Bottom of the sixth. Bryce started wild, throwing four straight balls outside of the zone, not even able to get the guy swinging. That batter jogged to first for his free base, while the player who had hit a solo shot off Kyle, came up.
"Don't be getting lazy out there!" A harsh comment came from our own dugout. Everyone who was in there was looking at Kyle, obviously. Crumbling under the harsh stares of the coaches, he tried a different approach. "Do your best!"
Bryce just smiled lightly before focusing on Alex. Alex gave him the sign, yet Bryce shook his head. Alex gave a new one and he accepted. He straightened up and got set, then started his motion. He threw a fastball in the lower part of the strike zone, getting the batter to swing and miss. The next pitch had a similar location, but with a slower speed, the batter fouled it back. On the third pitch, Bryce aimed for the higher part of the zone with, what looked to be, his fastest pitch. The batter swung...and missed. Strikeout.
After such a good performance, it was sad to see him give up back-to-back singles, and allowing the first runner to score. 5-3. Bryce kept fighting though. He didn't yell. He didn't hang his head. He just kept going at them.
The sixth batter, who had the solo homerun in the first inning, smacked a grounder in the space between shortstop and third. On instinct, I ran to second base, just as Noah slid in the dirt for the grounder. From his butt, he threw me the ball, I caught it, and turned to get off the bag as the runner came sliding in. I was able to avoid him and throw to Julian before the batter. 6-4-3 double play. We got out of the inning with our lead still intact. Somewhat. Two runs isn't bad.
"Great job, you guys." Bryce smiled at me and Noah before sitting with Alex. "I was scared that was going to go through."
"Don't lie." Noah laughed. "You haven't looked worried all game."
"Well with a lineup like ours, what's there to worry about?" Bryce laughed too.
With a compliment like that, it was hard to feel bad about a two run lead.
I got to start off the inning with a clean slate. No runners, no outs. I made the pitcher work, getting to a full count and then fouling off a few for good measure, before hitting a single line drive.
Garret wasn't as patient as me, and followed my single with a hard hit ball to the outfield on just the second pitch. I took off running. The ball went to the gap between right and center. With a glance at Mr. Miller to confirm that I should keep going, I ran to third.
He lifted both hands to signal a stop as I got close. No need to slide, again. This must be my lucky day. I stood on third and turned to look for the ball. They had done a relay to second to try and get Garret out, but he must have been to fast. Sliding probably helped. By the time I looked, he was already dusting off the dirt on his jersey.
"If only you could slide like that." Mr. Miller said while shaking his head, standing right beside me. "It was beautiful. A real slide. If you could do that, I probably would feel safe sending you home."
I stifled a smile. "No thanks. Only when necessary please."
Mr. Miller laughed and slapped my back before backing up to his coaches box.
Zeke was up next. Just as he stepped up to the plate, the catcher stood up with his hand outstretched. The pitcher complied and delivered four balls out of Zeke's reach in order to intentionally walk him.
If that wasn't enough, the Redwood Coach came out of his dugout to change the pitcher again. I looked to Mr. Miller as the new pitcher threw a few pitches off the mound.
He caught me looking. "What is it?"
"Is there some kind of strategy that says it's okay to load the bases for the player who had previously hit a homerun?" I asked, feeling confused on why they wouldn't just face Zeke.
"Julian isn't even batting .300." Mr. Miller told me. "Whereas Zeke...he's making history. Highest average in county in the last decade. Hopefully he can keep that going."
Oh.
"Don't worry. There's nothing to complain about when given a free base like that. It's up to the next batters to make them pay for it."
Julian. Jason. Mahki.
Regrettably, they couldn't make Redwood 'pay for it.'
Julian struck out swinging. Jason continued with his bad day at the plate, popping a foul ball straight up. The catcher only took three steps back to catch it for the second out. Mahki did slightly better than the two of them, as he had actually put the ball into play...right to first base. The first baseman had no trouble picking it up and tagging first for the final out.
I sighed.
"Disappointed, huh?" Mr. Miller slapped my back again.
I shrugged. "Slightly." It was a good opportunity to tack on some more runs.
"Have faith in your pitcher. Bryce can shut this down, easily." He pushed me forward in the direction of my bag.
I changed out my gear and took the field.
Bryce had thrown a couple of pitches for a warmup before the batters for Redwood were asked to step up. Bryce got lucky; this inning his first three opponents would be the last three batters of their lineup. And it showed. The seventh batter hit a grounder to Jason for an easy out. Then Bryce was able to close it out with back-to-back strikeouts, looking. He had exchanged control for speed and it paid off.
We celebrated the win with simple high-fives. There was some clapping from the stands, but not much since it was an away game. We didn't stick around too long before packing up and loading the bus. Another win for us.
