The Hitting Zone-Novel

Top of the second. I don't know whether it's because we were talking about errors or if I was just bound to mess up sometime, but when the cleanup hitter hit a hard grounder my way, I stumbled over my own feet to my right. The ball went off my glove and rolled away from me. I scrambled for it, got the ball back in hand and saw that the batter was almost to first, I threw my hardest. Which just made things worse.

The ball soared over Jason's head, towards the visitor's dugout and the runner tagged first base, continuing to second. Mitchell got to the ball, picked it up and looked around. He held onto it and didn't bother to throw to Noah at second base. Instead, he walked it in, heading to Joey on the mound.

"Time."

I let out a heavy sigh, slowly heading to the mound like the others. "I'm sorry, I-"

I started to apologize but Noah cut me off. "It was a tough grounder. Not much you could do about it. But that throw..." He shook his head. "You gotta stay calm. Play with urgency but don't overreact." He patted my shoulder. "We probably jinxed you in the dugout. That's my bad."

"As long as you don't let it get to you, everything will be fine." Mitchell said. He handed the ball to Joey. "Don't worry about the runner; focus on the batter."

I was too nervous to look at Joey. He couldn't feel 'okay' about my error. Double error, I guess. Off the glove and a bad throw. If I could, I would like to be invisible right about now.

A few more words were said before we broke up on the mound. Most notably, Joey said nothing. I couldn't tell if that meant he was mad at me. Or just neutral about the situation. Maybe it would depend on how the inning would go.

With everyone in position, and a runner on second, Joey faced off with the fifth batter. On a 2-1 count, he pulled a fastball down the line. Jesse was there to make the grab. He glanced at the runner.

"To first!" Noah called out.

Jesse threw the ball beautifully to Jason at first to get the first out.

"Third!" Jesse yelled. The runner from second had committed to run to third base.

Jason grabbed the ball out of his glove, but decided not to make that throw. He took a few steps in and lightly tossed the ball to Joey. "One out!"

Joey caught the ball and did a short walk around before getting to the rubber. He did a check throw to Jesse at third. Jesse caught the ball off balance, clearly surprised. So was I and everyone else in the infield. Mitchell didn't give the sign for check throw. Joey got the ball back and got set again. He took on the sixth batter, occasionally doing check throws to third to keep the runner close to the base. On a full count though, the batter made contact and got the ball to drop in the outfield grass for an RBI single.

If that wasn't enough, the very next batter hit an even better ball to the outfield for an RBI double. 1-2. We were losing for the first time this tournament in the finals. All started by my error.

"Bring it in." Noah signaled to the rest of us after calling for a timeout. He looked to me first. "Stay calm, stay cool."

"Shouldn't you be saying that to me?" Joey blurted out, turning red in the face. But not like he was angry...just embarrassed. I knew that feeling well.

"Nah. You'll be fine." Noah told him. He jerked his thumb at me. "But this guy is on the verge of a panic attack. Tell him you're not mad about that error so he can bring down his heart rate."

I nudged Noah with my shoulder, thinking he was making things worse.

"Of course I'm not mad about his error. I'm mad at myself for giving up hits." Joey said.

"I don't think anyone would get mad at Jake ever." Jason chuckled. "His batting is responsible for more than half of our offense." Jason gave my shoulder a pat. "Really, kid, I think you're doing fine." He looked around. "All of us are in good condition. We're down by one run. So what? Not the end of the world. We'll get it back soon enough."

The umpire came and broke up the small meeting, sending us back to our positions once more. Joey was nearing the bottom of the lineup with batter eight. He ignored the runner on second base and went after the batter, earning his second strikeout of the game. He closed it out with one more strikeout from the ninth batter, the pitcher. We went back to the dugout in better spirits with that strong finish.

"Jake-" Coach started.

"I got it handled, Coach." Noah said proudly. "Jake is in good condition. Unbothered by his error."

"Yea, because Zeke isn't here to punish him with laps." Garret came in and laughed. He patted me in the head. "Don't worry, Jake. I'm a captain that doesn't believe in physical punishment. You'll just have to field a few extra grounders this week at practice instead of hitting the cages."

I frowned. "That sounds like physical punishment to me."

"It's relative to the offense you made." Garret grinned.

"Well, it's not the worse thing ever." Noah told me happily. He was a good mood despite being down a run. I followed him back to our spot and we both took a seat, taking our gloves off. "Not gonna lie, I was afraid you might need a moment in the middle of the game."

I shook my head. "I'm okay." As long as no one yells at me.

"It's been a rough weekend for you though. I get scared when I see something might put you off. We're close to the finish line. Don't lose focus."

I gave a small smile. I understood Noah's worries well. Sometimes something so small and unexpected could make me have a panic attack. Followed by a vomiting session and I might be out of it for the rest of the game. It felt nice having so much care and concern directed my way, even if it was embarrassing.

Bottom of the second, Jesse led off, hitting a stand-up double to left field. Tanner's long fly ball allowed Jesse to tag up and make it to third. Mitch poked a grounder up the middle for an RBI single to make the score 2-2. We were already back. Just like that. I hoped for a little more, mostly for Joey's peace of mind, but we came up empty-handed. Jason flew out to short right field and Joey hit a routine grounder to third.

Noah and I had originally made it so close to being up again but had to retreat and put our bats back. We hurried to take the field. Jason rolled ground balls to us and Jesse for a warmup. We did more since Mitchell and Joey took some extra time to come out after our offensive half inning. It allowed me to feel comfortable and somewhat confident that I wouldn't mess up again. Even if I botch the grounder, I worked on throwing right to Jason's glove. They could have one base off my mess up, not two.