Senior Year Box Set

“Let’s go!” I yelled, and the team followed me out of the locker room.

◊◊◊

Marian Catholic High School was a college-preparatory school located in Chicago Heights, which was on the far south side of Chicago’s suburbs. 99 percent of their students were bound for college.

When we came out of the locker room and saw our opponents for the first time, it was evident they had spent some time in the weight room. They had some boys who were big physical specimens. I’d hoped that our training gave us an edge, but it looked like they’d taken their training as seriously as we did. Physically, they looked to be the closest to our level that we’d played to this point.

They’d reseeded us again for the championship playoffs, and we’d been selected as the second seed, which meant we were the home team tonight. Central, which was located just a few miles from where we were playing, was rated number one.

I took the guys out to warm up. Most teams warm up by doing some stretching and then tossing the ball around. They might even do a little fielding practice. While we stretched, we also ran to get ready. Baseball is a lot of standing around and then sudden, explosive moves.

We had a series of exercises that mimicked baseball moves, including the shuffle, crossover, three-yard-start, running-backward, and quick-feet drills. We ran through those before we broke up between infield and outfield to loosen up our arms. The end result was we were already sweaty and had our blood pumping before the game started.

I could tell we would have a good game by how the guys were loose and joking around. Marian Catholic, on the other hand, looked tense. They were on their bench, not talking, only staring at us while we did our thing. It sort of gave you a creepy, stalker vibe.

When they came out, our opponents were all business. They looked like coil springs that were wound too tight. One of the crucial lessons Cassidy had taught me the hard way was that you keep the tension out of your limbs. Tight muscles slowed your reactions.

That was why in big games, you sometimes heard announcers talk about how teams played poorly at first. They were too tight. I thought that for the first couple of innings, we might be able to take advantage of that.

I totally believed in psyching our team up before a game, but there were two ways to build the excitement. The good kind would be like me bouncing around with Duke before we played ball in the backyard. The bad kind would be like I told him that Max was crapping on his sidewalk, and Duke wanted to kill him.

In first case, he would be bouncy and loose; the other, he would be tense and single-minded. If you’re too focused, you might miss important stuff like the car that runs you over as you chase the worthless German shepherd across the street.

After warm-ups, they had some pregame hoopla where they announced the teams and sang the Star Spangled Banner. Then we took the field to go through our pregame ritual.

It gave me a chance to check out the crowd. The seats behind our dugout and in most of the outfield were filled with our fans. Marian Catholic had a good-sized following on their side of the field.

Behind home plate were some pro scouts, and I also spotted the coaches for both Oklahoma and Notre Dame’s baseball teams. It made sense Notre Dame would be recruiting Catholic kids for their baseball program. One person I was happy to see was Lucas Kite from the Cubs.

Finally, it was time for baseball.

In the top of the first, Marian Catholic went down in order. Moose was happy that Justin only had to throw five pitches.

Now it was our turn to bat. Ty came up and battled their starter. He was one of the best pitchers we’d faced, and if it weren’t for Ty’s good eye and quick hands, he would have struck out. Instead, Ty managed to foul several pitches off. On the last pitch, Marian Catholic’s pitcher threw one that Ty couldn’t get to. Fortunately, Ty held up, and the umpire called ball four to give him the walk.

Both Bryan and Wolf hit into groundouts that resulted in moving Ty to third. Now I was up with two outs.

I got into the batter’s box and followed my usual ritual to get ready. Once I settled in, I was more than a little surprised when the Marian Catholic pitcher took the bat out of my hand by drilling me in the left bicep. I hadn’t had to worry about opposing teams throwing at me since I’d come back from spring break. I guessed that in a big game, the opposition wanted to send a message that I wasn’t going to get a chance to win the game with my bat.

Their catcher jumped up and got between me and the mound.

“Slow your roll,” I warned him to stop a fight. “I plan to steal second base to get even.”

I said it loud enough that their infield could hear me. The pitcher tried to stare me down as I trotted to first. Moose was there to greet me.

“You had to announce what you plan to do?” he asked.

“Don’t worry, coach, they can’t touch this,” I said.

“We’ll see about that,” Marian Catholic’s first baseman butted in.