Now he realized that Belleville must be well aware of that small slope, and the possibilities it had for a home run.

Doubtless the Belleville boys had all been trained to aim their guns in that direction, with the hope of accumulating a number of four-base hits during the progress of a game.
The visitors, not being wise to the fact, would waste much of their surplus energy in sending out hits to the side of the field where, no matter how vigorous the wallops might be, still they would only count for two bases.
So Hugh gave each and every one of the boys the secret, and the "heavies" were implored to do their utmost to send their hits straight ahead, and high over the head of fielder Major, who did duty in the middle garden.

They assured him they would not be found wanting when the time came, though, of course, much must depend on how they were able to gauge the slants and drops of the artful Kinsey, pitcher for Belleville.
When the two high-school nines took the field they were found to consist of the following players in their batting order: Scranton High Player Position -- ------------------------------------ "Just" Smith Left Field Joe Danvers First Base Horatio Juggins Right Field Owen Dugdale Short Stop Hugh Morgan Third Base (Field capt.) "K.K." (Ken Kinkaid) Center Field Julius Hobson Second Base Alan Tyree Pitcher Thad Stevens Catcher Belleville High Player Position -- ------------------------------------ Conway Left Field Gould First Base Wright Right Field Waterman Shortstop "O.K." Kramer Third Base Major Center Field O'Malley Second Base Kinsey Pitcher Leonard Catcher Of course the home team elected to go into the field in the opening inning.

This brought "Just" Smith to the bat to start things moving.
Well, he proved to be the "round peg in the round hole," for what did he do but tap the very first ball up for as pretty a single as any one would want to see.

This was certainly a good beginning.