The Hitting Zone

Joey squinted at third base like he expected a replay.

"I said fair." Coach repeated himself.

Joey looked like he wanted to argue, but clenched his jaw shut and left the mound without issue.

I was surprised he took that so well. I glanced back at Coach.

Coach wasn't looking at me though. He had waved the next pitcher to step up for practice pitches and then he made a move towards Alisha in the dugout.

With nothing to do, I followed him over, curious as to what he wanted to say.

"Alisha, mark down that Jake hit a grounder to third base for me, please." Coach told her. "Go ahead and mark down that he hit a grounder to second for Matt too."

Alisha wrote down the notes next to each name.

I looked up at Coach, curious as to what it meant. Did I do something wrong? Does that count against me? Should I be trying harder?

"This is more for them than for you." Coach told me. "You might think I'm testing you here, but don't forget, I'm trying to find pitchers that belong on the varsity team."

Right. I nodded slowly.

After that small break, Coach went back and I stepped up to the plate again. We had quite a few more pitchers to work through. Near the end, I started to see better pitchers, and then finally came up against one of the pitchers the twins warn me about: Robbie.

He was paired with a freshman I didn't know, but I could guess who it was. Oscar. The twins and him talked a little bit about him when we watched the end of Noah's scrimmage. I couldn't recall much about the catcher, and I knew even less about Robbie. Despite being in the same baseball program, I never had to face him in one of our practice scrimmages.

Knowing that he was right-handed and threw a lot of different kind of pitches, I chose to be a righty too. Only for better view of his motion. I gripped my bat a little tighter, eager to see what his first pitch would be.

Robbie got set, lifted his left leg, held it for an awkward beat, then kicked it forward. I was slightly distracted from his form and only realized the ball was on its way after a blink. I went through my own motions: step forward and bring the bat to meet the ball.

The ball took a small dip just before the plate. I got a piece of it and the ball went foul down the first base line. As Oscar threw a new baseball to Robbie, I tried to think about that last pitch. It was hard to tell if it was a weak curveball or a good two-seamer.

I got back in the batter's box and tried to focus on Robbie's pitching arm. Don't get distracted by his windup. That'll just mess up my timing. His speed isn't anything like the twins or Garret so I can just rely on swinging when the ball comes out of his hand.

Robbie got set and started his motion. Lifted his leg and held it up, but my eyes were on the glove. As soon as his left leg came forward, I was already zoned in on his hand. The ball had a spin to it, coming my way. It broke inside as I adjusted my swing. I pulled it down the right field line.

All eyes watched as the ball drifted foul.

I heard the catcher let out a puff of air. I glanced back at him, surprised.

He laughed, a little self-conscious. "Sorry."

I shrugged.

Someone from the side threw Robbie a new ball as we all got back into position. Robbie nodded at Oscar almost immediately. They probably had a plan in place. Two strikes against me. What would they pick to be a strikeout pitch? Can't be a fastball. That would be a waste. Unless they threw it outside of the zone to try and get me to chase. That makes it a possibility then. But, I think he'll stick to a breaking ball.

I watched closely as he started his motion again. He surprised me again by speeding up his whole windup, not bothering to hold his leg up for an extra second. It threw me off as I started my swing. My thought process only got more jumbled as the ball randomly dipped as I started my swing. I brought my bat down on it, catching the top part of the ball. I fouled it back, bouncing it on home plate before it hit Oscar on his chest protector.

"Dang it." He muttered. He looked mad.

Meanwhile, I was confused. What just happened? The ball didn't have a spin like a breaking ball. Was it a two-seamer? No way. It broke too much. I scratched my neck as I took a breather outside the batter's box.

"Shake it off, Oscar!"

"Get the next one!"

"You almost had him."

Stunned, I slowly moved my eyes over to the pitchers that were still waiting for a turn to face me. They all seemed to be trying to cheer up the catcher..? Not Robbie, who was on the mound?

"You would have struck out if Oscar had caught that foul tip." Coach reminded me. He waved at me. "C'mon. Step up. You don't normally get so much time in between swings."

"You've got this, Jake!" Alisha called out from behind me.

I relaxed my shoulders and got back in the box. Bat back, elbow up. So what if Robbie could throw a pitch that I wasn't accustomed to. I wasn't used to curves and sliders and screws before either. Pitching machines only had speed. I figured out everything else out so I can figure this out. I only had one requirement: put the ball in play.

Robbie did his quick motion again and the ball came right down the middle. It didn't stay that way, dipping again. My swing was a little awkward, but I pulled through, pushing the ball back the way it came. Somehow, I had gotten under the ball and popped it up. Right to Robbie on the mound.

I stared at my bat, unable to comprehend what just happened. Again. I thought I hit the ball solidly but...all of a sudden I was under the ball? Did I misjudge it?

"Good effort, boys." Coach clapped his hands.

Robbie came off the mound, handing the ball off to a new pitcher while Oscar got up and let a new catcher take over. The two of them met up and walked back to their bags. Oscar was talking animatedly while Robbie just shook his head slowly.

"Jake?" Coach called out to me. I looked at him. He nodded towards my dugout. "Want to back up and let the pitcher throw some practice pitches for a minute?"

"Oh. Yea." I backed up, giving them space.

Coach went over to Alisha again. "Alisha?"

"I wrote down pop up to pitcher position." Alisha answered.

Coach nodded. "Perfect. Also, give him and Oscar a little asterisk." He cracked a smile. "They almost got Jake. What an unexpected surprise."

My face got warm as I felt embarrassed. "Coach...do you know what those last two pitches were?"

Coach hummed and took a second to think about it. "I have a guess, but I'm not sure that it's accurate. I was only a step behind you, but it's hard to tell with a catcher anticipating a foul."

"What's the guess?" Alisha asked. "Should I write it down?"

"You can." He said. "My guess would be a knuckleball."