The Hitting Zone

Logan's first at-bat of the game, and the second of the tournament. He was cornered quick by the fastball, falling to a 0-2 count. The pitcher tried to finish him off by throwing a curve, but Logan was able to connect. He pulled the ball to left field.

The left fielder sprinted forward to make the routine catch, but it became clear that he lost sight of it in the afternoon sun. The ball bounced off the outside part of his glove and rolled in the grass. He hurried to recover the baseball and threw it back in to the shortstop. The shortstop did a quick glance to make sure Logan didn't try for second base.

Our team clapped and cheered for Logan. It didn't matter if he reached on an error. As long as we have a baserunner.

Noah moved up to the batter's box and Garret left the dugout. I grabbed my bat and took over Garret's spot.

Noah's first pitch was inside, way inside, forcing him to jump back out of the way. He had been hit last time by a similar pitch so I was worried for him. I glanced at Coach.

Coach was frowning, but still said nothing. He caught me looking at him instead. "Don't worry, I'm watching."

I turned back to the action. On the very next pitch, a high fastball not even in the zone, Noah swung high and got the ball past the infield. It bounced before the right fielder could make a play on it. Logan stayed at second, and Noah stood safely on first base, bumping fists with Coach Luis.

Branham's coach came out of the dugout and headed for the mound with his catcher.

I stepped out of the dugout and stood near the on deck circle with Garret. We watched on as their coach took out the pitcher and brought in someone new from the bullpen.

"What a shame." Garret muttered under his breath.

I glanced up at him, confused. "You rather face that other guy?"

Garret shot me a grin. "Of course. I'm 2-2 against him." He chuckled. "It may have looked like that dude was having a good game: six strikeouts in four innings, and only gave up three hits, but I was totally owning him in the box. Their coach even sees it, that's why they'll bring in someone new."

That someone new was a left-handed pitcher. Lefty vs lefty. The umpire let the new pitcher throw some pitches off the mound before calling for the game to resume. With the game tied 1-1, two runners on, and one out, Garret stepped up to the plate. I was solely focused on his at-bat instead of taking practice swings. I probably wouldn't need it anyways.

Garret let the first pitch go by for a called strike. The second pitch, he laid off for a ball. Then another ball. The fourth pitch, he connected, sending the ball to right-center field, and everyone started to move. Logan took off from second and on his way to third, was waved on by Mr. Miller.

The center fielder got the ball and threw it in to the second baseman. Noah rounded second, but came back to the bag instead of trying for third. Seeing that, Garret stayed at first. The second baseman faked pumped his throw to home, but kept the baseball. Logan slid on home plate and jumped back up to his feet. We took the lead 2-1.

I felt a little awkward holding my hand out for a high-five for Logan, but he didn't embarrass me. He simply slapped my hand and headed inside the dugout.

Before making it to the batter's box, the catcher stayed standing just behind home plate. I glanced at the new pitcher and he didn't object. I wonder if their coach said something when he brought the new guy in. Like it wouldn't have mattered what Garret did, they were going to walk me. Four balls later, I was on first and pushed Garret to second and Noah to third.

The first baseman didn't say anything to me this time around. It probably had something to do with them losing, the bases being loaded, and only one out.

As much as I wanted to score in a few more runs, Jason hit into his second double play of the game. He was 0-3 on the day, failing to bring in any runs despite the multiple times he had runners in scoring position. He let out a curse loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Shit!"

Coach Luis put an arm around his shoulders and lowered his voice to talk to him on their way back to the dugout.

Once inside the dugout, we switched out our gear in order to go play defense. Jason was clearly waiting to exit the dugout at the same time as me and Noah.

"Sorry, guys." He shook his head. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

I shrugged and looked to Noah.

As expected, Noah knew what to say. "Just a bad day at the plate. Shake it off. We all have games like that with one exception." He grinned in my direction.

Jason sighed and shook his head again. "Basically just used this game to prove that I'm not suited to bat behind Jake."

"Tough act to follow." Noah nodded. "Don't mind. Coach likes to change it continuously."

"Says the guy that'll never bat behind Jake." Jason scoffed.

Noah shrugged. "I don't know if that's a bad thing or a good thing."

The conversation had to come to an end. We split up, going to our respective positions. Top of the sixth, Garret handled it on his own. The eighth, ninth, and first batter all struck out swinging, whiffing on Garret's cutter. Him and Mitchell bumped fists as they went back to the dugout together.

Bottom of the sixth. Despite another new pitcher, our offense couldn't get anything going. Korrey flew out to center field. Mitchell struck out swinging. And Sean hit a fly ball to right field. We went to the top of the seventh with only a one-run lead.

Coach didn't even hesitate to send Garret back out there. His pitch count was high, but irrelevant since he was never going to be eligible to pitch for tomorrow. And we won't have anymore games in the foreseeable future. Plus...Garret was hot. He hadn't given up a hit since the second inning.

And he wasn't going to stop now. The second batter hit a grounder to Noah at short for the first out. Then Garret threw nothing but cutters, adding the next two batters to his strikeout list.

Mitchell jumped up from behind the plate and rushed the mound. Noah had him beat. Then Sean and Jason joined in. The rest of the team wasn't too far behind. We were going to the finals tomorrow!

I wasn't as aversive as I used to be, but I still skirted around the edges of the group. Happy to be involved, and happy to be a part of a team that knew me so well. Besides, most of the attention was on Garret. He threw all seven innings, gave up only two hits and one run, while getting ten strikeouts. If that wasn't enough, he crushed it at the plate, going 3-3 and had the only two RBIs of our team. Definitely today's MVP.