434 Game @ Golden West (4)

Bottom of the fifth. 

Garret was still going strong, looking unstoppable. He started with batter five, getting him to hit a short fly to right field. Tanner caught it with ease and threw it back in while yelling, "One out!"

Some of the other guys on the field echoed him, with Noah being the loudest. He even tacked on, "Two to go!"

Garret didn't need our support for the following two batters. He struck the both of them out, pushing his 'K' count to nine. Only one behind Dave's high. 

He smirked at Dave as he swaggered back into the dugout. "What do you think? Two innings to get just one more strikeout to tie you. Two to beat you."

Dave rolled his eyes. "I did ten in four innings. You technically only had seven. I'm not fighting you over this."

Garret laughed as he switched out his hat for a helmet and pulled on some batting gloves. "You're just a big baby. You're lucky it's not Kyle doing this to you otherwise you would never hear the end of it." He grabbed his bat and left the dugout. 

"Ughh." Dave groaned. 

I was getting prepared for my at-bat as well since I would be after Garret. As I made my move to go stand in the on deck circle, Dave caught me by my shoulder, making me jump a few inches off the ground. 

He grimaced. "Sorry, Jake. I forgot."

I nodded, trying to calm my pounding heart. 

"Listen, you have to do me a favor." He pleaded. I raised an eyebrow, unsure of what he wanted. "You need to smack the ball out of the park and get a homerun to rub into Garret's face."

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. I shrugged him off and left the dugout. Dave was just grasping at straws. My stature and bat choice really held me back from having the power to blast one out of here. If I could do it, I would. I wanted to. 

The only time I got close is when we had that game in the mountains. Higher elevation would be a nice little boost. But...I'd be scared to get sick again. 

I hit my bat against my cleats to knock some dirt off as I watched Garret get into the batter's box. Nothing could bring his energy down. His good pitching, his homerun, more excellent pitching...it only made sense that good things kept going his way. He belted out a line drive single to center field. 

I walked up to the batter's box, took some time to spread the dirt evenly and found a good spot to stand. I looked up at Brady on the mound. He looked a little tired. He had only given up two hits, both to Garret now, but his pitch count had to be nearing the 90s. 

I let the first pitch pass for a called strike as I looked out to the field. Garret was on first so the first baseman was staying on the bag, trying to prevent him from taking a good lead. The second baseman played more over towards first, and the shortstop was cheating towards second base. They were looking for a double play. Lefties are, statistically, more likely to hit a grounder between first and second. 

I let another pitch pass for strike two. I really want to aim one in the gap that the shortstop left. It just has to be hit hard enough to squeak by. Brady got set and started his motion. His long legs stretched out and his hand was coming from behind, nearly scraping the dirt on the mound. The spin was still strange to me, but the speed was falling off. I can do this!

I took a step forward, and started my swing. The ball was going low, but that would still be okay. The bottom part of my bat hit the ball right to the direction I wanted. The shortstop and third baseman both tried to make a play at it, but the ground ball slipped through and went to the outfield. 

Garret sprinted to second and I made it to first base as the left fielder came in and fielded the ball back to the infield. 

"Good hit!"

"Nice one!"

"Bring 'em home, Jules!"

Our dugout got a little bit louder now that we have two runners on base, with no outs. Julian stepped up and the fielders shifted back towards more normal positioning. Julian has a strikeout and a groundout to short, so my guess is that they're looking for the double play still. Which makes sense. I would try and get three outs before Zeke comes up too. Even if he's not having his best day, Zeke is a threat at the plate with runners in scoring position. 

Julian had a nice fight at the plate, getting to a 2-2 count by fouling a few pitches. Our dugout cheered him on and I took a good lead off the bag. Julian got jammed with an inside pitch, grounding the ball towards short. Everyone took off. 

I sprinted to second base, but the ground ball didn't have any speed or strength to it. The shortstop scooped it up easily, tagged second before I could get there and then threw to first. 

"Out!"

"Out!"

Julian and I were definitely out. Before I could sigh or turn back to the dugout, I heard yelling. 

"To home!"

I turned in time to watch the first baseman throw to his catcher at home plate as Garret was sprinting in. What. Why would he do that?? Did Mr. Miller tell him to go?

I held my breath as the catcher caught the ball and made the tag the same time that Garret came sliding in. They collided and both were laying in the dirt. The home plate umpire stood over them, pumped a fist, and declared. "Out!"

A triple play. 

The home crowd went wild. 

Our dugout on the other hand, went silent. The three of us went back with our heads hung low. A good opportunity died as quickly as it came. A few of the guys gave us sympathy pats on the back. 

I wanted to ask Noah what had happened, but him and the other field players had already rushed out. We still had to defend two more innings.