The Hitting Zone

It was a one-sided beat down. Marie and her team didn't even give Porterville a chance for a comeback. Just after the fourth inning, her team led 9-0. She only gave up two walks and one hit.

We weren't able to watch any more than that though. Coach called us down from the bleachers and declared we should start heading to the baseball field for warmups. Even he thought that the softball team would be able to get the mercy. We marched to the field in two perfect lines, bags on our back. As we reached the field and headed to the visitors dugout, we could already see Porterville's baseball team doing infield and batting practice. Looks like they didn't have a machine for batting practice.

We put our bags down, changed our shoes for cleats, and then started our own warmup with Zeke leading us once again. This would be his first game back since his back bruise. As we jogged out with our gloves and hats on, there were familiar shouts of "Go boys!" and "Work hard out there!" With a peek, I could see Mr. and Mrs. Atkins finding seats in the bleachers, waving hi at us.

The boys all waved before jogging for the line. Even Zeke. I raised my hand to chest level then quickly put it down just in case I wasn't supposed to wave. But I wanted to. It's nice to think that they're here for me to.

Warming up was the same as usual. Coach picked Dave as the starter and sent him and Kelvin to the bullpen immediately to get in sync. Coach was smart to have us start before the girls game ended because the umps showed up during batting practice for us and started beginning of game formalities like collecting the lineup from each team.

After bp, we settled in the dugout, all eyes on coach as he announced the lineup to us:

1 SS Noah

2 2B Jake

3 LF Mahki

4 CF Zeke

5 3B Jason

6 1B Julian

7 P Dave

8 RF Tony

9 C Kelvin

As the visiting team, we got to bat first so the top of our lineup started to put on our helmets and grab our bats. Porterville High School had their announcer start the introduction for the field players as they got into position. Noah, who bats before me, stood a few feet away from the circle to take some practice swings.

"Psst. Hey. You." A females voice called. I turned towards the bleachers and came face to face with Marie's little sister, Kaylee. She was holding a folded piece of paper, trying to slide it through the fencing. "These are the stats from our game. Come take them."

I glanced at Noah and saw that he was too busy focusing on the pitcher, trying to find the timing. I swallowed down some anxiety and shuffled over to the fence.

She wiggled the paper through. "Finished it off in five innings. Think you could do the same?" She smirked.

I took the piece of paper and shrugged. I don't know. It's too soon to say.

"Who's the pitcher for the game?" She asked, making me wonder why she hasn't left yet.

"Dave." I whispered.

She laughed. "Make sure to give him the paper then. He'll have to beat my sister's stats which is impossible for him." She turned and walked away, joining some of her teammates in the bleachers.

I went back to the dugout to hand the paper to Dave. "It's from the softball team."

He opened it, then a look of determination took over. "Five innings pitched, zero runs, two hits, and three walks. Struck out five."

"Damn." Garret whistled. "What's the box score for their offense?"

"Fifteen hits. Ten runs scored. Ten RBIs. Shoot, did Porterville even show up?" Dave handed the paper over to Garret and looked back at me. "Get out there and kill it, Jake. Your stats are doubled so you need to score the runs and drive them in."

"No pressure." Garret laughed.

"What are you doing?" Zeke asked from behind, making me jump. "You're supposed to be in the on deck circle. Noah's already at the plate."

I hustled out of there, trying to avoid Zeke's ire. I don't know if he was taking the bet seriously or if he just didn't care since he wasn't involved. Knowing Zeke, it's hard to tell. On one side, he would say only winning matters. But on the other...I think he would like to have his brother's back. His stats wouldn't count though so there wasn't much he could do.

The pitcher for Porterville didn't look as good as the other pitchers we've gone against. If anything, he looked to be the worst. He started Noah off with a walk.

With my name called by the announcer, I stepped up to the lefty's box accompanied by a few claps. I turned to see the Atkins' parents putting their hands together for me, making me blush. I turned to focus on the pitcher. His pitches were still all over the place, but on what would be ball four, I swung and connected. For the boys to win the bet, we needed hits, not walks. And since I was always a fan of hitting anything close, I didn't mind. It was a single to right-center field.

I safely reached first base, as Noah legged it to third. I'm always impressed by his speed. If I had hit it to one of the corners, I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to score off my single.