[CHAPTER XXI]
RANDALL IN THE TENTH
Lem Sellig, who was up first for Fairview, had what Tom thought was a wicked look in his eye. Whether Tom lost control or whether Lem surprised himself and his friends by finding the ball, in spite of its puzzling curve was not known, but at any rate he knocked a two bagger, and it was almost a three sacker, for the center fielder dropped the ball, and had some time in finding it in the grass before he threw it in just in time to shut off Lem from going to third. This stroke of luck seemed to give Fairview confidence, and Frank Sullivan almost duplicated Lem’s trick, bringing in the third baseman, and getting to second himself.
“Now we’re going to walk away from ’em,” declared Lem, as he tallied the first run for his side, and it did look so, for Ned Williams found Tom Parsons for a couple of fouls. But the fatal blow was wanting, and Ned went back to the bench, amid groans. Sullivan stole to third on a ball that managed to get past Dutch at home, and then followed a wild scene when John Allen knocked a pretty fly, bringing in Frank, but getting out himself. This made the score two to three in favor of Randall, and there was a nervous tension when Tom got ready to attend to Herbert Bower, the next man up.
“I’ve got to dispose of him with some style,” thought the Randall twirler, “or our fellows will get rattled. Let’s see if I can’t do it.”
It looked a bit discouraging when his first two deliveries were called balls, but the next three could not have been better, and Bower was struck out.
“All we’ve got to do is hold ’em down now, and we’ve got the game,” declared Dutch, as he walked with Tom in from the field.
“We’ve got to get some more runs,” insisted the captain.
But they didn’t. Dutch, Phil and Holly went down in one, two, three order. And a zero went up in the seventh frame for Randall.
Tom struck out Sam Soden for a starter in the eighth, and then he lost his balance, or something else happened, for he issued a free pass to first for Simonson, amid a chorus of groans from the Randall lads, and jeers from Fairview, who hurled such encouraging remarks at Tom as these: