The Hitting Zone

The second inning followed the same pattern of three up, three down. The fourth batter had the best performance with a hard line drive right to Chris's glove. It would have been a double down the line so I thought it was a nice grab. Batter five hit a grounder to Daniel at short, and batter six struck out.

"He wastes too much movement." Noah grumbled as his eyes followed Daniel, tracking him back to the dugout.

"He took his time." Zeke replied. At first it sounded like an agreement, but then he continued. "You should learn not to rush as well. Be more aware of the runner. Is he fast? Is he slow? How much effort is he putting in?"

Noah made a face to show his displeasure. "Or, don't worry about the runner and just focus on getting the ball to Julian for the out."

"It's more about accuracy than speed, Noah." Zeke lectured.

"When have I ever made a bad throw?" Zeke opened his mouth to answer, but Noah cut him off. "This year! Have I made an error yet this year?"

"It's still early in the season." Zeke warned.

Noah didn't reply.

The team had filled up the dugout again as it was the bottom of the second inning. If our pitching and defense could be described as hot, then our offense could only be described as ice cold. Garret grounded out to third. Chris grounded out to second. And Kyle was the third out of the inning with a fly ball to right field. Odd that it was so similar to the first inning, but maybe it was just easy to connect on this guys pitches. Kyle was the same way. He allowed a lot of contact, banking on the fielding of his team. One of the first things I learned about the game was that there was no defense against a walk.

The third inning was surprising in the sense that Shasta's hitters weren't any good at the bottom of the lineup. Like, at all. The first up tried laying down a bunt, only to send it right to Kyle. Kyle easily threw him out without a stutter step. The last two were both strikeouts swinging.

Sadly, our team didn't perform any better. Kelvin hit a fly ball to right field, Tony was called out on strikes, and then John followed up with a swinging strikeout. The teams switched out. I sighed and Noah groaned.

"This isn't fun to watch at all." Noah glanced down towards Coach, who was talking to his assistants Miller and Luis. "Do you think if I got down on my knees and begged, he'll let me go in?"

Zeke rolled his eyes. "Stop being so dramatic. It's one game."

"Says the guy who also wanted to protest."

Zeke's lips twitched. He stood up suddenly and stretched a little bit. "I'm going to speak with Coach."

"About playing?" Noah lit up.

"No. Just about the game in general." Zeke looked back to the field where our team started another round of defense. "You can never stop learning about the game. Maybe Coach has some insights he can share with me."

"Shouldn't he share with everyone then?"

"It's different when you're a captain. These are my peers. Some things that Coach may be unable to say to them, I can."

"Like yelling at Kyle that he needs to try harder at the plate?" Noah joked.

Zeke glanced at the mound. "He's doing just fine. Baseball isn't a one man show. The other eight will have to pick up the slack." He left us for Coach.

"If Zeke was a pitcher, I bet he would make it a one man show." Noah told me.

I nodded. Definitely. "Why doesn't he pitch..?"

Noah shrugged. "Not interested I guess. The twins were the ones to find it fun in little league. They would get a lot of attention and you know how much that means to them."

"What about you?"

"Me?" Noah laughed. "I don't have the talent for it, but more importantly, shortstop is the most satisfying. It sees the most action and that's where I like to be. Catching line drives. Making diving stops for a hard hit grounder. Turning over a double play. There's just a lot going on and I like it that way."

Hmm. That did fit his personality.

The top of the fourth inning started, with the other teams lead off hitter starting the second round of Kyle facing the batting order. Number one smacked a hard line drive towards right field, but Tony was able to track it down and make the diving grab, rolling in the grass. He held it up with pride for the first out of the inning.

Even though Tony protected Kyle's perfect game bid, Kyle lost momentum. Facing the second batter, his speed fell, and his placement was bland. The guy was able to hit a single to left field without putting up a fight. Kyle looked shaken and not as confident as before. It was like his insecurities were starting to get louder inside his head. Something that I was familiar with too.

The third batter knew Kyle wasn't on guard so he laid down a bunt, what he didn't know, was that Kelvin was expecting it. He popped out of his crouch position, grabbed the ball when moving forward and fired to Daniel, who stood on second. Daniel tagged the base and got the runner out, before throwing to Julian at first to get the batter out to end the inning.

"Okay, so he doesn't always waste his movements." Noah conceded as he watched Daniel jogged back in with the team.

"I thought it looked clean." I added. "Kelvin predicted that well."

"He didn't just predict it. He baited the batter into it." Noah corrected me, sharing his thoughts. "Kelvin knows how Kyle can get like on the mound so I'm sure he asked for a not so good pitch. Perhaps even one that looked easy to bunt."

"Wow. Can a catcher really do that?" I asked, seeing some future concern I might come across. I wouldn't want someone to bait me into hitting one way or the other.

Noah nodded. "A catcher controls the game with a pitcher's help. They're the backbone. Granted, that player could have easily gotten a hit if he had more self confidence in his own swing."