Junior Year Box Set

Luke was taking the mound for us tonight. We all gathered around as Coach Haskins and Moose gave us the rundown on Team Brave before the game.

“In your first game, their leadoff hitter hit a first-pitch fastball. I’ve seen them play a couple of times, and he’s done that in his other two games. With him on base, they’ll try to run on you,” Coach Haskins said.

“Yeah, I remember that at-bat. He ripped one right up the middle,” Allard said. “If I remember right, the next batter, I struck out.”

“You did,” Coach Kingwood agreed.

“He’s gone five for thirty and is either due to break out or is simply a bad hitter. My guess is he’s due. I would be careful throwing to him. I wouldn’t want to give him anything he can hit, if it were up to me,” Moose observed.

A .167 batting average wasn’t going to get him into the final 40. The kid needed to have a heck of a game if he wanted to impress the selection committee. They would televise tonight’s game locally and then put it on their website tomorrow. You wanted to do well in this one.

“Their third batter hit the home run on you,” Coach Haskins reminded Allard.

“He’s the one who showed us up,” Allard said.

“After the top of their order, we should be okay,” Coach Mallei said.

“Their weakest fielder is their third baseman. If you can, make him field as many balls as possible. He has four errors, the most of any player here,” Moose added.

I was glad I wasn’t leading in that stat.

Coach Kingwood gave us a final pep talk.

“When you first came here, I reminded you that everyone here was talented. It was your attitude and effort that would set you apart from everyone else. I also had a secret weapon. See, I talked to Moose and Coach Haskins before I picked David. I was worried about what kind of teammate he would be. He could have been my worst nightmare.

“I suspect all the other coaches thought the same, and that was why they passed on selecting him,” he said with a sheepish grin.

“Do I even want to know where you picked me?” I asked.

“Let’s just say I got the steal of the draft.”

Everyone else thought that was funny.

“The reason I said he was my secret weapon was because of what Moose told me. He said that David was a born leader, not the kind who would just yell and bluster, but one who his teammates naturally followed. I guess I should’ve figured that out from how well David led his football team. I want to personally thank you for stepping up and getting us to mesh as a team so fast,” Coach Kingwood said as he stepped forward and shook my hand.

“Coach, I agree,” Dave said. “I didn’t want to listen and made a fool out of myself. David was the only one who took the time to talk to me, and I didn’t deserve that consideration.”

“You were a piece of work,” Blake said with a big grin to let Dave know he was pulling his chain.

“What else did I tell you that first day?” Coach Kingwood asked.

“To have fun,” Allard answered.

“That’s right. I want to win this, but let’s have fun doing it,” Coach Kingwood said.

◊◊◊

I had an ear-to-ear smile on my face when I recognized who was singing the National Anthem: Halle James. She walked out and didn’t even glance at me, the brat. She killed it, and when she was done, she sauntered right up to me.

“You happy to see me?” she asked.

“You have no idea how much. I have to go win a baseball game. Are you going to be around when I get done?” I asked.

“I might be convinced to hang around,” she said and turned her cheek to me.

Leaning in, I gave her a peck, and she walked off, knowing I was rooted to my spot, watching her walk away. One of my teammates—and I use that term lightly—knocked my hat off to get my head back in the game.

Since we’d won the most games, we were the home team. Brave’s first batter stepped into the batter’s box. Luke had paid attention and threw him a curveball. He took a big swing and topped the ball to hit a grounder right at Joe at second. He scooped it up and made an easy play to first.

Their second batter was the one struggling. As we expected, he wanted to hit his way out of his slump and was overaggressive at the plate. He struck out on four pitches. Their third hitter was the one with some pop in his bat. Luke was feeling good about himself and struck out their power hitter on a nasty slider that just snuck into the strike zone for a called third strike. Luke left the poor guy shaking his head as he walked over to get his glove.

Joe was up first and hit a seeing-eye grounder that snuck past the shortstop. Mitch walked, and the next pitch hit Dave to load the bases.

I think Coach Kingwood could read my mind.

“Just get a hit. We don’t need you to hit a grand slam.”

“Yes, sir,” I said and stepped over to the batter’s box.