The Hitting Zone

Chapter 183 Game One: Sunset Preparatory 5

I was stunned. I felt sad, confused, and disappointed all in one. I slowly made my way back to the dugout, where my teammates faces were reflecting my own emotions. I passed Noah, who was in the on deck circle, and he handed me my bat on my way in. No words were exchanged. I sighed and took my stuff to my bag.

I put my helmet away and examine my bat to see if there was something else I missed. Maybe I had a dent?

"It’s not your bat." Zeke came up to me, holding his own bat. "You were distracted. Easily. Then you were fooled by the low pitches you saw." Zeke tilted his head at the field. "If you paid more attention to the other at bats, you would have noticed something. Something like how half of his outs came from fly balls. A fly ball pitcher. Not uncommon at the high school level." Zeke gave me a pat on the head. "There’s no such thing as a perfect batting average. Why are you upset over it?"

I put my hat on to hide my embarrassment. "I could have done better."

"That’s a good trait to have as a ball player." Zeke said, fully turning to the field. "But just know, there’s never been a player who had a perfect batting average. At any level. Getting out is just part of the game. The most important aspect is the final result. I rather go 0 for 4 at the plate and win instead of going 4 for 4 with a loss. It’s about perspective."

Mahki smacked a hard grounder towards first. The first baseman dove, stopping the ball in its tracks. The pitcher came over to cover the base and the first baseman tossed him the ball. Just barely beating out Mahki. Out number two. Noah walked up to the plate and Zeke left me so he could go to the on deck circle.

Noah didn’t do any better than us, and ended up grounding out to the shortstop to end the inning. He came back in and we exchanged sighs. What a rough inning. Noah switched out his gear and we took the field together.

Garret stood on the mound with the poise of a great pitcher. He shut Sunset Prep down, three up, three down. A groundout to Noah, a fly out to Sean in right field, and then a swinging strikeout. It’s hard to imagine that I was even worried for a second in the first inning. Garret bounced back fast...I should take note and do the same.

As Noah and I sat down by our bags, we both let out sighs; this time they were sighs of relief and not of depression.

Top of the fourth would get to start with Zeke, Garret, and Jordan. I started to hope for some action on their behalf, wanting to score more runs.

"Hey, Noah?" I asked, thinking of something he had said before.

"Hmm?" His eyes remained on Zeke, who was stepping up to bat.

"You know how you were saying that you have to speak to the universe? What does that mean exactly?"

"It’s relative to the law of cause and effect. For every cause, there’s an effect. And vice versa. For every action, there’s a reaction. Law of laws: you get back what you put out. You put out negative, you’ll get negative back. Put out positive, and positive will be returned. It’s very philosophical." Noah spoke, never taking his eyes off Zeke.

I nodded even though I hardly followed. I believe in concrete numbers and equations like in math, where there is always an answer. In math, nothing is based on feeling or emotion, it’s just right or wrong. No gray. Philosophy doesn’t seem to be up my alley at all, and I hope I won’t have to take such an abstract class like it.

But...Something bugged me about what he said. "Well, what if...both teams are putting positive vibes in the ’universe’ like we will win?" I scratched my nose. "Who does the universe answer first?"

Noah was about to reply, but the ding of the bat cut him off. Zeke hit a laser line drive a few feet away from the shortstop. Amazingly, the shortstop jumped as high and far as he could, totally outstretched, and snatched Zeke’s would be hit. Instead, it was Zeke’s first out of the season. The crowd went wild with claps, cheers, and "oohs" and "ahhs".

Noah slowly turned his head to me, eyes wide. "And that is why you don’t question the laws of the universe." He said something else, but it was hard to hear over the crowd of people that were watching.

"What’s going on?!" I leaned towards Noah’s ear so he could hear me.

Noah pointed to the field. I looked. Zeke was still outside the dugout, waving to the crowd. The he took off his helmet and waved it at the shortstop, who in turned, tipped his cap. The cheering soon died down, Zeke came back, and Garret moved to the batter’s box.

"Zeke had a perfect hit streak going." Noah explained as I could hear him now. "That was his first out and it was a great play. The fans and parents were just showing their support for them."

"No one clapped for me..." I said.

Noah laughed. "That’s because you’re just a freshman...with a bunch of walks. It’s not as impressive. But, I’m sure mom and dad clapped for you. You probably just weren’t paying attention."

That’s true, I guess. I tend to tune out the crowd since they don’t really have any affect on the game. I peeked down the dugout to see how Zeke was taking his first out of the season. Would I see disappointment or anger on his face?

Zeke looked the same as always as he shared some words with Coach and then he came on over. He raised an eyebrow at me. "What? Did I disappoint you?"

I shook my head vehemently, but Noah was the one to answer. "Yea, but no worries, you can make it up to us by hitting a home run at your next at bat."

Zeke pushed his youngest brother’s hat down over his eyes, letting out a brief smirk. "Why don’t you focus on you. Get on base."

"I will! No matter what." Noah fixed his hat, pushing Zeke’s hands away. Zeke gave us a nod and went back to the coach to watch the game with him.

"Zeke took it well." I mumbled.

"Of course he did." Noah said. "We’re still winning. Now, if we were losing it would be a totally different story. He would release his scary aura and probably glare at us to death. The twins are competitive with one another, but Zeke takes it to a new level. He wants to win every game, all the time."

"What’s wrong with that?" I thought of the notes I took once upon a time. I had wrote that I wanted to win every game possible so I could keep playing with Noah.

"It’s unrealistic. Too many factors and too many games. Just look at the major league. No professional teams goes unbeaten. What they aim for is a conference win so they can go to the playoffs. It just so happens that the team with the most wins, goes." Noah shook his head. "You’ll see a more competitive Zeke during the league games. Trust me, it won’t be pretty."

I gulped. Noah’s words scared me as I started to think of the future and the consequences I might run into if we don’t win games.

My mind didn’t wander for long. Garret flew out to left field like I did. And Jordan popped out to the third baseman to end the inning. Still 2-1. Bottom of the fourth we go.

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