The Hitting Zone

Noah and I separated from the twins at the snackbar. They got their food then met up with some of the other pitchers from our team. I wanted to get in line, but Noah subtly held me back, trying to distract me, showing me some baseball videos on his phone.

Abruptly, midway through one of the videos, he clicked it off. "Great, they're finally gone. C'mon, let's hurry."

"Who? What? Where?" I was unprepared, and unable to keep up with Noah's train of thought.

"The team. They've cleared the snackbar area." He tilted his head and gestured. "We have to hurry so we're not late for the game." He dug through a small pocket of his bag and pulled out some dollar bills.

I frowned. "We don't need the money. The voucher covers a hotdog, a bag of peanuts, and a Gatorade or water bottle."

Noah laughed and gave my shoulder a pat. "Jake, that's just the basics. We're going to need extras." He pulled me to the snackbar. "Let's go."

At the counter, we handed over our vouchers to get the 'basics' like Noah said. Then he started to add on his 'extras'. "We would also like two soft pretzels, two small popcorns, and two funnel cakes. Oh and two packs of Big League Chew. Oh are those chocolate chip muffins? Yea? Two of those as well then."

Noah had the worker busy, grabbing items to fulfill his order. Soon there were two big piles of food, taking up space on the counter. The line had grown behind us by the time we left, hugging the food to our chest, trying not to lose anything.

A very sudden and hard shoulder check made me drop the funnel cake, spilling powdered sugar everywhere. I grunted in pain, but still tried to squeeze out an apology. "Sorry."

"Excuse you." The person said, coming off aggressive, and maybe a little hostile.

I glanced up at the guy. He was in a teal uniform with some powdered sugar on it. I gulped.

"He said sorry already, man." Noah backtracked when he heard the exchange. "It's just sugar. Wipe it off yourself."

Unexpectedly and very abruptly, the guy in the teal uniform smacked the bottom of Noah's funnel cake into his all black uniform, making even more of a mess.

"Hey! What the hell?!" Noah glanced down at the mess at our feet.

"It's just sugar." The guy said. "Wipe it off yourself." He strutted away from us, joining a few of his teammates in the same jersey.

"What the hell was that?" Noah repeated, squinting at the group. "Do we know that guy?"

"You know the team." Garret said from behind us, making us both jump. He grinned. "I knew you two must be up to trouble, but I didn't expect to almost witness a fight."

"A fight?" My eyes widened. "Us?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You kids have a short memory. You can't recognize that jersey? They're from San Marino."

Noah stiffened up.

I frowned and tried to go through my memories of what team was what. Maybe I do have some kind of memory problem..? At the very least, my memory was not as good as Garret's or Noah's.

"Looks like Noah has recalled." Garret said. He glanced at me. "Need some help?"

I nodded. I rather be given the answer instead of trying to figure it out on my own. We've played so many games against so many teams. Months of baseball. I could remember Katella after Brett's interaction with Zeke was brought up. Maybe I can remember San Marino after a hint or two.

"We played them in the tournament last year. Game three." Garret told me. "They were the first overly aggressive team we played last year. They injured Jason on a play at second, then pea-brain over here thought it would be a good idea to retaliate and injured their catcher." Garret jerked his thumb at 'pea-brain' Noah.

Noah let out a heavy sigh. "Yea. That game was a not so good memory." He looked at me. "We had a fight and everything."

I started to nod along. "Yea, yea. I can picture some of it." I glanced back at those guys. "Do you think...he remembered us too?"

"Ha. No doubt about it." Garret scoffed. He bent down on one knee and started to pick up our trashed funnel cakes. "People don't just go around being jerks without intention. My bet...he's either the catcher that got hurt. Or a friend of said catcher. It's not like we ever found out how bad his injury was."

I looked at Noah, worried. "Is this guy going to retaliate for your previous retaliation?" This sounds like a serious vendetta. And a serious problem. I'm missing Zeke already.

Noah sighed. "I'm sorry, Jake. That guy definitely targeted you because of me."

Garret came back from throwing away the trash. "Let's get back to the game we're supposed to be at. We can worry about those San Marino guys later." He led us back to where our team had gathered on a bleacher at one of the fields.

"I knew you were trying to be sneaky!" Kyle snatched away Noah's chocolate chip muffin. "Thanks, kid."

Dave relieved me of my small popcorn. "And I'll be taking that."

Noah rolled his eyes and found a spot higher up to sit. I followed. Garret stayed with the twins and sat with them.

"What happened to your jersey, Noah?" Sean asked. "You're a mess."

Noah had put his food down and was finally able to wipe the sugar off his jersey the best he could. "An unfortunate run-in with a former opponent. It's whatever." He sighed as he sat down. "Hopefully it's not someone we'll see again."

My eyelid twitched and a bad premonition came about.

We watched the game casually, making comments and jokes along the way. The winner was Silver Creek HS. We met up later in the afternoon, where Coach decided that Bryce would get the start on the mound. Dave would stay in the bullpen like the others just in case.

He wasn't needed though. Our whole lineup crushed Silver Creek with everyone at least earning a hit. Noah had a double and single to his name. I added a homerun and three intentional walks. Not that fun for me, but I could understand that their pitchers just couldn't compete.

After game two, we were in the dugout taking off cleats as Coach talked about tomorrow.

"9am. Be at the main field." He instructed. "Game starts at 10am." He made eye contact with Dave. "It's a team you know and handled before so you'll get the start."

"A team I know?" Dave chuckled. "Let me guess, San Marino?"

I froze. Them? Again? Really?

Noah sighed.

"San Marino it is." Coach confirmed with a slow nod. He looked around the dugout. "For those who weren't here last year, San Marino has a very aggressive play style. Every play, heck, every pitch will matter. Last year, we won 6-1, but don't let the score deceive you. We had multiple collisions. Hard tags. And some very blatant hit by pitches."

Jason let out a curse word.

"I'm going to speak to the officials this evening." Coach continued. "If any of you get hurt, I'm stopping the game right then and there. We are not risking our season for some low-level tournament like this one."

"What about our ranking, Coach?" Noah asked. "If we drop out from the tournament with a forfeit, it's going to affect that, won't it?"

Coach rubbed his forehead. "It's not an easy decision to make, but I stand by what I said. I can understand playing hard and giving every play 100% but I won't stand for an outright battle of who can hurt the other team the most. We're here to play baseball and we're here to win."

"I think they'll probably come after me, Coach." Noah stood up. "I took their guy out last year. If all inside pitches come my way, I understand. I also don't think you should give in on my account. I promise not to let myself get hurt, but I think we're going to see a lot of close calls."

"You can't make that promise, Noah." Garret shook his head and spoke up. "Coach is right. Don't sacrifice your season for a single game like this one. Our team ranking doesn't mean much so don't stress. We won the whole thing last year without much of a ranking so why care for it this year." His eyes shifted to me. "They won't necessarily come after you in particular. Instead they might come after our best player."

I shivered at the thought.

"Jake's tough. And he's smart." Noah said. "He can read pitch projectories very well so he can avoid any close ones."

I nodded at that. "I'm good at dodging."

Coach pinched his nose for a second before taking a deep breath. "We'll play it by ear tomorrow. Go home and rest up."