Black gathered himself together for a mighty ninth inning effort. He felt sure of the fielding of the boys behind him, but he made up his mind to take as few chances as necessary. So he decided to strike out the side if he could, and after he had succeeded in doing that with Twitchell and Brest, he had a lot of confidence in his ability to do the same to Mellen, and he did it. The last half of the ninth opened rather well for Lowell. Black was the first man up and he fooled the entire Jefferson infield by a perfect bunt which put him on first. This surely was a good start. Everson, however, waited too long. He let two strikes be called on him, and they were good ones, too. The third one looked good also and Johnny struck at it and missed and there was one out. Captain Larke then knocked one down the line toward Church and the latter tried to complete the out unassisted, but Larke beat him to the bag and Black reached second. Tris knocked a slow rolling grounder to Hollins and by the time he got to it he could only catch Tris at first, for Black had reached third and Larke was at second. Robb came to bat feeling good. He was to have his great chance after all. Two men on bases and a single would tie the score. He even allowed himself to remember that a homer would win the game for Lowell. Mellen on the other hand realized his great chance. If he could outguess Robb this time there would be a game to Jefferson’s credit. His was the first move and he tried to tempt Ty with a ball, but Ty let it pass. Then Mellen tried him with another one of the same kind, thinking, perhaps, Ty would bite on the second one, but he just waited. The next ball came straight over the plate and Ty hit it and it went sailing out over first base, a fast liner that didn’t stop till it hit the fence, but it was like La Joy’s ninth inning hit in the first game, only longer, for it struck the fence two feet outside of the line and the umpire said, “Foul one strike.” The next ball also came straight and Ty thought to fool them by bunting. He did, and almost perfectly, as the ball didn’t roll over six feet in all. Black was nearly at the plate before Ty got started to first but as hard luck would have it the last foot of the distance the ball rolled outside the foul line and it was “Two strikes” and everybody went back to where they were before. Then it was a study to watch Mellen and Robb. Would Mellen send another one straight over and try to make him think it would curve or would he send one up wide of the plate and make it curve in, or would it be a high one that would drop to the strike level at the plate? It was a great guessing match that lasted for several seconds.