Question

which best explains the sickly silence that falls on the mudville fans in the first stanza

Answer 1

hope fully i am not late but the answer is that Their team is very close to losing the game .

Answer 2

The line is a quote from "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Thayer. The best explanation for "the sickly silence that falls on the mudville fans" is that the mudville baseball team were not even trying to win the game that they were playing.