Today was overcast and windy, which made it a hitter’s dream because the wind was going out towards right field in the stadium. The other fields wouldn’t be as lucky as they would either get the wind blowing in towards home or even worse, a crosswind, depending on the field.
For our afternoon game, we were up against the Nationals. Their coach had put together a team of fast single-hitters. They were terrors on the basepaths, and their aggressive play had gotten them to a 4–2 record. Moose suggested that we play me at shallow center field to better support the infield.
Coach Kingwood was worried about the wind today and wondered if it would be better to have me play more of a traditional position. Moose countered that we’d only trailed once since the tournament had begun and that he suspected they would try to jump out early playing small ball. Later, if we had a lead, then the coaches could move me back to my regular place on the field. That was just in case the Nationals might try to get it all back with a single swing of the bat. Coach Kingwood decided to follow Moose’s advice.
In the first, we went down in order. Allard, the wild man from Arkansas, took the mound. I say ‘wild man’ because his mop of hair was blowing everywhere in the wind.
The Nationals’ first batter was their shortstop. He’d stolen three bases and only been caught once. He had a good eye at the plate and had earned himself eight walks. Coach Kingwood made sure Allard was aware of this. We’d also worked on defending bunts at practice this morning. While he hadn’t shown it yet, he was reported to be very good at laying one down.
On the first pitch, he squared around to bunt. Dave and Lucas crept forward at first and third while Joe moved a bit towards first to cover the bag in case Dave had to make the play. I was standing behind the second-base bag with my feet on the edge of the grass. I took several steps towards where Joe had been at second. It was good that I did because their batter pulled his bat back and then swatted the ball right to where Joe had moved from. I was already leaning that way and got a good jump on the ball to be able to field it and throw their runner out at first.
Their next batter used a similar ploy but actually did bunt the ball towards first. Trent jumped forward from behind the plate and waved both Dave and Allard off as the ball bounced up the first base line. Joe hustled over to cover first, but Trent was at a bad angle and ended up throwing the ball into the runner’s back. If Trent had taken a couple of steps into the field, he would have had a clean throw.
The ball trickled over towards our dugout and their first-base coach waved the runner to take second. Allard chased the errant ball down, turned, and threw to me by mistake. I was in short center and had planned to back up Mitch as he moved from short to cover second. When I caught it, Mitch’s back was towards me, so I decided to run the ball in and cover the bag. Their runner saw me coming and decided he wouldn’t make it. He turned to run back to first, but he hadn’t counted on my speed. I ran him down just before he reached first.
Their next batter hit a line shot up the middle that I caught on the fly for the third out. Moose’s strategy had paid off with me making all three outs in the first inning.
I was up first in the second. In the first inning, their pitcher had used a combination of sliders and fastballs to work the outer third of the plate to get our first three hitters out. I guessed he would do the same this inning, so I was looking for the slider on the first pitch. All I had to do was get a little lift on the ball and it sailed out of the park.
We held a 1–0 lead when I came back up in the fourth. With me essentially acting as an extra infielder, we had stymied the Nationals. Joe and Mitch were able to spread out some at second and short with my help up the middle. It allowed them both to track down sharply hit balls that normally would’ve been singles.
Dave had managed to get on before me, but up to this point, we’d continued with our pattern of stranding runners. Coach Kingwood motioned me over before I stepped out to bat.
“I don’t normally tell a hitter to do this, but try to hit a home run. We need to get out of this funk. Just use your best judgment, but see if you can’t knock one out.”
I was quickly up 2–0 in the count when I was thrown a slider that just missed and a fastball that was high and outside. The next pitch I thought was a slider, and I took a tremendous cut and missed when it didn’t slide.
“Holy cow, man, that was a serious swing,” their catcher commented.
“Have him throw me another one. I want to see how far it can fly.”
