The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-04-20
Ball Season Opened on
Local Grounds.
Bates. College an Easy Proposition
This Year.
Fine Work Of the Local
Players.
Shower just Before Game Near
ly Spoiled Programme.

The Portland AthIesio club baseball
team did asteniahinaly nicely yesterday
and aurprissd their frisnds By winning
hsnds down from tins yeunG msn ssnt
down here for the afternoon from Bates
college.
In this they surpassed their eminent
predecessors Of year ago the subsequent
champions Of the New England profess
siopal league. Bates beat John Smiths
aggrea alton six TO three tbs first time Of
meeting and this trip p. A. Q. beat
Bates twenty-five to six. II ID quite GER
tain though Judging from yesterdays
piay that the Lewiston college HASN'T
quite the talented ball tossers It bad last
season. Purfnton who caught for our
professional team, part Of last season is
Bssss's csptoin this ysnr. He piayed ssc-
ond base and 1t must Do said shat be
hardly did himself credit, that 10 for an
ex -professional. He had one rather mex
cusatIs srror and couldn't connect safely
with the ball oncs.
Dean, VINO played short stop was with
this years team In the same position, and
they had smith year ago whioh 10 b
fair to pres ume In this years man By the
same name. though you never can tell
about Smtsha The other player who
seems 10 have hsen lsft over from last
seasons crop IL Pitcher Husssy. Husssy
went In In the fourth inning altar ths
Portland players had wrought dire de-
struotion 10 young Mr.. Towne's curves,
who was the first man the visitors pre-
ssntsd In the box. We recall Husssy be-
cause the men John Smith had hired for
Us couldn't hit him last Fast day. At
that time We judged Smiths men were
poor stickers or else Hussey was =
wonder. Neither supposis:on was cor
root.
Rus enough Of rsmini SCIENCES. This
year we Judge the Athletic club has got
| together pretty nifty" set Of hall play
ere. The rocrs WON'T be quite a. wide
when they meet the other college teams
and another time Bates will make 10 look
different to them. hut judging from yes
tsrdsy's piny they Will be abs to tettsr
than hold their own against anything In
the amateur line they are likely to en-
gage with. There are snme gr,at stickfrs
In the party, and thsy played clean,
sharp game in the field. against odds for
the arena was Iicturesquely dottsd with
ponds, koptss Of tan bark ana mud
siouShs. Wsluh took . hard chance at
short and made NO errors, end Catcher
Robinson did very nios Job behind the
phts. Kelley ont In "Leftisldfontein"
made some good catches. one beauty, ana
threw we'll. He also muffed y couple
which censiderins. was no doubt ex-
eusahls. Gorham at third played . good
game too. Two pretty double playa iilu-
minated the occasion. The star Of the
afternoon was red headed young man
who figures In the score as Woodruff. He
Is great unknown whom Toby Lee
brought out to surprise the boys with and
he can pitch ball Beautifully. He has
splendid control. fair curves and speed IN
plenty. Then he can hit. Every time up
he found the ball for safety and once he
drove 1t into right field for a double. We
hope to SEES more OF MIR. "Woooruff."
II looked pretty dismal for baseball
early in the morning and Manager Lse
telegraphed the Bates folks not to come.
After that the sun came out, warm
breeze sprang up from the south and an
other message went trotting over the
wires up to MIR. Bates education factory
bidd ina the club DO here. Come tan bark
was hauled onto the ground and things
put In pretty good shapass We were gst-
ting too prosperous though, ana along
about 2. 10 q smart littIs sqnirt Of show.
sr came up In real A prii ,hshion and wet
things down bit, besides NO Doubt,
keeping many peopls away.
However nothing was meant by thu
sprinkle and after five minutes 1t WAS
over. When Umpire Soule called play this
seats were pretty well filled. Bates was
up first and went out one, two three.
Gorham filed out to q Dutch citizen BY
name OF Aaerz who played left for the
Bates, and played 1t we'll Then the bass
hits came along fast. buk so tempered by
errors that no runs were earned. Three
more Bates men wers picked Oh In order
and then we banged out some more
runs. In tbs tblri Bates made Its
only successful campaign againsS Atr.
Woodsouff's curves Three hits were
made in succession and an error OF Chap
man gave the visitors three runs. That
ended IL uatil the eighth and ninth when
they got three more, partly because the
p. A. C.'s didn't try very hard to pre-
| venk
Portland kept on getting them just
the same and only missed scoring at least
onoe In the sixth and eighth. Tbs game
was settled though In the first two in
nings. Afterwards ID was question
merely Of how bad. The game was um-
pirsd BY Mr. 6oulss Who IL nios big
umpire all right. but little on on ths
rulsA Oncs he let the Bates players run
bases ON dead bali and was going to al
low Portland to do H. only Purrintos