Junior Year Box Set

We had one change in our lineup: Mitch and Logan had moved to short and second, respectively. Coach Kingwood didn’t want the two brothers who’d fought in Houston next to each other. Mitch’s natural position was short, so he was happy.

Mitch was inserted into the leadoff position in the batting order. Coach Kingwood had told us to be patient at the plate since he suspected their pitcher would be nervous. Mitch had a good eye and was walked on four straight pitches.

Up next was Nick Golden, our first baseman. He worked the count to 2–1 and then popped up to the shortstop for the first out. Shane Bays, one of our pitchers and designated hitter who usually hit cleanup, dug in at the plate. After getting Nick to pop up, their pitcher seemed to collect himself. It looked like Shane was going to see the kid’s best stuff.

Coach Kingwood must have seen that as well and decided to try to rattle their pitcher. On the first pitch, Mitch took off to second and made it easily. Two pitches later, Shane drove a ball down the right-field line for a stand-up double. Mitch scored to make it 1–0.

I was up next. Stepping into the batter’s box, I dug in and concentrated on my hitting steps while calming my mind. I felt myself drop into the zone where I blocked out everything except what was happening between the pitcher and me. I watched as the ball fired out of his hand. He had been playing possum. I let the first one go for a strike that just caught the outside corner. He smirked to tell me he’d saved that just for me. His next pitch looked to be the same, so I planned to park it. I realized a split second too late that it was his changeup.

Damn. He’d outsmarted me. I needed to think about what he would do next. If I were him, I would throw outside and see if the batter would chase a bad pitch. That was precisely what he did on the next two offerings.

“Good eye!” Coach Kingwood barked from the dugout. “Put it in play.”

I was sure the next pitch would be another fastball. He wouldn’t want to wait for a full count; then, it would be his best against mine. I knew he didn’t want me knowing what was coming because I had the power to put us up 3–0. He began his motion home, and I’d guessed right. I heard the contact, and it was a solid hit. The ball jumped off the bat and rocketed right up the middle about three feet off the ground.

If the pitcher hadn’t been there, it would have sailed to the outfield for a base hit. Instead, it hit him in the hip. That had to smart. I sprinted to first to beat the throw. Shane had frozen at second when he thought the pitcher might catch it. He decided to take third. The pitcher threw the ball over the first baseman’s head, so I rounded first to go to second. The right fielder did his job and backed up the throw. Shane had rounded third and was headed home. The right fielder’s throw was off the line, so the pitcher caught it and turned to throw Shane out. He put this one in the dirt, and it rolled to the backstop.

I was told to hold at second as the catcher quickly gathered the ball in. I could see the disgust on the pitcher’s face. He’d cost his team a run and an out on two throwing errors. I felt bad for him but was glad we were the beneficiaries of his miscues.

Up next was Royce, Logan’s brother. He hit a single to right-center. I didn’t hesitate and was at full speed when the third base coach signaled me home. We were now up 3–0. The next batter struck out, and the following batter flied out to end the inning.

From there, it was total dominance. Allard had started, and he shut them down. We were up 11–1 at the end of the seventh inning. The game was called at that point due to the mercy rule. That was where if you were up by ten or more runs when the seventh ended, the game would be called.

We behaved like we should and congratulated Panama without acting the fools. Knowing we were the better team and winning by such a large margin seemed to take the excitement out of it. I was glad the first game was out of the way. I felt we’d put the rest of the tournament participants on notice. They would have to make it through us if they wanted to win it all, and we weren’t backing down.

Coach Kingwood gathered us around in the locker room after the game.

“Good job, men. You took care of business tonight. I want to point out the stellar job Allard did pitching. He only allowed four hits and one run; that’s a great performance. Shane was three for three at the plate and pushed across three RBIs. David and Nick each had two hits and two RBIs. Not too shabby an effort from the top of the order. When you add in Mitch, the first four batters accounted for eight of our ten hits.

“I also wanted to point out that David came in on his own and did batting practice before the game. I’m not going to point any fingers, but some of you might want to put in some extra BP.

“Defensively, we played a clean game. I have no complaints about anything I saw on the field. You all did an excellent job.