THE NINE'S FIRST GAME.

The nine opened the baseball season yesterday afternoon at the South End grounds in Boston, playing for the Harry Wright benefit with a picked nine of professionals captained by John F. Morrill. Harvard was defeated by the score of 14 to 10.

The game was lost in the first two innings, during which eight singles and a double were made off Cozzen's delivery. In addition, two men got bases on balls and one man was hit. Cozzens's weakness allowed nine runs, a lead which Harvard was unable to overcome, despite the good work of Haughton, who pitched after the second inning. Eight hits were made off Haughton during seven innings, which, except in the fifth, when Pickett's three-base hit was followed by doubles by Morrill and by Ganzell, were scattered. In the last four innings only two hits were made by the Boston players.

The fielding of the 'varsity was lamentably weak, especially at the beginning of the game when the men seemed unable to hold the ball or to field it cleanly. Towards the end, however, the fielding was somewhat better and the men showed better judgment in throwing the ball.

In running bases the Harvard men were very careless. Several men were caught off bases and would have been out but for errors on the part of the Boston men. It is well that the men should try to steal bases, but there is no excuse for the recklessness shown in this respect yesterday.

The batting of the 'varsity men was much better than last year; the men seemed more anxious for good balls and less eager to have bad balls pitched them. Only two men struck out, Paine made a double and two singles, while Captain Dean had a double, a single and a sacrifice hit to his credit.

Individually the work of the men was not so very bad, but in team play they were lamentably weak. Several times on infield flies and high fouls the ball was missed, because the men after it did not know which man was to catch the ball. Once three men could have caught a foul, but it fell uncaught because of the confusion caused by the other players calling upon the different men to catch it. This ought never to happen again. The players ought to understand that it is the captain's place to call out who is to take the ball, and if his voice alone is heard there will be no confusion. When two men start for a high fly, the one calling out "I have it" should be allowed to take the ball, and should be reassured by such words as "Take it" from the other player. Such signals will prevent a recurrence of the discouraging mistakes of yesterday, for which it would be unfair to blame any one man.

Arthur Cummings, an old Boston player, who introduced curved pitching, occupied the box for two innings, throwing in the old underhand way. He was followed by Bond, who also pitched two innings.

The tabulated score follows:

JOHN MORRILL'S NINE.

a.b. r. b.h. p.o. a. e.

Harrington, 3b. 5 1 2 2 0 2

Radford, s.s., 4 4 2 2 2 1

Tenney, 1b. 6 3 4 7 0 0

Pickett, l.f. 3 3 2 9 0 0

Morrill, 2b. 5 2 2 3 4 1

Ganzell, c. 6 1 3 4 2 1

Dolan, p. 3 0 0 0 0 1

Cummings, p. 1 0 0 0 1 0

Bond, p. r.f. 2 0 0 0 0 0

Yerrick, c.f. 5 0 1 0 1 0

Woodcock, r.f. p. 4 0 1 0 1 0

Totals, 44 14 17 27 11 5

HARVARD.

a.b. r. b.h. p.o. a. e.

Rand, r.f. 3 2 2 2 0 0

Scannell, 1b. c. 4 1 0 9 0 0

Dean, 2b. 5 2 2 1 2 1

Paine, c.f. 5 2 3 1 0 1

Haughton, r.f. p. 5 0 0 0 2 0

O'Malley, c. 0 0 0 0 0 0

Stevenson, 1b. 4 1 1 11 0 0

Wrenn, s.s. 4 0 1 1 3 0

Vincent, 3b. 3 0 0 0 3 1

Cozzens, p. r.f. 4 2 1 1 0 1

Totals, 37 10 10 26 10 4

Harrington out on "infield fly."

Innings, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

John Morrill's nine, 5 4 2 0 3 0 0 0 0-14

Harvard, 0 1 4 3 0 1 1 0 0-10

Two-base hits, Dean, Paine, Radford, Pickett, Morrill, Ganzell. Three-base hits, Stevenson, Tenney, Pickett. Base on Balls, by Cozzens, 2; Haughton, 4; Dolan, 3; Cummings, 5. Struck out, by Haughton, 5; Dolan, 1; Woodcock, 1. Double play, Vincent, Stevenson and Scannell. Sacrifice hits, Dean, Haughton. Umpires, Mullen and Daniels.