0 in the best played ball game of the season up to that time.
The Princeton series was tied on May 24, when a long triple by J. L. Knowles '19 in the seventh inning scored three runs, winning what looked like certain defeat. Hardell and Felton, who pitched for the University, were supported by almost air-tight fielding.
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