Baseball -- Juvenile fiction; High school students -- Juvenile fiction
When Clearfield went to bat in the eighth it was Jack’s turn with the
stick and Jack connected with a straight one and slammed it far out into
left field, where it banged against the fence and rolled away from the
fielder while Jack reached second with time to spare. Tim Turner fanned,
Pete Robey worked a pass and Lanny hit into what should have been an
easy double. But the Lesterville second baseman fumbled the ball and the
bases were full. Unfortunately, with one out, it was Fudge’s turn at bat
and Tom Haley followed Fudge. It looked to the visitors on the bench
very much like another shut-out. But Fudge, perhaps still smarting under
the gibes that had been thrown at him all the afternoon, surprised
himself and everyone else by hitting cleanly between first and second.
Two runs came in, Lanny reached third and Fudge stood panting on first.
Tom Haley went out on strikes and Will Scott came to bat. Fudge stole
without challenge. Will fouled off three and had two balls to his
credit. Then something that looked good came his way and he swung at it
mightily. The ball streaked far out into center field and the bases
emptied. Will got to second safely, heard the frantic cries of the
coachers and sprinted for third. Then in came the ball to shortstop, and
that youth turned quickly and pegged to third. The sphere went fully
four feet above third baseman’s head and Will legged it home while his
team-mates on the bench shouted and cavorted and Dick, being unable to
jump around, beat the ground with a crutch!
Nine to seven looked a heap better than nine to one, and there was still
but one man out. Clearfield had ecstatic visions of a victory. But the
Lesterville pitcher settled down and disposed of Gordon with five
pitched balls and made Way pop up an easy fly to right fielder, and the
eighth inning was over for the visitors.
Lesterville came back in her half with vigor and poor Tom was kept
dodging liners that soon filled the bases. But the home team had a
streak of bad luck in that inning. The runner from third was struck by a
streaking liner that was meant for left field, and, fortunately for the
opponents, the ball, after colliding sharply with the base-runner’s leg,
rolled toward the pitcher’s box and Tom scooped it up and got it to
first ahead of the batsman, who, counting on a two-base hit, had made a
slow start. Lesterville resented her ill-fortune and, with two gone, the
next batsman sent a long fly into left field that barely escaped going
over the fence and had Way chasing around like a chicken with its head
off while two tallies were added to Lesterville’s nine. A moment later
Tom secured his fifth strike-out of the contest and the teams changed
sides.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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