“He’s going to hit that pitch. I want to throw him the split-finger in the same location.”
Moose was giving us looks, and I waved him back to the dugout.
“All right, we’ll do it your way,” Johan said.
As I released the pitch, the batter’s eyes lit up. He had evil intentions, which changed to confusion when he topped the ball as it began to drop. He hit a sharp grounder to Brock, who easily threw him out.
Our fans were on their feet and cheering when we headed to the dugout. They were getting ready for Thunderstruck. The scouts and recruiters who hadn’t been to one of our games looked around, wondering why folks were going nuts. Lakeview knew what was going on, so I didn’t expect to get thrown at this time.
When the Lakeview pitcher was done warming up, the first notes of the song began. All the seats were filled, and along the fence, the fans were five deep. I pointed to Governor Higgins, and he was bobbing his head to the beat. I about fell down laughing when our batboys ran out in front of the dugout and began to hop-walk to imitate my previous air-guitar-playing antics. The Lakeview coach’s daughter was doing it on the other side.
As the intro to Thunderstruck played, I stepped into the batter’s box and dug in. Their pitcher did brush me back on the first pitch. The count was soon full. Their pitcher and I both knew that he had to get a strike. I just shook my head when he threw a fastball right down the middle. He thought he had a fastball he could throw by me. He was mistaken, and I began my home-run trot around the bases.
In the top of the fourth, the score was still 1–0. Lakeview had managed to get two hits, but our defense got me double plays to nip any trouble in the bud. This was the second time through the batting order, and their leadoff man was up. I’d talked to Johan and Coach Herndon between innings, and they agreed that I might have to start throwing harder. I’d also only used my split-finger fastball four times. They felt I’d shown enough control to start throwing that as well.
When their batter got into the box, he looked confident. That confidence was rewarded on my third pitch to him when I caught more of the plate than I intended. He hit a line drive for a base hit to left field. That was when the fun began.
Knowing that one of the main jobs for a leadoff man was to steal bases, I had gone into the stretch to pitch. The two guys who’d gotten on earlier in the game weren’t a threat to steal, so at that time Coach Herndon had told me to pitch with my regular windup. I glanced back at first, and the runner was daring me to throw over to the base. I tossed a weak throw to embolden him.
Johan and Coach Herndon called time and jogged out to the mound.
“Shit, I know we haven’t worked on holding runners,” Coach Herndon said.
“I have practiced stealing, though. I’ll just do the slide step instead of my kick and throw the heat. That should give Johan enough time to gun him down at second,” I said.
Coach Herndon called over Bryan and Brock, and they were clear as to who would cover second. They should have already known, but Coach Herndon wasn’t taking any chances. The umpire came out and broke up our little talk.
I knew that the Lakeview runner had never seen me pitch out of the stretch. If I were him, I’d want to see at least one pitch before I tried it. It was a gamble, but I didn’t want to give anything away, so I shook Johan off when he called for a fastball. He called for a changeup high and outside. This would put him in a better position if he needed to throw.
I glanced back at the runner, and he had a considerable lead. I did my normal leg-kick and threw the changeup where Johan wanted it. If I’d been on first and gone on my slow motion, I would’ve been able to steal second standing up. I’d guessed correctly, and the runner was still on first, looking pissed at himself.
On the second pitch, Johan asked for a high hard fastball. I nodded my agreement. I saw the runner at first creep out even further. There was no reason for him to be greedy, so I made a little better move to first, and it was a bang-bang play. I thought Jim had him, but the first base umpire emphatically called him safe. Moose eased out of the dugout to argue, but Coach Haskins caught him, and the two of them had a discussion. Moose decided to do whatever Coach Haskins had asked of him.
This time, the runner stayed closer to first. I thought about using my best move to first, but I trusted Johan to throw him out. Johan called for the same pitch. This time after I glanced back, I cut loose and threw my best fastball. From the crowd noise, I knew he’d taken off. Their batter made a halfhearted swing at the ball. I crouched down so Johan didn’t have to worry about me when he threw. Johan fired his throw to second, and it beat the runner by a couple of steps. Their base-stealer was shaking his head as he jogged back to the dugout.
Since I hadn’t thrown hard until just now, Coach Herndon signaled I should continue to throw the heat until someone touched it. On my next pitch, the scouts all had their guns up as I rocketed another pitch home. Johan had called for it on the inside half of the plate. The poor batter bailed when he saw it coming. I’d been hit by the pitching machine throwing smoke, and I might have done the same if I hadn’t seen a pitch like that before.
In the top of the seventh, the score was still 1–0. I’d had a good day at bat with a single, a double, and a home run with my three plate appearances. I’d also stolen second once. We’d threatened to add more in the last three innings, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out. So here we were, with two outs in the final inning, and I was pitching to Lakeview’s best batter. He had, in fact, hit my fastball the last time I faced him, but he hit it right at Jim, or it would have gone for extra bases.
Even though I was in great shape, my arm was starting to feel tired. I motioned for Johan to come out to the mound, which brought out Moose.
“How are you feeling?” Moose asked.
“Fine, I’m just worried I don’t have enough for my fastball to work on this guy. I want to break out my slider and curveball.”
“Are you sure? You sucked in warm-ups,” Johan said.
“I just wasn’t loose enough.”
Even Moose didn’t believe that one.
“Trust me,” I said.
“I’d prefer to leave you in if you think you can do it, rather than have to bring in one of the freshmen in a close game,” Moose said.
“I’ve got this,” I said, and they both just nodded.
Lakeview’s cleanup hitter was a big first baseman who was garnering interest for the next level. Word was he wanted to get a minor league contract because he had little interest in playing college ball. He dug in, and I could guess he was focused on my fastball. He planned to get a pitch in his zone that he could drive and hopefully tie the score with one swing.
I set up and threw my curveball. It looked like I was trying to brush him back, but it broke and caught the center of the plate. If he hadn’t hit the dirt, thinking I was sending a message pitch, this game would have been tied. He was pissed that I’d made him look foolish.
I looked behind the plate and could see the scouts checking with each other to see if I really had just thrown a curveball for a strike. That made me wonder what they would think when I followed that up with a slider. I looked at the batter and could see the first little doubt creep into his eyes. Johan asked for my slider to be high and on the outside; he was trying to confuse the batter with location. I just nodded.
This time the ball looked to be outside until it broke for the plate. I’ll give the kid credit; he got the bat on it and fouled it off. If I had complete control over that pitch, I would have come back with it and thrown it low and outside and hoped he would chase it. Instead, I decided to throw the heat by him. I was sure I had at least one more in me.