The Hitting Zone

Chapter 85 Game One: Villa Park 5

Wow. Zeke really is a monster. I jogged to home plate, with Mahki right behind me, and then Zeke came. Him and Mahki exchanged some kind of hand shake. I weakly held out my hand for a high five. Zeke gave a light smile, smacked my hand and patted my helmet. I've never seen him in such a good mood.

We three had a nice welcoming once we got back in the dugout. A lot of them smacked my helmet and patted my shoulder. Finally I made it back to my bag and turned my helmet in for my baseball hat and glove. I made sure my bat was in the proper place before looking for Noah.

"Jake!" Coach hollered. The team quieted down and made space for me to go where I was summoned. I shuffled my feet to him and stood by Noah who looked to be summoned beforehand. "Want to explain why you didn't follow the signs?"

I glanced at Noah and he took over. "We just went over some of the signs this morning, Coach."

"I heard." He glanced at Zeke who was getting a drink of water. "What I want to know is why he didn't try to steal? You barely led off the base." I've never seen coach so upset.

I looked down at my cleats, nervous.

"Uh." Noah coughed a few times. "You don't have to run bases when you hit in the cages." An awkward pause followed. "Jake doesn't know how. To lead off. Or steal. Or slide into bases. Obviously."

"Did you see him jump back on second, Coach?" Kyle laughed. "That was a typical Bambi move." The rest of the team laughed at the memory. Ugh.

I heard coach chuckle, and peeked at him. He didn't look so serious as he was smiling. He caught me looking back up at him. "Kid. You're just too raw. From now on, when someone's on base, I want you to strictly study their movements. How far they lead. If they attempt to steal. If they fake movements."

I nodded. I plan to. This first at bat has just been one embarrassment after another. I'm probably going to be traumatized for the rest of my life.

"And when your third base coach waves you on, don't stop." Coach Wilcox became stern once more. "If the cutoff man was a second quicker, he could have thrown out Mahki and that would have been one less run."

I nodded. I didn't really do so well overall. Coach finished scolding me and went back to watching the game. Noah and I sat down and watched as well.

"But, dude. Wasn't Zeke's bomb fantastic?" Noah nudged me. "I think he did that for you after that second baseman made a fool out of you. Once Zeke saw that the pitcher was busy laughing, I'm sure he knew the guy would throw an easy pitch."

My eyes widened. Zeke did that for me? Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all.

"Zeke said I should tell you that you have three mental errors already." A teammate with a clipboard stood in front of us. "That's six laps for each of you."

"What. No." Noah protested. "Brian, tell me you're kidding." He glanced down the dugout where Zeke was speaking with Coach, watching Julian at the plate.

Brian showed us the clipboard. "Number one, missed the steal sign completely. Number two, didn't follow the steal sign the second time. Number three, didn't follow Miller's instruction to go to third." And sure enough each reason was written down. "Honestly, he probably could have told me to write down more like crappy leading and whatnot." He gave us a sympathetic look. "And to think, it's only the first inning."

I want to cry. Luckily I get to split the laps with Noah, otherwise I would already be at twelve. Brian walked away and I looked at Noah, helplessly.

Noah sighed. "It's fine. We can hold it at six. That's not too bad. Just focus on fielding cleanly. Next time, I'll make sure to get on base so they won't be able to ask you to steal." He patted my shoulder. "Zeke must have done this on purpose. Everyone knows you're the slowest on the team. In what reality, would you be able to steal?"

I made a face at him. Rude. He didn't have to put it that way. I turned back to the game and decided to ignore Noah.

Julian was working the count and smacked a line drive in the gap between right and center. He easily made it to second base. A double. Something Mahki should of had. I squeezed my glove. Dummy.

Unfortunately our offense dwindled there. Jason grounded out right to the first baseman and Julian was unable to advance a base. Then Tony struck out swinging.

The ump called the inning and we switched. With Zeke's homer, we took an early 3-0 lead over the former powerhouse. Even though I already got assigned laps, it was a nice feeling to know that I wasn't one of the three outs.