I took a moment to focus and remember each step I needed to do. The first two pitches were low and outside for balls. The third one was in the dirt and scooted loose from the catcher. I frantically waved Joe to take third. Their manager signaled to walk me at that point to take the bat out of my hands.
I trotted down to first and checked the signs; they said not to run. I think the coach wanted to see if this kid would walk Nick or not. It looked like he might when he threw two balls that weren’t even close. Nick had been signaled to take the next pitch to force their pitcher to throw a strike. Nick was sick when it was a fastball right down the gut.
On the next pitch, we were signaled to do the hit and run. I don’t imagine anyone thought we would try something like that this early in the game. You rarely wanted to take the bat out of the hands of a hitter of Nick’s caliber with a runner at third. The pitcher looked over at me and then at the plate. During that moment, I edged away from the bag another half step to give me every advantage I could get. He lifted his foot to go home and I exploded to second. I didn’t hear the crack of a bat, so I slid hard into second. The umpire called me safe.
Unfortunately, Nick struck out on the next pitch to end the inning.
For the next few innings, it was much the same. They were easy outs, and we struggled, leaving base runners in scoring position. This had carried over from that last game. Sometimes you just couldn’t seem to get them across. I began to worry because leaving base runners stranded was a recipe for disaster.
I’d run through their lineup once with just my changeup and fastball. It was time to break out the spike curveball. My normal curveball would break from one to seven on a clock face. The spike curve broke from twelve to six.
I also wanted to begin to move my pitches around in the zone. Up to this point, I’d pretty much dared them to hit my high balls down the center of the plate. I knew they’d be looking for that, and I would be in for a long night if I didn’t change things up.
Their leadoff batter was up again. Trent signaled he wanted the fastball low and inside. I think the pitch startled the batter because he laid off it for a called strike. The next pitch was the new curve. Trent had me throw it where I’d been throwing the fastball. I pumped my fist in the air when the poor kid’s knees buckled, trying to figure out what to do, and the umpire called it a strike.
On the next pitch, I threw the high hard fastball to get him to strike out.
From there, I was golden. I realized in the later innings that the new way of throwing the curveball wasn’t nearly as hard on my joints, especially my elbow. They did get a few hits off me, but no one got past second base.
Trent had hit a solo home run by the time we got to the last inning, so I was replaced by Kale who did what closers are supposed to do. I wasn’t sure there were many players here who could hit his fastball when he was on like he was today. I had my second win, and Kale had the save.
Coach Kingwood grabbed a bag of ice and an ace bandage to hold it on my shoulder. Everyone was tired and satisfied, so after ice cream and signing autographs, we called it a night.
◊◊◊ Thursday June 23
Today was overcast and windy, which made it a hitter’s dream because the wind was going out towards right field in the stadium. The other fields wouldn’t be as lucky as they would either get the wind blowing in towards home or even worse, a crosswind, depending on the field.
For our afternoon game, we were up against the Nationals. Their coach had put together a team of fast single-hitters. They were terrors on the basepaths, and their aggressive play had gotten them to a 4–2 record. Moose suggested that we play me at shallow center field to better support the infield.
Coach Kingwood was worried about the wind today and wondered if it would be better to have me play more of a traditional position. Moose countered that we’d only trailed once since the tournament had begun and that he suspected they would try to jump out early playing small ball. Later, if we had a lead, then the coaches could move me back to my regular place on the field. That was just in case the Nationals might try to get it all back with a single swing of the bat. Coach Kingwood decided to follow Moose’s advice.
In the first, we went down in order. Allard, the wild man from Arkansas, took the mound. I say ‘wild man’ because his mop of hair was blowing everywhere in the wind.
The Nationals’ first batter was their shortstop. He’d stolen three bases and only been caught once. He had a good eye at the plate and had earned himself eight walks. Coach Kingwood made sure Allard was aware of this. We’d also worked on defending bunts at practice this morning. While he hadn’t shown it yet, he was reported to be very good at laying one down.
On the first pitch, he squared around to bunt. Dave and Lucas crept forward at first and third while Joe moved a bit towards first to cover the bag in case Dave had to make the play. I was standing behind the second-base bag with my feet on the edge of the grass. I took several steps towards where Joe had been at second. It was good that I did because their batter pulled his bat back and then swatted the ball right to where Joe had moved from. I was already leaning that way and got a good jump on the ball to be able to field it and throw their runner out at first.
Their next batter used a similar ploy but actually did bunt the ball towards first. Trent jumped forward from behind the plate and waved both Dave and Allard off as the ball bounced up the first base line. Joe hustled over to cover first, but Trent was at a bad angle and ended up throwing the ball into the runner’s back. If Trent had taken a couple of steps into the field, he would have had a clean throw.
The ball trickled over towards our dugout and their first-base coach waved the runner to take second. Allard chased the errant ball down, turned, and threw to me by mistake. I was in short center and had planned to back up Mitch as he moved from short to cover second. When I caught it, Mitch’s back was towards me, so I decided to run the ball in and cover the bag. Their runner saw me coming and decided he wouldn’t make it. He turned to run back to first, but he hadn’t counted on my speed. I ran him down just before he reached first.
Their next batter hit a line shot up the middle that I caught on the fly for the third out. Moose’s strategy had paid off with me making all three outs in the first inning.
I was up first in the second. In the first inning, their pitcher had used a combination of sliders and fastballs to work the outer third of the plate to get our first three hitters out. I guessed he would do the same this inning, so I was looking for the slider on the first pitch. All I had to do was get a little lift on the ball and it sailed out of the park.
We held a 1–0 lead when I came back up in the fourth. With me essentially acting as an extra infielder, we had stymied the Nationals. Joe and Mitch were able to spread out some at second and short with my help up the middle. It allowed them both to track down sharply hit balls that normally would’ve been singles.
Dave had managed to get on before me, but up to this point, we’d continued with our pattern of stranding runners. Coach Kingwood motioned me over before I stepped out to bat.
“I don’t normally tell a hitter to do this, but try to hit a home run. We need to get out of this funk. Just use your best judgment, but see if you can’t knock one out.”
I was quickly up 2–0 in the count when I was thrown a slider that just missed and a fastball that was high and outside. The next pitch I thought was a slider, and I took a tremendous cut and missed when it didn’t slide.
“Holy cow, man, that was a serious swing,” their catcher commented.
“Have him throw me another one. I want to see how far it can fly.”
I bit my lower lip when their pitcher got a determined look and shook off his catcher twice. The little dummy wanted to challenge me. When the ball left his hand, I recognized it was a slider, waist high. I almost swung too soon, but I kept my hands back until the last second and then ripped the bat through the strike zone. The ping as the bat and ball collided told me I’d gotten all of it. I’d hit some prodigious home runs before, but this one was in a league all its own. It got up into the wind and sailed out of the park.