They managed, however, to get two in the following inning, more by good luck than good management, and the game began to look, as Jimmie Mack said, as though the other team had it in the “refrigerator.”
How it happened Joe never knew, but he seemed to go to pieces. Probably it was all a case of nerves, and the realization that this game meant more to him than any college contest.
However that may be, the result was that Joe was effectively hit the next inning, and when it was over, and three more runs had come in, Gregory said sharply:
“Collin, you’ll pitch now!”
It meant that Joe had been “knocked out of the box.”
“We’ve got to get this game!” explained the manager, not unkindly. But Joe felt, with bitterness in his heart, that he had failed.