The Hitting Zone

Chapter 279 Game: @ Lassen Union HS 5

Noah was already hanging outside the batter’s box, eager for redemption of his own fly out, earlier. The umpire gave a minute or two, to the field players to warmup, also giving us the opportunity to watch Ricky throw some more. I took a batting stance as if I was the one in the box. I watched his setup and motion, then he threw a fastball to his catcher. Just...it wasn’t as fast as what I saw when I was actually in the box. Either it looks slower from far away, or he’s not throwing his best since it’s just a warmup. The umpire called for the balls back, and waved Noah into the righty’s box. Noah got in, digging his back foot in. His back foot was practically on the back line, as if he was trying to be at the furthest distance from the pitcher as possible. I frowned at his decision. Standing that far back won’t make too much of a difference. Then he shifted in, facing the pitcher. I noticed his toes almost on the inner line of the box. So not only he was hanging back, but he wanted to stand on the inside? Is he trying to get hit by a pitch? I looked back to the dugout to see if they saw what he was doing, but no one seemed to noticed or they didn’t care. I worriedly watched Noah’s at bat, scared that he’ll get pegged by a fastball. Oddly enough, the pitcher threw pitches way outside, missing him and the strike zone altogether. On ball four, Noah tossed his bat to the dugout, smiling with pride as if he planned that. He shot me a thumbs up. I returned the gesture halfheartedly. I don’t know how he came up with that idea, but I thought it was dumb, he could have gotten hit by the ball. I sighed to myself and moved towards home. I got into the lefty’s box, and raised my bat back as I looked to the pitcher.The pitcher toed the mound, while glancing to Noah at first. Then he did a short kick up and pitched to me. It went wide. Ball one. The next pitch came in high but still in the zone. I let it pass for a called strike. 1-1. The next pitch was more or less the same, so I decided to foul it back. 1-2. He threw a curve, low and away for ball two. 2-2. Then he came back down the middle with his fastest pitch I’ve seen so far, but I was able to foul it down the third baseline, nearly hitting Mr. Miller. I was able to foul five more pitches before he threw a ball three. Once the at-bat got to a total of ten pitches, I started to look for one that I liked. I fouled two more grounders along the third baseline before seeing a fastball that came a little inside. I swung with determination, connecting, and pulling the ball towards right field. It dropped before the right fielder could get to it, allowing me to safely make it to first and for Noah to move to second.The team clapped and cheered in the dugout, excited about our improvement on the offense. Sadly, not much came out of it. Mahki popped up to the right fielder for the first out of the inning. Garret fought for a walk to load the bases, yet this is where we couldn’t even come up with a sacrifice fly to get Noah home. Brian struck out, looking, then Jason followed up with a swinging strikeout to end the inning. Darn it.The three of us on the bases jogged back to the dugout as our team started to take the field for warmups. Coach already came out to tell the umpire about another pitcher change. "What a waste." Noah sighed as we put our helmets away. "That was such a good opportunity to get at least a one run lead." He voiced my thoughts exactly. As we grabbed our gloves, I recalled his at bat and frowned. "You shouldn’t have done that. Zeke would have been mad."Noah shrugged. "Zeke’s not here so I can do what I want. You don’t hear Coach getting upset."I shook my head at him as we walked out of the dugout. "Coach didn’t even have a chance to say anything to you yet." I took a deep breath and let it out. "I just don’t think you should put yourself at risk like that. One bad hit by a pitch and you could be out for awhile."Noah took on a look of guilt. "Sorry. It all worked out in the end though."I rolled my eyes. "You know...if you get benched, I get benched. You do a lot of the work for me in the middle and I’m sure Daniel wouldn’t extend the same courtesy."He grimaced. "Oops." He paused. "I was only thinking about getting on base. I can’t promise that I won’t do it again, but I’ll promise I won’t do it in a non important game like this."I sighed. That’s probably the best I could get from him. I watched as he jogged towards his position. Noah had a one tracked mind: baseball. Anything and everything for baseball. I don’t think I would ever try to get hit on purpose to get on base. Even if I didn’t have my skills, I just couldn’t get past intentionally hurting yourself. Soon the bottom of the fourth inning started with Tyler taking the mound. I knew very little about him as well, besides the fact that he’s a junior like the twins and Garret. Nonetheless, he did his job on the mound, facing the top of the lineup. The first batter singled, but the next three all hit high fly balls. One to me for the first out, and the next two to Garret in center field to end the inning. The top of the fifth would start with our bottom three guys, but if just one could get on base, I would get another at bat this inning. Just one.

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