The Hitting Zone

"You're not going to the game today, right?" Noah asked Mom and Dad at the breakfast table early Saturday morning. They had said something last night about possibly not going.

"We have to be at two separate open houses this afternoon." Mom looked apologetic. "And that drive is just way too much. Maybe on a weekday we could make it work. Plus, it's almost spring, we're about to start getting busy again."

"We have to let these kind of games go." Dad explained some more. "Next weekend you boys have that one tournament coming up. It's better for us to make good use of our time, work this weekend, and take off next weekend."

"Yea, yea." Noah nodded. "I understand."

Mom looked to the twins.

"We for sure won't get to play." Kyle shrugged. "Pretty much going for moral support."

Dave nodded too, biting into his bagel and cream cheese. "We're not even allowed in the bullpen today. Coach says we're only allowed to warmup with the team and then we're practically ball boys. That freshman, Oscar is treated better than us."

Noah was skeptical. "He hasn't even gotten a chance to play yet. How much better can it be? You don't think he likes being in the bullpen, do you?"

Mom turned to me, ignoring her boy's discussion on starting in games versus practicing in the bullpen. "What are your thoughts, Jake?"

I shrugged. "I don't mind. I didn't play last time so I don't know about today either."

"Last year, we had a close one with these guys." Kyle recalled.

"We did? Did you have to look it up?" Dave asked.

Kyle looked at him. "Can't you remember every game you pitched? I started against these guys. Did the whole game too." He pointed with both hands: one at me and one at Noah. "They didn't play. Neither did Zeke."

"Huh." Noah slowly nodded. "I vaguely remember something like that. There weren't a whole lot of games where I sat the bench. It was a pitcher's duel, right? Something close?"

"We won 1-0." Kyle confirmed.

They talked a little more about what they remembered from the game until it was time to head to school. Mom handed us each a bag of snacks before sending us off. "Have some extra during lunch and some on the way home. Don't forget to share. Oh, and stay hydrated."

"Yes, Mom." The twins chorused.

"Cookies?!" Noah spotted in his bag. "Thanks, Mom!"

"Thanks." I echoed their sentiments.

"Oh, Jake, wait a moment." Mom jogged to the living room and quickly came back with a blanket in her hands. "Here. Take this. It'll be cold on the bus."

My heart warmed as I took the blanket. I smiled up at her. "Thanks Mom."

She smiled back and continued to usher us out the door.

Kyle drove us to school and parked in the upper lot, near the few cars that were there. Just the other juniors and seniors who drove themselves to school. We put our bags in the storage port under the bus and boarded, passing the coaches who were keeping track of everyone showing up.

"You cold, kid?" Mr. Miller laughed at the sight of me.

I had wrapped the blanket around me, already scouting which seat to take. I gave a small shrug. "It's cold every morning."

"You'll adjust eventually." Noah patted my shoulder. He chose a row to sit and pointed to the seat across. "Sit."

I listened and sat down. The twins separated taking the seats behind us. The rest of the team was loading and grabbing their own seats too, happy to be spread out for the long drive. Some of the team slept, others did homework. Most were on their phone like myself. I was casually looking up the A's spring training. Jeremy had to report after the weekend.

They had a lot of good things to say about the World Series Champions. Most of the team was coming back. Jeremy and Jack Maberry were coming off great postseason performances. The pitching staff is all healthy with a couple of prospects to look out for.

After an hour of reading all that I could, I switched to social media, something I haven't been on as of late. In my notifications, I saw that I had quite a few more followers. Unsure of what to do, I scooted closer to Noah to get his opinion. "Do I just follow everyone back?"

"No, silly." He answered, scooting to the aisle too. "Follow who you want. Who you know. Who you want to know." He leaned over my phone with me. "Jake...some of these guys are on the team." He laughed. "Definitely follow them or they'll think you're ignoring them."

I hurried and followed the few guys I recognized. Most of which were new on the roster like Dalton, Logan, Oscar, Joey and Jesse. And I hovered over Marshel's username, really unsure. I looked around to see if anyone was looking at us.

"Don't hesitate." Noah took my phone and clicked to follow. "At the very least, for now, you're teammates. It's good to keep the team chemistry flowing. If he becomes a problem, you can always just ignore or unfollow. It's not like you're on very often anyways." He started to go through the list, pointing out some classmates and asking about others I could possibly recognized.

"Look, this is Mr. Cameron!" Noah rolled his eyes. "How can you not follow him? He comes to so many of our games. He takes pictures and sends them to Mom. He's practically your number one fan."

I coughed, embarrassed. "No, no. That's just his job."

Noah clicked on his profile and showed me some of the posts Mr. Cameron had made. Most recently was a team picture. Our team...pictured...winning the Tulare Invitational. I was named underclassmen MVP and Garret was overall MVP. Mr. Cameron noted it could have been given to me if I wasn't walked so much.

"We'll probably see him next weekend at the Foothill Classic." Noah remarked. "I wonder if the schedule for that has come out yet." He closed me out of the app and started to Google the tournament, coming up empty-handed. He sighed. "Probably will know Monday."

"You probably shouldn't look until after Tuesday's game." Kyle said from behind us, making me jump. Kyle looked a little apologetic. "Sorry. Wasn't intentionally listening until you said something about the tournament next week."

"Would you want to pitch game one?" Noah asked.

Kyle leaned even more forward so he could lower his voice. "For sure. I'm not superstitious but-"

"All pitchers are superstitious." Noah cut him off.

Kyle rolled his eyes. "It's been statistically proven that I perform way better in game one's of tournaments." He frowned. "I need to get my redemption from last year."

"What game was that again?" I asked, not very good at recalling who was on the mound and when. At some point Dave got ejected. I remember that. And losing against University Prep...I remember that.

"Game two, against Durham Preparatory." Kyle clenched his fist. "Gave up five runs in five innings."

"Ouch." Noah shook his head. "That is a bad game for you."

"It was a bad game for Jake too." Kyle pointed out.

I looked at him blankly.

"He and you were a part of a triple play thanks to the mess up with the infield fly rule." Kyle stressed, trying to jog our memory.

"Jake made mistakes all the time." Noah brushed off. "He was still learning the game."

I nodded. I definitely won't make that kind of error again. Zeke made me run so many laps early on last season. No mental errors allowed.

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