The Hitting Zone

After lunch, we went back to the tournament area and sat at an empty bleacher, and just relaxed. Some of the guys laid their heads down on their bags, and put their headphones in to listen to music. Some pulled out their phones to play some games or go on social media. Even Zeke pulled out his phone.

I curiously studied him, wondering what he could be playing.

"Zeke's probably searching for info on the next opponent." Noah caught me staring. "Zeke is always thinking baseball. More than anyone I know."

"You're all about baseball too." I replied.

Noah smiled at me. "Of course! I want to play for the rest of my life! All throughout high school, college, work my way through the minor league and then become a professional."

"But, can't you be drafted right after high school? You guys talked about it before...that Zeke could be drafted to a pro team if he entered into the draft."

Noah nodded. He looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to us as we sat off to the side. "The draft is in early June before graduation. About three months from today actually. Zeke is getting tight on time on making a decision."

"He didn't strike me as the indecisive type?" I pointed out.

Noah shrugged helplessly. "Who knows what Zeke's thinking? He's not exactly an open book. But, it's definitely on his mind. No college has grabbed enough of his attention to make him drop the idea of going pro right away. That's even with scholarship offers being thrown out." He peeked over at his eldest brother, who was still studying the info in his phone. "He has a lot of choices, that's for sure."

I nodded in agreement. "What would you do?"

Noah grinned as he looked back at me. "Of course I'd play a year in college just to show off at the College World Series before entering the draft. What about you? What do you think you would do?"

I thought about it, and came up with an answer. "I would follow you."

Noah laughed right away. He reached to put me in his fake chokehold, but I dodge. "C'mon Jake! Let me show you some brotherly love."

"Keep it to yourself." I rolled out of his reach, then jumped to my feet.

Noah didn't give up. He hopped up as well and followed me down the bleachers. "Jake! Come back! I promise I wasn't going to hurt you. It's just for fun."

I snorted. Fun for who? I sped down and reached the bottom. Just as I started to pick up speed and try to find a hiding spot, I felt a heavy weight on my back just before falling on my face.

Noah sat on top of me. "No doubt you're getting a little faster, but you're no match for me." He started to tickle my rib cage.

I let out a few laughs, but then started to gasp for air. It's not very easy to breathe when someone is sitting on you AND tickling you.

"20 laps. Each." A stern voice was close. I peeked up and saw Zeke towering over us as we rolled on the ground. "Why are you trying to tire yourselves out before the game?"

Noah slowly got off me, and then helped me up. He readjusted his cap. "We were just having some fun."

"There are times when it's okay to have fun, and then there are times when you need to focus on relaxing. Are you trying to tell me that you don't want to play in this next game?" Zeke seemed like he was getting angrier by the second.

"No, I just-" Noah started to defend us.

But I cut him off, and apologized for the both of us. "Sorry. We shouldn't have been wasting energy." I toed at the ground, a little scared to look up.

"Jake, don't apologize." Noah said, getting a little bit louder. "Zeke just has a stick up his butt and doesn't know that this is a form of relaxing too."

"Maybe it's you, who should be learning from Jake." Zeke continued the scolding. "Apologize instead of making excuses. At least he knows he's in the wrong. Now sit down. Coach should be back soon." I watched Zeke's feet turn and go back to where he was sitting.

Only then, did I dare to look up. Noah was still beside me, fists clenched, and a frown etched into his face. He glanced at me, then abruptly turned to climb back up the bleachers. I followed and we quietly sat back down, next to our bags.

With Noah looking gloomy, I naturally felt guilty. So I did what I was best at: apologizing. "Sorry Noah." I mumbled.

Noah let out a long breath of air. "Stop saying that. I'm not mad at you. Only at the killjoy brother of mine. I mean, I'm competitive too! But, like dad said, we should be having fun."

I nodded to whatever he said, just happy that he wasn't angry with me. Noah continued to be moody, but I didn't mind so much, knowing that it wasn't because of me.

After ten minutes, Coach did show back up with his assistants right behind him. His appearance made the team stop with their activities and fully grabbed their attention. Coach pulled out a piece of paper. "This will be the lineup. As a collective, your pitcher coaches and I came up with this lineup so no complaints."

He read off the list:

1 1B Julian Wilson

2 SS Noah Atkins

3 2B Jake Hollander

4 CF Zeke Atkins

5 LF Garret Knudsen

6 RF Mahki Holstrom

7 P Kyle Atkins

8 3B Chris Ludwick

9 C Kelvin Bender

It changed. Again.

I scooted closer to Noah. "I didn't know Garret could play in the outfield."

"I mentioned it before." Noah replied. "When we were trying to get you on the team, I told you, he can play in the outfield thanks to his strong arm, plus he can hit. He's not as useless as a set of twins I know."

I snickered. Always hating on his own brothers. Noah could always fit in a snide remark about one or more of them.

"What about Sean and Tony?" I asked as I remembered that Mahki would play in right.

Noah shrugged and lowered his voice. "They aren't doing well at the plate. Neither is Mahki today, but Mahki has the best arm after Zeke, and his overall batting average is pretty good."

Oh. Right. You can be benched for your lack of performance. Coach does make the lineup with the idea of trying to win the game; that's why he was always switching it up, trying to find the perfect lineup. This lineup made me a little more comfortable, sitting behind Noah, and right before Zeke. I couldn't see how we could lose with the three of us in the beginning of the lineup.