The Hitting Zone

I glanced at Coach Luis and saw him frowning. The players went to the mound just as the coach sent his pitcher to the dugout.

"Already?" I was taken aback.

| сom "They must be bringing in a lefty." Coach Luis got closer to say to me since it was just us by first now.

A new pitcher came jogging in from the bullpen. He received the baseball from his coach, said a few words to his teammates, then his teammates stepped off the mound while the catcher jogged back to the plate. He started to take some practice pitches.

I looked at Coach Luis, not sure what to ask.

"The saying is that in same-sided matchups, the pitcher will have the advantage." Coach Luis told me. "Of course, it's not for certain. Lot of factors in play."

I nodded.

The new pitcher finished his warmup off the mound and everyone started to get into position again. Garret stepped up to the plate, tapping it with his bat before pulling it back. He was ready. The lefty pitcher looked directly at me and instinctively I shuffled a little back to the bag. He smirked and threw his first pitch to Garret. A curveball that Garret grazed for a foul.

I went back to first, not liking this feeling. I hate being on a base that the pitcher faces. It's even tougher for me to take a lead.

The pitcher got set once more. I took a small lead of three feet off the base. I tried to keep my eyes focused in on the ball in his glove. Don't make eye contact, I told myself. It would just psych me out. The pitcher did his motion, throwing the ball towards home plate. Garret started his swing and the ball started to break. Another curve. Garret caught it this time, pulling a grounder to the right. I took off. The second baseman got the ball, tossed it to the shortstop who tagged second and then threw to first.

"Out."

"Out."

A double play sent me and Garret back to the dugout. Before even getting back all the way, I spotted the Golden West coach coming out again. I slowed up to watch him take the ball from the pitcher. But the pitcher didn't leave the field, he jogged out to left field as the original left fielder jogged to the dugout. A new pitcher also came in from their bullpen.

"Jake." Garret called to me and I hurried back inside the dugout. Him and Coach stood together with Alisha and Mitchell nearby.

"I think I'll be seeing that guy again in my next at bat." Garret frowned. "That's the only reason to move him to the outfield."

"What a waste of moves." Mitchell commented.

"It's a game plan that just worked effectively on us." Coach stated, glancing at Garret.

Garret straightened up. "Hey, I can hit his curve. It's not that special."

"Couldn't get it to the outfield." Dave scoffed from a few feet away.

Coach ignored them and looked at me. "Got scared?"

I nodded without hesitation. "I don't like when pitchers can see me so easily."

"I think we can expect it more in the future. Next time, try for a double." He suggested.

I nodded.

Our inning came to an end with Jason striking out. There wasn't a whole lot of time to discuss as we switched gear and prepared to take the field again.

"Looks like a bullpen game for Golden West." Noah told me as I went to my bag to put my helmet away.

I slapped on my hat and grabbed my glove. "That's not a bad thing is it?"

"Yes and no." Noah shrugged. "It has advantages and disadvantages. Like the pitchers don't have to worry about pitch count at all since they're just doing a round through us to get to Garret. So they can go all out and not worry about saving any energy. We also don't get to see the same pitcher twice. Again, pros and cons. Pro: if we suck against one, we get to try against another. Con: there's no figuring a pitcher out. It's a new guy every time."

We took the field together and went to our respective positions. Top of the third, Dave handled the bottom of their lineup just fine. Batter seven hit a routine grounder to Noah at short. Batter eight hit a fly out to Bryce in right field. Batter nine, their third pitcher of the game, dropped a bunt but it was basically a grounder that went right to Dave at the mound. Dave picked it up with his right and threw it to Sean at first. Three up, three down.

"Not a bad go around through their lineup." Dave grinned as he shook his arms out, walking through the dugout.

"Too bad your strikeouts are lacking." Garret entered the dugout just in time to stop his bragging. "You won't even be a contender for 'King of the Hill' this year."

"If Kyle beats you, that's the same as me beating you." Dave shrugged nonchalantly. "We're identical twins. I can do whatever he can do."

"That's not the same and you know it." Garret rolled his eyes. "You're just trying to comfort yourself for losing out early on."

Dave rolled his eyes. "So what. It's not my fault that I'm already falling behind on innings pitched. Heck, even Brian has me beat in that category."

The two bickered and talked stats as the bottom of the third started. Korrey was up first and Mitchell was hurrying to take his gear off to get on deck. Dave was also slowly getting ready as he chatted with Garret.

I turned to Noah. "Hey, did you hear that Servite beat Golden West last week? Bryce just told me."

"Yea? Not like it matters too much. We've beaten them both." Noah relaxed in his seat and took a sip of water.

"Servite mercy ruled them 15-4."

Noah started to choke and cough out his water. I patted his back until it cleared.

"What? That's crazy." His voice cracked. He cleared his throat and looked down the dugout. "Yo, Bryce, come here a second."

Bryce casually got up and came over. The two of them started to talk about last week's game between our two closest competitors.

I listened as I watched the game. Korrey popped out to the shortstop. Mitchell went up next and Dave left the dugout. Sean stood in the hole near Coach and Alisha.

"Shit. It's hard to believe." Noah rubbed the back of his neck. "The same team we could only get one run off of, gave up four to these losers?"

"That's what you don't believe?" Bryce scoffed. "I think it's insane that they could get 15 runs off Golden West. We only have one hit so far. If we wanted 15 runs in five innings, we'd have to score five an inning now."

Suddenly everyone gasped and hissed, like they were in pain. I looked to Mitchell and saw him kneeling down, caressing his left arm. Coach and Drew were out there in a heartbeat.

"What? Hit by pitch?" Noah turned his attention to the game.

"Hmm."

"It looked like it hit his hand when he started to swing." Jason commented from the side. "A breaking ball that didn't break."

"Ouch."

Coach spoke with the umpire as Drew took Mitchell back to our dugout. Coach came back soon after them. He looked around. "Nelson, put your helmet on and get on first."

Dalton jumped up. Dug out his helmet and pulled it on as he hurried to first base.

"Is Mitchell out of the game?" Bryce got up. "What?"

"He has a courtesy runner for now." Coach addressed the whole dugout. "Let's let Drew do his assessment and determine if he's fine to go back out there or not. Someone tell Oscar to be stretching and warming up in the bullpen."

Everything seemed to be happening in a matter of a couple of minutes. Drew shook his head and told Coach that it was better if Mitchell went for x-rays. There were too many small bones in the hand that he could have broken. Better safe than sorry. While he had given his opinion, Dave had hit into a double play, third base to second to first. End of the third.

He came back with Dalton, immediately going to Mitchell who had an ice pack on his hand already.

"Ok, looks like we're going with Oscar." Coach said.

"What. No." Dave whipped his head to Coach in a hurry.

Coach raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean no? You need a catcher out there and I'm ending Mitchell's day until he gets cleared by a doctor."

"You can't stick me with a freshman, Coach. I'm having a good game."

"I don't know if you've realized, Dave, but this is your only option. If you don't like it, you can sit the bench."

Dave pointed at Noah. "He can catch for me!"

The dugout got quiet.

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