Junior Year Box Set

Nick, another one on the bubble, dug in. Usually, we would allow him to drive us in with his big bat. I could see the catcher was nervous, and I guessed they would try to brush Nick back. At least, that was what I would do. The pitcher looked back at me and then began to throw home. I took off like a shot. The pitcher tried to stop the pitch but ended up throwing it in the dirt. I don’t know what he was thinking I would do, because Logan was standing on third.

Coach Haskins, my coach from home, had taught me to watch the third base coach when I was two-thirds of the way to third. The first part of my run was to keep low and dig to get to maximum speed. Once I was up to speed, I would look for the coach. Nick did his job and stood tall in the box, which caused the catcher to have to first trap the ball, and then look around him to make the throw. Meanwhile, Logan had gotten with the program and snuck down the line towards home. If the catcher had just held the ball, he would have been fine. I was willing to get involved in a rundown because I was sure they couldn’t catch me. Of course, that was a fantasy. Coach Way gave me the slide sign, so I knew a throw was coming. I slid into third and popped up. The catcher had thrown the ball on the outside of the base, and I was safe. The third baseman was more on the ball and came up throwing to home. I’m not sure what the catcher was thinking, because he was looking for his mask. It was good that their pitcher was backing him up, or I would have scored, too.

Their manager lost his mind because they’d made two bonehead mental errors back to back that had cost them a run and left me standing on third. I hoped that their players on the bubble had made some of the errors.

That was where I died. Nick hit a line drive right at the first baseman. By the third inning, the Stripes hadn’t hit a ball out of the infield. It wasn’t that Austin struck them out, it was that the defense behind him had played lights-out. My teammates had taken their cues from the guys on the bubble and were determined we would not let them down.

The Stripes pitcher was having a terrific game. He’d let a base runner on in each inning, but we had only the one run to show for it. Nick led off in the fourth, and I think he surprised them when he laid down a bunt to get on. That was a heck of a team play when he was a bubble boy. Tristan came up and hit a long sacrifice fly ball to right field to advance Nick to second. Trent, our catcher and the last bubble boy, hit a screamer right at the third baseman. He decided to throw out Trent instead of holding Nick at second. Logan came up with two out and a runner at third.

Logan walked and then stray pitches hit both Mitch and Dave to force in a run. We were up 2–0, bases loaded, and me at the plate.

I chanted in my head, ‘quick hands, quick hands’ as I imagined a long fly ball in my near future. Their pitcher looked to the catcher and grinned. That could only mean he wanted to smoke one by me. I tried hard not to smile when a fastball rocketed right down the middle. I concentrated on keeping my swing level, extending my arms, snapping my wrists, and having good bat speed. As soon as I heard the ting of the aluminum bat, I knew I’d gotten all of it.

I ran hard to first base to not show up the pitcher and looked up to see the umpire indicate I’d hit a home run. I made sure to keep good speed around the bases. My teammates, led by Dave, met me at home. We acted like we did this every day and headed to the dugout after we did fist bumps.

We ended up winning 6–0. I was two for five with four RBIs and one stolen base. Austin had faced twenty-five batters over seven innings. He’d struck out three and walked one. Daz came in for the last two innings and finished them off. He had given up only three hits. Mitch was involved in eleven plays, one of which was a double play.

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They had food for us in one of the training rooms. After we’d showered and changed to our street clothes, they came out to announce the team that would represent the USA in the Pan Am games. I was happy that we picked up all the bubble slots, but unfortunately, Dave didn’t get one.

Something else I noticed was that none of the players who hadn’t made an effort to be a part of the larger team were on the final squad. It really was about attitude, because two or three of them were good enough to have taken spots away from guys that made the team.

“Now that we have the final roster, we’ll come back here a week from Wednesday to practice before we fly out to Mexico. I want you to spend some time in a batting cage and get any nagging injuries tended to. I want you fresh and ready to go when you return.

“Now go grab some food, and I want Dawson in my office,” he said to dismiss us.

When we walked to his office, I could see all the coaches were in there, so I stopped him.

“Wait, Master, it might be dangerous … you go first,” I said, quoting Igor’s famous line from that classic, Young Frankenstein.