The Hitting Zone

The celebration was cut off by the coaches and umpires as they wanted us to shake the other teams hand to show some sportsmanship. Our team lined up on the first baseline and they lined up on the third baseline. Zeke led us and both teams started to pass by one another at home and simply shared a high five. Halfway through, my hand started to hurt and feel heavy. I wanted to put it down to rest, but Noah enlightened me from behind, saying that it would be disrespectful.

And the end of their line was the coaches and I once again came across the familiar old man.

"Jake Hollander." The old man stopped me, causing Noah to bump me in the back. I started to fall forward, but the old man put a hand on my shoulder to steady me. "No need to be nervous, I just thought I should commit your name to memory."

"That's just a part of Jake's personality." Noah cut in and commented on my behalf.

"Unusual kid." He let out a laugh and I looked down at the ground in embarrassment. That's just the way I am, okay? His laughing stopped after a few seconds. "I was surprised that we were able to give you, your first out. A fly out. Would have been better if it was a strikeout."

"We're not impressed with your underhanded ways." Noah rebuffed. "Trying to tease a freshman isn't very polite."

"And neither is talking back to your elders." Our own coach rested his arms around our shoulders. He started to push us along. "Good to see you Porter, but I have to prepare my boys for the next game. If you're still interested then you can watch from the stands." Coach didn't wait for a reply, even though I doubt he would get one. He just directed us back to our dugout where the team was already packing up.

"Grab your gear." Coach commanded. "We'll do a postgame meeting and a pregame meeting before I let you boys get some food."

We did as we were told and followed our teammates in packing up the bags, and moving out of the dugout. I bundled back up with my sweatshirt and Mr. Atkins jacket, and followed Noah to where the team decided to gather in an empty bleacher.

Coach cleared his throat as he stood before us and after we finally settled down, he started to speak. "It was a good outing. A win, plus no throwing or fielding errors." He glanced down at Noah beside me. "There was a questionable play, but overall, I'm satisfied. Sunset Preparatory is a division above us, and has more access to players due to private school funding."

The team started to get rowdy and some smash talking started in the back.

"Quiet." Zeke spoke up from his spot in the front row, eyes on coach.

The team went silent and coach started speaking again. "The next game is at 4pm, so we'll be having to deal with twilight towards the second half of the game. Take note of the suns position when we start warmups."

Mr. Miller stepped forward from the side, and gave Coach his smartphone, with something obviously pulled up.

Coach took hold of the phone. "Our next opponent has been decided as well: Durham Preparatory."

A few groans broke out.

Even Noah joined in. "Not another private school. They're basically stacked teams all the time. They get to throw school money at players to make them go."

"Yes, yes. But," Coach grinned. "That doesn't always mean that they'll be better. We just beat a prep school that was one division higher. This prep school is also division two, so why can't you beat them as well?"

The tide seemed to change within the team as they got more excited.

"What was the result of their first game?" Zeke asked.

Coach looked at the phone. "6-5. It was a close one against Live Oak High. Never heard of either of them." He looked to his assistant coaches but they all shared helpless shrugs. "Looks like we'll be going in blind. I'll look over their box score and see if I can find anything if use." He nodded to Zeke. "I'll let you wrap it up." He walked away, taking his staff with him.

Zeke stood up and took center stage. He looked around. "First off, I'm happy with the win. Coach was right when he said we did well. I almost have no complaints." His eyes fell on me and Noah, making me flinch. "Of course, I do know of a couple of freshmen which will have to run quite a bit on Monday."

The team broke out in laughter, Noah frowned, and I sighed in despair. With my bad at bat and my questionable fielding, I wasn't too surprised.

"Moving on." Zeke commanded everyone's attention. "I know some of you had to carpool since not all parents could make the drive. My parents are inviting all of us to eat lunch together at a nearby restaurant." He went on, giving out lunch details before letting us go.

Everyone went in their respective car they showed up in, and we all met up at the food place. Lunch wasn't rushed and everyone seemed relaxed.

I was squished between Julian and Noah. "What will we do with the free time after lunch?" I asked Noah as we waited for our food to come out.

Noah shrugged. "Probably just watch whoever is playing on the fields until we can warm up. Sometimes these tournaments have really odd gaps between games, but there's nothing we can do about it. Our game this morning wasn't too long, especially since there wasn't a whole lot of hits for either team."

That's true. Garret only gave up five hits and two runs. Not bad. Meanwhile our offense had eight hits and four runs. Three of which were mine. I frowned to myself. I had almost a third of the teams hits, yet I was feeling weighed down by my own thoughts of 'not performing well enough'. I even had more hits than Zeke. Granted, he had one less at bat...but still. Why did it feel like I didn't do well at all?