Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-05-20
THE DIAMOND
POOR STICK WORK
 LOST THE CAME
Need of Strengthening in That Department Results of All
 Other Games.

Waterbury is the only city in the league where Sunday baseball can be played. The revenue from those games is good clear coin and some of it could well be spent in buying up some batters, who, when the call is made upon them, can lace her out and bring in a few runs. Yesterday saw an execrable exhibition of work with the bats and up against a boy pitcher. We are in sixth position to-day and the chances are for a lower drop, unless the in and out game that is being put up by the To- calls comes to an end. Yesterday 1t was common talk on the stands that Waterbury should be improved in several departments and that bet ter players should be purchased. Just think of it, Middletown school boy made the local batters look like plugged pennies, at points in the game, where one little hit would have yielded something.
 What weird exhibition of base ball that was to be sure? Meriden trotted out young Walsh of Middle town to do the honors on the mound and we smiled contentedly, for no one believed that a boy pitcher would get away with the laurels. There were no smiles as the game progressed, for young Walsh tied our stickers up, in knots. Wild he was in spots, for he lambasted the ribs of George Lachance three times and did the same to Captain Fitzy once. But if he was a little wild, it was when a hit would mean one or more runs, that he showed the abil- ity of an old timer, for he hypno- tized the batsmen and they did not awaken until they had been tagged with an out. And the errors behind him were enough to make even a seasoned twirler go into the clouds. Were 1t not for those misplays Wa terbury would be counting up her runs on a fingerless hand at the close of the game. Pastor at short was a joke, while Manager Soffel at sec ond was not much better, the for mer making four and the latter two costly errors. These coupled with the boys wildness allowed the locals to score five runs.
 Our blunders were just as costly also. Singleton's tumble in the sec ond allowed a man to advance base and sacrifice to the outfield brought the runner over the plate. Rogers free passes in the fourth and Shincel's failure to stop base steal ing were responsible for another run in the fourth. Eddie Swander's de- layed throw to the plate, which bounded badly for Shincel, cost us two more runs in the sixth. Errors by Bastian and Shincel, the wildness of Rogers and four hits, one of them two sacker, cost us three runs in the ninth. Chances to score we had a plenty. In the seventh after FitZ- patrick had reached first on four bad ones, he made a blunder that cost us whole lot. He ran down to sec ond on fly ball knocked by Swan- der. Cote caught the ball and be- fore our captain could get back to first, he was nailed by many feet for a double play. Had he re- mained on his first bag, he would have been sent home as Lachance hammered out a two bagger. In the ninth 0'Drain was sent up to bat for Singleton, but for what reason the fans did not know. Singleton had been hitting the ball on the nose, having two clean singles and a base on balls to his credit, for three times at the bat. 0'Draln should have been saved to take Bill Rogers place at bat. 0'Drain did get his base on balls true, but a hit would have been better and there was every reason to suppose that Singleton would make good. Rogers could do nothing when he came to bat and with two runs in and three men on bases, we were forced to take de- feat.
 There were some good features amidst all the rout. In the fourth inning Accorsini rapped a hard one at Bastian, which was bounding over his head. when he pulled it down and nailed his man at first. The startling play of the day was made by Bronkie. Tn the sixth in- ming Wade drove one high in the afr. which went like the wind for the fence between left and center Both Swander and BTonkie started running at the same time. It was sprinting against tinie that Bronkie did and just as the ball was sailing over his head. he grabbed it and continued his run to the fence. SO speedy was his sprint. It was one of the most spectacular catches seen on the field. Aside from this the only other feature was the injury to Singleton in the fifth. who was hurt while sliding to second base. It did not prevent bim from play