The Hitting Zone

Sean worked the count during his at bat. The pitcher mixed in a few check throws to third, trying to keep Joey closer to the bag. Sean connected with a full count, hitting a grounder to what I thought would be the gap between third and short. The third baseman was stationary near the bag, but the shortstop had a wide range of cover. He slid in the dirt to make the stop and transitioned nicely to throw to second. The second baseman stepped on the bag and threw to first. 6-4-3 double play.

Geez. I took my helmet off in frustration and headed back to the dugout.

Coach gave me a sympathetic look. Yet, he couldn't say anything. With this small lead, he had to stick with the starters, not wanting to take a chance to lose this game.

"Well-" Noah started to talk.

I shot him a glare and cut him off. "Save it. Nothing you can say can make me feel better. Not even the RBI given to me."

"Okay, so you're a little mad, but-"

"It's annoying." I cut him off again, feeling my frustration bubbling. "Imagine a game where not one ground ball goes to you. No fly balls to chase or double plays to turn. That's how it is for me."

Noah sighed. "I get it. We'll hit the cages tomorrow. Whatever you want to do. A million foul tips. Hit the ball back at the machine until it breaks. I won't even let the old man kick you out."

I let out a heavy sigh. "I can't wait until tomorrow." I grabbed my glove and headed out for the bottom of the fourth.

Joey got back on the mound and was ready to go. He had a tough battle with the cleanup hitter before getting the guy to groundout to Dalton at short. The fifth batter in the lineup came up next. On a 1-1 count, he hit a fast one my way. Or so I thought. Joey reacted, trying to field it himself. It was a fast one though and deflected off of him and I got caught going the wrong way. Sean came off first to get the baseball that was rolling in the outfield grass and the batter was safe at first.

"Sorry." Joey caught me off guard. He rested his hands on his knees for a second before straightening up. "I should have just let you have it."

"It's okay." I told him. "We'll get the next one." I tried to give a friendly smile so he knew I wasn't bothered by it.

I don't know if it helped, but it certainly didn't hurt. Joey got the next guy to go down swinging; finally his first strikeout of the game. The following guy hit a grounder within Sean's reach. Sean had to toss it to Joey who went to cover first and that finished the inning.

Top of the fifth started with our own cleanup guy, Garret. I wouldn't have much chance to hit this inning so I went ahead and took a seat, taking my hat off too.

"What did Joey say to you?" Noah asked.

"Nothing much." I shrugged. "Just said that he should have let me gotten it."

"Good." He nodded. "Because he definitely should have. Glad he recognizes that."

"You know, you're a lot more strict when you're on the bench." I gave a light laugh.

"It's because I have nothing to do but to analyze the game."

"Any insights?"

"Just coasting to a win." Noah stretched out his long legs. "Don't forget, Kyle and Bryce are in the bullpen. If Joey runs into trouble, there'll be someone there to bail him out."

A loud 'ding' of the bat drew our attention to the field. Garret had hit a double. It was soon followed up by an RBI double from Jason. 6-2.

Coach walked over, stopping in front of me and Noah. "Jake, I'm going to take you out."

I gave a small shake of my head, a little disappointed that my day would end like this. Three intentional walks. Noah nudged me. I sighed and lifted a foot on the bench so I could reach my cleat. "I'm going to let my feet breathe."

Coach chuckled. "Do what you want." He looked at Noah. "You keep your cleats on just in case."

Noah saluted. "Understood, Coach."

Coach narrowed his eyes. "I overheard that you and Jake want to go to the cages tomorrow."

I immediately nodded.

Noah gave me a look. Then he looked back up at Coach. "Of course I'm just going as moral support. The cages are right outside the arcade. I might just play some games. Ones that don't require my fingers. Like Dance Dance Revolution, Coach."

Coach squinted at him. "Drew will have the final call on whether you can play on Monday. Don't be stupid." He moved on, going to tell Logan to warm up and be ready to go in.

Noah elbowed me. "Thanks a lot."

I laughed. "I didn't think it was a secret. And...it was your idea!" I relaxed and untied my other cleat. "So are you just going to watch me the whole time or really play in the arcade?"

"Probably just a mix." He glared at his fingers. "Start healing already." The blisters had to be drained again earlier today, but it was less than yesterday so it was technically healing. Just not up to Noah's standards.

Korrey hit a fly out to right field, giving it enough distance so Jason could tag up and get to third safely. He was 0-3 today and had his own set of frustration settling in. Jesse, who snapped out of his own slump earlier, hit a fly ball to the left field fence. The outfielder was able to make the catch. Jason tagged up and sprinted home, having to slide just to be sure as the ball was relayed in quickly. 7-2. A better lead. Mitchell popped out to end the offensive inning.

"We're changing things up." Coach announced before anyone could leave the dugout. "Jake is out. Sean will move to second. Jason to first. Jesse to third. And Logan will go out and be the new right fielder." He looked around. "Got it?"

"Yeah!" The guys echoed. Jason and Sean went back to their bags to switch gloves.

Joey went back out to the mound and had a good fifth inning. Granted, it was mostly the bottom of the order as he got the eighth and ninth guys to groundout to short. He was getting them to two strikes, but couldn't finish the job. Then it was back to the leadoff guy. Who was 2-2 and responsible for the two runs scored. He connected for the third time, blasting it dead center. Garret raced back to the warning track and had to jump for it. He crashed into the fence and stumbled to keep his footing. He held his glove up for proof to the ump. He made the catch!

Noah and I clapped vigorously for him.

"Risky catch!" Noah got to Garret as soon as he got to the dugout. "That was totally like a Zeke move."

Garret laughed.

The game really didn't have much action one way or another after that. Joey finished six innings, but his pitch count was too high for the seventh. Coach went with Tyler, who gave up one run but still closed it out. A win, 7-3. Four more games to go.

The girls team had won their game too, making it a happy bus ride back to our school.

"I still can't believe you didn't do anything today." Kaylee said to me over the seat.

I shrugging helplessly. "Now that they can say intentional walk, I can't even swing at a ball outside the zone. No chance. No helping it."

"I think you should be strategically bad." She suggested casually. "Like start hitting into groundouts and fly outs when you're in a position that doesn't matter."

"You want him to purposely get out?" Noah was flabbergasted. "That's a terrible idea. Every at bat matters."

"Walking the whole time won't make a difference." She pointed out.

"That's for the weak teams." Noah said. "The better teams will never walk away."

"The smart ones will." Kaylee refuted.

The two spent the next twenty minutes arguing until Alisha got them to call it quits. She interrupted to ask if she could join us tomorrow at the cages. "I won't bug you guys when you hit or whatever. But maybe we can eat lunch and play mini golf too."

"I'm not allowed to hit and mini golf might be out of the question." Noah lifted his right hand to show off the fingers for proof. "But yea, meet us there. Jake can hit by himself and we can look at other games we can do. I told Coach I would do Dance Dance."

Alisha and Kaylee laughed together.

Noah looked at me. "You don't care if they come, right?"

"No. I don't mind." I thought about it. "If I take too long, come get me."

"How long do you think you'll be?" Alisha raised an eyebrow.

I gave it some serious thought. "Two hours?"

Kaylee let out a low whistle. "Damn. I'm gonna bring my bat too. I want to get some work in, but I don't think I can stay focus that long in there."

"They have less speed options for softball pitch." I pointed out.

We made plans for tomorrow and eventually the bus made it back to the school, where we went our own ways. Kaylee went home with Marie. Alisha got picked up by her mom. And we left with the twins like normal.

Home in time for a late dinner, Mom really came through with the soup and grilled cheese. We were all given a side salad and there were spare rolls. The twins complained but I dug right in.