The Hitting Zone

Bottom of the fifth. The air was getting colder as it got later. The long fourth inning really pushed us to have a longer game than normal. It didn't help that our excitement from Noah's run, died down.

Garret was the last one out of the dugout, having spent time putting away his bat and helmet. He looked a little down on himself-something that was so unlike him.

"Time to switch gears!" Noah clapped his glove, directing his words to Garret.

Garret lifted a hand in his direction as if to wave, but he didn't look back. He warmed up with a couple of pitches before the Servite batter stepped up. Batters four, five, and six. All three contributed to Kyle's beating last inning. Two of which had homered.

Garret completed his windup and motion, sending a cut fastball inside. The batter fouled it down the third baseline. 0-1. Garret followed up with a fastball outside for a ball. 1-1. The third pitch started to look like it would also miss the zone, but it cut in. It didn't fool the batter though. He swung, hitting the ball with the far end of his bat.

The ball was sent my way with speed, skipping across the infield grass. I got in front of it, using my glove to make the stop, then from there, I threw to Julian at first.

"Out!"

Julian threw the baseball to the stoic Garret on the mound. "One out, two to go."

Garret lifted two fingers; the only sign that he was listening. He faced the next batter with even more aggressive pitches, aiming for hard spots. It worked out: he was able to strikeout the two batters that had given Kyle a hard time. The fifth inning was over with, and we were down by two.

Fortunately, Zeke would lead us off for the sixth. With the two other seniors following right behind. It's another good opportunity to catch up.

"Do you think Garret is acting funny?" I asked Noah as we sat right beside one another. "He was rather quiet and emotionless up on the mound."

Noah's lips thinned as an expression of displeasure passed by on his face. "He's okay. He was like this against Golden West the first time. When we lost. He doesn't usually become like this."

Great. So the only other time he behaved like this, was the game we lost? That's fantastic. I rolled my eyes to myself.

But, Noah caught me. He let out a small laugh. "What are you so worried for? We didn't have you in that game. We won't lose with you around."

"..." I stared him down. "We lost against University Prep. Badly."

"Okay, okay, so we won't lose when you and Zeke play in the same game." He patted my shoulder. "Does that make you feel better?"

I was about to reply, but the actions on the field caught my attention. Servite was changing pitchers. This could either be really bad or really good, depending on who was coming in.

"Hey Noah...do you remember that one relief pitcher that we saw for Servite?" I swallowed hard. "The one that closed out Golden West? The one that has beaten Zeke before...do you think we'll see him today?" My anxiety was rising.

Noah fell silent.

Ernest J. Williamson is "supposedly" the best relief pitcher around. I still remember him striking out the side against Golden West. His pitching had weird movement. I wasn't confident facing something so new...luckily he didn't appear the first time we played Servite. Which, is strange, now that I think about it.

"That's not him." Noah spoke up, looking at the mound. "I know that's not him at least."

I let out a sigh of relief. Zeke has a chance then.

"Williamson isn't here." Coach came over. He spoke up for everyone to hear, yet was walking right to me and Noah. "We don't know why, and we shouldn't dwell too much on it. Focus on the game please." He stopped near me and Noah. "You two looked like you had seen a ghost. Did you think Sanchez would pitch the whole time?"

I shrugged, guilty. "Well, he wasn't doing terrible."

Coach gave a small grin, not looking too kind. "He pitches just two days ago. Even if he kept under the account, he was serious in his actions. He would be at least a little bit tired today. If you look up the stats, Sanchez has pitched the most innings in the league. Servite relies on him too much."

"No Sanchez. No Williamson." Noah straightened up. "Are you saying that we'll get another at-bat??"

Coach lifted an eyebrow. "We'll need hits for that to happen. We also need hits to score runs in order to win. Were you planning on not winning today?"

"No! Wait, yes!" Noah looked confused. "Um, I mean, I want to win!"

"That's the spirit." Coach nodded in satisfaction before walking away.

Noah gripped my arms, eyes shining. "It's going to happen! We're going to win! We're going to win league!"

I tried not to laugh at his childish expression. I forgot how important this was to Noah. This would be the only time he got to play a whole season with his brothers.

'Ding!'

All heads snapped towards the field, as all eyes tried tracking the well hit ball by Zeke. It went right between the center and left fielder, nailing the fence.

"Wow! Do you think he dented the fence with that line drive?" Noah asked in his excitement.

I didn't bother answering. My eyes were on the running Zeke. He rounded first and didn't hesitate to go to second. The ball came back to the infield, but Zeke was already standing proudly on second amidst the cheers of our few fans.

"Yes, Zeke! Way to go!" Noah hollered, making my ears ring.

Julian stepped up to bat next. The cheering was just dying down, yet Julian made connection on the very first pitch delivered to him, getting everyone to jump up. The hit got through the infield and Zeke was legging it. He rounded third base as the center fielder came in to get the ball and made a throw to his catcher. The throw was short, bouncing before it could reach the catcher, and allowing Zeke to squeeze by without needing to slide.

Our smaller amount of fans got loud. It wasn't long before they started to chant the schools initials.

"W. H. S."

Zeke waved his hand towards them, looking up right at his parents before coming inside the dugout. The team assaulted him with claps and slaps on the back; Happy that he closed the gap by one.

Even I joined in...kind of. The best I could. I stood on the outer edges of the grouping, careful to not get sucked in.

"Alright, alright. Cool it guys." Zeke said helplessly. "We're still on the losing side. We can celebrate more when we steal this win back."

"Yea!" We chorused. Everyone backed up and gave him room.

As we got lost in the celebration, Mahki's at-bat had just started. He was struggling more than Zeke and Julian did, already cornered into a 1-2 count. He fouled off two more pitches, before actually putting the ball into play. It looked like a normal play for the shortstop, but when the ball took a weird hop and made it over his glove, going into the outfield grass. The shortstop scrambled for the ball, but by the time he turned around, the damage was done. Julian was on second and Mahki was on first.

"Does that count as a hit?" I asked Noah, my own personal baseball rule book.

Noah nodded. "If it had bounced off his glove, it would have been an error. Most scorekeepers would call that an infield hit, but sometimes there'll be an occasional jerk."

I hummed in agreement.

The team was ecstatic with three consecutive hits. Servite was not. Their coach came out before Jason got to step up to the plate. He signaled for another pitcher change, delaying the game for more than a few minutes.

It ended up working in their favor. No matter if it was the pitching that got better or the fact that the delay caused our momentum to tamper off, we failed to capitalize on the two baserunners and no outs. Jason hit into a double play and Alex struck out swinging. It was a quick turnaround.