The Hitting Zone

Garret was up next. He got in the lefty box and dug his back foot in. His actions made me cringe a little. I didn't like it when the dirt in the batter's box got soft; probably because I'm always on firm ground when hitting in the batting cages. I mean, it's not as bad as the right-handed box, but now that Garret's been batting almost every game, it's getting on my nerves.

I shook my head to get rid of those kind of thoughts. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. I can just adjust where I stand in the box.

The pitcher started Garret with a curve, getting him to swing and miss. Then again. On the 0-2 count, he switched to his fastball and blew it pass Garret. Garret didn't even swing on that third pitch.

"Out!" The ump pumped his fist, sending Garret back to the dugout.

I could see the frustration in his eyes as we switched spots.

Just as I was about to step in the batter's box, the OLU coach came out of his dugout. I paused.

The umpire met him halfway and I heard 'pitcher change' before the coach went to the mound to take the ball from his starter.

I backed up, knowing that the new pitcher would get to throw some pitches off the mound. Unsure of what to do or where to stand, I looked back to my own dugout.

Zeke was near the on deck circle, holding his bat in one hand and waving me back with his other. I hurried over.

"You look scared out there." He told me in a low tone so others couldn't hear.

I glanced at the new pitcher. "Not scared...just caught off guard." I straightened up. "I'll make sure to make him work."

Zeke gave me a small smile, and patted me on top of my helmet. "Good. Stay calm out there." He forcibly turned my head to the pitcher. "It's best if you watch just to get an idea of his mechanics and motion."

I obediently watched the new pitcher throw a few warmup pitches to his catcher. There was nothing that stood out to me. In fact, I thought he was slightly worse than the last pitcher. At the very least, not as fast.

"Batter up." The ump waved for me to step up.

I walked back to the lefty's box and stepped in, finding a good spot that wasn't effected by Garret's digging in. Then I started my battle.

The pitcher didnt throw very many balls, so I was pushed to a 1-2 count, before I started to foul the next few pitches. If the starter was still in, I probably wouldn't push him so hard, but with a new pitcher, there's a clean slate. I fouled ten in a row, earning quite a few cheers from my dugout.

Yet the OLU crowd was cheering louder for their pitcher.

Once I hit the 15th pitch, I started to look for a good spot to hit it to. I found the shortstop cheating towards second base like he was predicting that I would hit it up the middle. With that, I aimed for a grounder towards the gap between third and short.

I made contact with the next pitch and sprinted for first, but to my surprise, the shortstop was able to stop my hit. From the dirt, he threw to second. The second baseman tagged the base before Noah could reach, and then threw me out at first.

I was...stunned.

I awkwardly stopped as OLU jogged off the field.

"C'mon kid, lets get back to the dugout." Coach Luis patted my shoulder and steered me to our dugout.

"Tough break."

"It looked good."

"Can't do anything about that."

My teammates passed on words of encouragement as they hurried to take the field.

"I can't believe you hit into a double play..." Dave shook his head. "And Noah got a hit. Is it Opposite Day?"

"Leave him alone." Zeke flicked Dave on the ear, forcing him to move away. "Go take the mound."

Dave grinned and jogged to his position.

"Next time." Zeke told me as he left too.

I went to my bag to grab my glove.

Noah was there, switching his gear too. He looked at me. "Don't worry, we still have the lead." Yea...a one run lead. "We need to work on some kind of sign so I know when you're actually going to hit."

I blinked. "What. Why?"

Noah shrugged, looking helpless. "It would be nice not to have to sprint towards second base for every foul ball. By the time you actually hit, I'm going to be tired. Mentally and physically. And, if I knew you were swinging for reals, I would have taken a bigger lead."

"Oh."

Noah grabbed his glove. "We'll talk about it later. Right now we have to take the field." He jogged out first.

I switched my gear and followed behind.

Dave started hot, getting the first batter up to strikeout looking. Granted, it was the ninth batter in the lineup so he shouldn't have been too hard to handle. But then we moved to the top of lineup for the second go around. It proved to be a problem when Dave gave up back-to-back singles.

With runners on first and second, the third batter caught us by surprise, laying down a bunt. It dribbled down the third baseline. Everyone started to move. Jason went for the ball, Noah raced to cover third, and I sprinted to beat the runner to second. Jason didn't bother with the runners and directly went to throw to first after getting the ball.

Julian didn't relax after getting the batter out. He made sure the runner on third wasn't going to try for home, before giving the ball back to Dave.

Dave was frowning as he got the ball back, and then faced the next batter. He previously got this guy to strikeout to end the first inning. I wasn't particularly surprised seeing Dave keep cool and shut down the batter to end this inning. He had been really excited to get back to pitching so it'd be weird to see him throw a fit and whatnot. I'm glad he's happy.