The Hitting Zone

Chapter 140 Game: VS Lincoln High School 3

Kyle was still moving his arms around as if that could really loosen him up. From what Drew has told me before, being tensed up is a frame of mind and not so much the state of your body. No matter how much you stretch, it won’t help unless you calm yourself and face your challenge. But it’s also good to be aware of yourself. I don’t know.

Kelvin gave the signs out, and Kyle stopped moving around so much. He settled down and started to pitch. Ball. Ball. Strike. On a 3-1 count, the batter swung at a would be strike. He popped it high and it came down right in Noah’s glove above his head. He immediately threw to Chris at third, to see if the runner would be careless and had stepped off. He didn’t, but at least we had an out now and the runner didn’t score.

That didn’t seem to comfort Kyle any, though. He continued to struggle with wild pitches, but Kelvin was able to stop them all and made sure not to let the runner on third score easily. Kyle ended up walking the third batter, bringing up the cleanup hitter.

"Strikes, Kyle!" A distinct voice came from the bullpen. "Start throwing strikes or I’ll come out and replace you!" Dave was hollering from the bench within the bullpen, bundled up in a sweatshirt.

Kyle didn’t hear it or he was just ignoring his twin and blocking out the chatter. It was hard to tell the difference when he was only focused on Kelvin. Kelvin gave out some signs and one was actually for field players: watch out for steal, defend the run. Uhhh. I thought the defend the run sign was for different situations like bases loaded, no outs? That would be a reason to throw home. Shouldn’t we be aiming for a double play here? We could get the runner out at second and the batter out at first.

Kyle nodded and agreed on the pitch that was asked. He pitched and the ball bounced in the dirt. Somehow I doubt that was what kelvin wanted.

"Runner!" Noah yelled and stood on second with his hands up. I watched as the runner from first made it to second without sliding. I looked back to Kelvin, who merely frowned and threw the ball back to Kyle.

Kyle looked stressed as he angrily toed the rubber. I felt lost. Why didn’t Kelvin throw? Weren’t we watching for the steal? Now we didn’t even have a chance for the double play. Ugh, I wish I had my notebook so I can jot down these questions so I don’t forget to ask about them.

Kyle got set. He threw a fastball right down the middle for a called strike. The batter glanced back at kelvin’s mitt and I had a weird déjà vu moment. I started to back up so my heels would touch the grass, unsure if this guy would also swing at the next pitch. Kyle accepted the next set of signs and started his motion. The batter was already stepping forward and swinging as the ball came; he connected perfectly with the sweet spot of the bat. Luckily, it was too perfect: it was a line drive straight to Kyle, who was following through on his motion.

I sighed with relief. From the sounds around, I wasn’t the only one either. The crowd started to cheer for Kyle, breaking up the silence that hung over since the first batter. Two outs, top of the first, runners on second and third.

Just like Dave’s yelling though, Kyle seemed to block out the cheers from the crowd. He was completely absorbed with Kelvin. His eyes didn’t wander, he didn’t react to the runners leads, and he no longer showed any emotion. He was angry like before, nor was he nervous and showing off a smile like in his last game. He was just...there.

As he started off batter number five with a ball, I started to feel that I was wrong in my observation. Ball two. He wasn’t actually ’there’. More like...going through the motions. Ball three. He was there in body, but not spirit. I read that somewhere before. Ball four. Another walk. He has loaded the bases now.

I nervously looked to Noah to see what he was going to do. Noah always had an answer. It may not always be a good answer, but it’s better than anything I could come up with.

Noah caught my look and nodded towards Kyle, like he wanted me to go up there. I shook my head and pointed at him. He rolled his eyes and waved me in as he started to jog to the mound. I sighed and followed.

"Sooo. Whatcha doing?" Noah asked when Kyle finally noticed we were on the mound with him.

His eyebrows pulled in together and a frown was very much evident on his face. "Trying to get through this inning."

Noah looked to me. "Oh. Did it look like that to you, Jake?"

Uh. What. Yes? No? I settled with a shrugged, not understanding what point Noah was trying to make with my answer.

"You’re right, Jake." I’m what? "Kyle isn’t even trying to get through this inning." He isn’t? "He’s just dragging it along so Dave can get his opportunity as well." Ok. Noah is just making nonsense up.

Kyle’s frown turned into a glare. "You guys don’t think I’m trying up here? I’ll have you know, it’s not as easy as it looks."

"And that’s where you’re wrong." Noah corrected. "Throwing strikes is easy. Throwing good strikes is the hard part. But the hardest thing to do in baseball is to defend against a walk. You know why? Because there’s nothing we can do. They just get to be on base for free." Noah, fearlessly, stares up at his brother. "Throw a strike. Give us a chance. We had your back on Saturday. Even if it’s a bad strike, the guy will have to hit it. There’s more of a possibility on getting an out that way."

Kyle pushed Noah’s cap down. "You punk. Who do you think you’re talking to?"

"Wrap it up, boys." The umpire said as he approached us.

Noah smirked at Kyle. "You already lost the perfect game, stop being such a scaredy-cat."

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