Welcome back for another episode in the baseball players of Mayfield. Please give to the Nifty Archive. Please be safe. Please remember, none of this is true.
Eric organizes a meeting of the Mayfield Mustang varsity, hoping to light a fire under the team in his own understated way. But while the meeting was put together by Eric, the fire comes from an unexpected source.
Douglas thehakaanen@hotmail.com
CHAPTER 54 ...AND FOUND
<Wednesday, March 20>
Eric was stopped in the hall by Coach Sanders. He had just pulled some books out of his locker and was on his way to home room.
"Good morning, Coach," Eric said, flashing his trademark smile.
"Good morning, Eric. Are you ready for your big meeting?"
"I am. Thanks for letting us use your room to meet. It will be more comfortable than sitting on benches in the locker room."
"There are classrooms in the gym which you could have used. I thought a completely different atmosphere would help. I have something else to add to the meeting."
"Oh?" Eric asked skeptically. He didn't want any interference from the coaches—this meeting had to be players only.
"I talked to Coach Fitz." Coach Sanders was referring to Coach Fitzsimmons, the head football coach and the school's athletic director. "It seems we have the money to order pizza for lunch. I am excusing you from home room so you can pass the word and take orders."
"Thanks coach. That's great." Coach Sanders gave Eric a note, excusing him from home room and allowing him to talk to the baseball players in the various classrooms. Mayfield High wasn't a big school. Eric knew if he hustled he should be able to talk to all of the varsity players.
When the lunch period finally arrived, Eric was very nervous. He and Kevin had talked about what they wanted to say in the meeting. He understood that what he wanted to say and what he would end up saying would not necessarily be the same thing. He knew that the Mustang players were a strong-minded bunch. He also knew that this meeting was going to be much different than the one in the dining car of the "Coast Starlight." That one was impromptu, this one was planned.
Coach Sanders gave Kevin and Eric one more break, excusing them early from their third period classes to prepare the classroom for the meeting. The students in the coach's third period class were surprised when the pizza arrived, and very disappointed when they found out it wasn't for them.
"I guess being a jock has its perks that those of us with brains will never know," one of the freshmen nerds in the class said a bit bitterly as he left the class.
"I guess he never met Noah," Eric told Kevin with a laugh.
The fifteen players filled the classroom quickly and dug right into the pizza and soda. Eric brought the meeting to order, something he was experienced at doing. The theme for the meeting was set when Eric wrote "diamond dream/pipe dream" on the white board.
"This is something we need to decide," Eric said. "Is the dream we have had since sixth grade real, or has all the work meant nothing?"
That kicked off a long discussion, with a lot of opinions heard. At first only the seniors spoke, but, when Blaine kicked in his thoughts about the togetherness of the team, the other underclassmen spoke, too. Ironically it was a sophomore who set the challenge and opened up the gates for the Blaine's bonding idea.
"Back when Korey and I were batboys, I looked up to you guys, especially when you started putting all your work into starting up the Falcons," Chandler said in a confident voice. "I couldn't wait to be a part of it. You guys were nice to us, you were funny, you were sexy (he had to pause for a laugh there), but you were good players who played hard and as a team. And you had your dream, and I really wanted that dream, too. Now, all I do is hear complaining instead of hearing about dreaming."
He took a long pause, as if he was waiting for somebody to contradict him. When nobody spoke up, he continued. "We did that sex bonding last summer to get us together, and now we've forgotten we ever did it. All everybody does is complain about Marty and Rodney and those guys being gone, like it was them who had this dream. Now hardly anybody is up at the dugout screen cheering and yelling. It's like a couple of guys are there for their buddies, but hardly anybody is there for the whole team.
"Well, I might just be a sophomore, but I know this much. You guys had this dream. Yeah, those seniors were there to win that championship last year, but you guys had the dream. Every time you're on your own, though, you forget all about it and think you only won because they were on the team and that you're not good enough."
Chandler paused again. The room was still quiet. "If you never thought you were good enough, why did you put all that work into everything? Guys, I've been around you since I was fucking nine years old and all I saw was guys who had a dream to win and I was dreaming right along with you. Now the time is here to make the dream real and all you can say is, `fuck, we're not good enough...we can't win.' Dudes, you're better than this in every way there is to be better. We need to be a team...all of us."
The sophomore kept waiting for the seniors to tell him to shut up, but still nothing was said. Perhaps it spoke to the fact that Chandler had been around them since he was a fourth grader and they had grown to respect him, even if he was an underclassman. Not many sophomores on any senior laden team could have gotten away with getting on the case of the seniors like Chandler was doing.
"I guess that's all I have to say. I think I talked too much."
Eric chimed right in. "Chandler is right. It's time for us to quit crying about things we can do nothing about. It's time for us to quit just being dreamers. It's time for us to start doing what we kept dreaming of doing. Our next two games are against what the papers say are the top two teams in the league. We are as good as they are, and now we either prove it or we'll be making other plans when the postseason tournaments start up.
"I had a chat with Blaine a couple of days ago." That brought a murmur from the team, since nobody ever saw Blaine as the type to have a chat with anybody. "Blaine said looking at us as a junior he could see we weren't together as a team. Even us seniors weren't together." Eric elected not to get into the entire clique thing. "Chandler just said the same thing. These are guys who weren't part of the start of our dream looking at us and saying we don't have our shit together." Eric's use of the word "shit" produced a light chuckle from the team.
That was when Eric brought up Blaine's idea, and he made sure to give Blaine credit for it. He talked about how he and Blaine spent time together and got to know each other better. He didn't tell how Blaine gave his first ever blow job. Without using the word clique, Eric talked about who hung out with whom. He said maybe it was time for each of them to spend some time with a couple of guys outside of their little group, just to get to know their teammate. They'd been very close to the seniors on last year's team, yet somehow they hadn't connected with the classes below them.
"Is there going to be a list like with last summer's sex thing?" Hunter asked.
"First, let's make sure everybody understands that this isn't about sex. Just go have some fries and a milkshake with somebody after practice. There will be no list, nobody keeping track. Just do it. Like everything else we've been talking about. No more dreaming or thinking about doing stuff. We are good enough to just do it. Yeah, we have two of our toughest games coming up and this might not be enough. After we win them and get back in the race, we need to be totally together to be an elite team right down to the end. It's not too late to do it. We've gone back to the I' instead of We", and that's what everybody has been saying. Good teams, confident teams, are all about `We'."
There was some more discussion, along with the usual rah rah stuff. The meeting broke up at the bell. Eric asked Noah if he thought the meeting had accomplished anything.
"I think it did," Noah said. "Chandler was the man. The sophomore stepped up. He's going to be one hell of an athlete in this school. No, more than that, he's one hell of a person—a born leader."
Maybe the best answer to Eric's question to the accomplishments of the meeting happened at the practice that afternoon. While he practiced what he preached by asking Toby, one of the juniors and a boy he realized he hardly knew, to be his warm-up partner, he was pleased to see that every player on the team had a new warm-up partner.
When he had lunch with Toby the next day, he found out what a bright and humorous kid he was. It wasn't going to happen in a week, but the cliquish walls that had been erected on the Mustang baseball team were slowly starting to come down. Next week they would find out how that carried over to their play on the baseball diamond.
<Friday, March 22>
Coach Sanders had changed some of his ways of doing things since taking over the Mustang baseball program. He could see that things that worked at the middle school level didn't necessarily work at the high school level. He also realized that just because something worked with a younger, inexperience high school team didn't mean it would work with a veteran, senior laden team.
He used to wait until the day before the game to name the starting pitcher and the day of the game to announce the starters. Now he announced the pitchers the week before. He used to always bat his starting pitcher low in the order, no matter how good a hitter he was. This season he decided to go with the best lineup he could construct from the players he was starting. As the JV coach at the middle school, he was all about development. With a team consisting of veteran seniors, he was now about winning. Having Eric bat second, even when he was pitching, made the Mustangs a better team than batting him seventh or eighth.
Because the weather was still chilly, Coach Sanders held his usual post-practice meeting in a gym classroom rather than on the baseball field bleachers. He talked about how he'd noticed some real improvement in the overall attitude in practice. Since both the JV and varsity sat in on the meeting, he didn't mention that his comments were mostly directed at the varsity, but then he didn't have to.
The last thing Coach Sanders did before dismissing the team was name the starting pitchers for the two games coming up the next week. Eric crossed his fingers, feeling almost like a middle school student. He knew Ben would be pitching for Kentburg since the Royals had their bye next week. He wanted badly to pitch against his friend and rival. Eric and Ben had become good friends since the tournament in Reno. They were not friends in a sexual way. They hadn't had any kind of sexual contact since that tournament. Rather, they were friends because they found that they had a lot in common and because they genuinely liked each other.
But when they faced each other on the baseball diamond, they were all business. Neither one gave any quarter nor were they expected to. Their rivalry was friendly, but intense, and the two seniors loved it when they were matched up.
"Eric, you'll be facing Kentburg at home on Tuesday," Coach Sanders said. Eric said a silent "yes!" to himself and Noah flashed him a knowing smile. "Scott, you've got Lakeshore at their place on Thursday."
Coach Sanders understood that there was a friendly rivalry between Eric and Ben, but that wasn't the reason for the way he made the matchups. He knew that Scott generally gave up more runs than Eric. While the Mustang offense had shown some life against Winston, the coach could see there was more work to be done. Hitting against Ben would be difficult even if their offense was playing with confidence. He was expecting a low scoring game. He felt Eric gave the Mustangs the better chance of winning that kind of game.
Lakeshore, on the other hand, had maybe the toughest offense in the league, but their pitching was average at best. Coach Sanders felt Scott was good enough to keep the Sentinel's offense in check. He was also confident that the Mustangs would score more runs against Lakeshore than they would against Kentburg.
His matchups pleased both Eric and Scott. The next week would be an interesting as well as a crucial week.
Eric and Noah showered and left the gym together. As they walked out into the street, he got a text message chime. He saw it was from Ben.
"r u pitching tues?" it asked.
"yes," Eric texted back.
"me 2. gonna b fun. cant wait."
Eric showed Noah the text as they waited on Noah's mother to pick them up. Eric was going to spend the weekend at Noah's house. He knew Jeff would be spending Friday night with Nicky and was certain it would be a very interesting weekend.
<Sunday, March 24>
[COACH SANDERS]
Although it's been hard for me to put my finger on the reason, I have noticed a definite improvement in the attitude of the varsity. The big change I'd seen was the cliquishness I'd noticed was less obvious. Players were warming up and pairing up with somebody other than their boyfriend, their best friend, or somebody in the same grade.
I had been thinking for quite a few days that I needed to address some obvious problems, and the little cliques that were forming was one of them. Phil kept telling me to be patient, that this group of boys had a way of policing themselves. I knew he was right, but I also couldn't watch what should be a great season go down the toilet. Then Eric and Kevin came to me with the idea of a players only meeting at school, one that had to do with the team, not with their Go to State organization.
I also heard about Scott, Danny, and Carl spending a lot of time at the cages. Since they were with Phil, how could I not hear about it? Phil told me they put some serious work in and I was seeing those results in our own batting practices.
This might sound strange after having coached a team to the State Championship last year, but I felt the two games coming up this week were the most important pair of games of my still brief coaching career.
[NOAH]
What a great weekend we had. Friday night was the expected wild night, what with Jeffrey spending the night with Nicky and Eric with me. Nicky and Jeffrey were all over the place. Even at thirteen and twelve, they were a hyper pair. Eric and I agreed we were much more sedate at that age and managed to not drive our parents nuts. I think my mom and dad were happy to see Eric and me lead Jeffrey and Nicky upstairs. I'm sure they knew we were going to be naughty with the younger pair, but they didn't care. We could have tied the two tweens naked to a tree outside, and my parents would have been just as happy.
Instead Eric did to Jeffrey what that little seventh grader had been wanting for a year now—he fucked him. Nicky and I watched. I have to say that Jeffrey really gets into sex when he does it. Eric fucked him pretty hard seeing as what a skinny little runt he was, but Jeffrey claimed it wasn't nearly as deep and hard as what Marty did. I guess that makes Jeffrey a tough little runt, too. Eric ended up filling Jeffrey's butt and Jeffrey ended up squirting his clear cum over his own belly and chest and rubbing it in.
I then went up Nicky's ass. We didn't last long since watching Eric and Jeff had gotten us pretty worked up. Jeffrey wanted us to both cum on him, which is what we did. He rubbed his cum, my cum, and Nicky's all over his torso and on his face. He said he wished he'd told Eric to cum on him, too. I knew that having cum all over him was a fetish of his and it was kind of sexy to watch him rub it around himself. He told us he was going to be sleeping that way.
Jeffrey didn't stay on Saturday. His parents wanted him home for at least one night each weekend. It was quite a bit quieter on Saturday with Eric and me enjoying some high quality lovemaking as opposed to the wild and crazy sex of the night before.
On Sunday, dad took me, Eric, Blaine, Toby, and Justin to Centralia where we did some work in the batting cages. It was not only fun to work on our hitting; it was fun to get to know the three juniors better. Even Blaine acknowledged that Toby and Justin made a cute couple.
Eric and I spent Sunday night in our own beds, which we did Sunday, unless we had a Monday baseball game that Eric was starting. Even big time seniors like us like the idea of Sunday being family night, especially with us going away to college in the fall. I know Eric and I are both smart enough to appreciate how lucky we are to have such great parents. In my case we can add my siblings, even if Nicky and I are the only ones living at home now.
Monday, I slept with Eric, as per his pregame ritual on the nights before he was the scheduled starting pitcher. Before turning in we got naked, meditated in his room, talked a bit about baseball, and crashed. There was no sex. Eric's pregame ritual did not include sex.
<Tuesday, March 26>
[ERIC]
When I woke up I wasn't nervous. In fact, I felt relaxed and confident. Noah's presence helped, of course, but for the first time since we started turning out, I had the sense that the Mustangs were moving in the right direction. That didn't mean we'd automatically beat the Kentburg Royals—after all Ben was probably the best pitcher in the league. I do have to admit that some think I might be just as good a pitcher, or maybe even better, even if I don't have his raw skills.
I had lunch in Coach Sanders's room. I got him to agree to allow Noah and me to eat in his classroom on the days I was pitching. I told him it was all part of me getting myself mentally prepared. He nodded and said he was okay with it. He added that he probably would often be eating with us in his room as well. I told him it was his room and that I didn't plan on chatting with him anyway.
After fifth period I saw I'd received a text from Ben. "n e other game id say good luck. ur team isnt winning but I no there good." I couldn't help but smile. I sent back some similar sentiments.
The weather was gray and cool; usual March weather. But it was dry, which is usually not the case in March. When I warmed up in the bullpen before the game, Kevin said he could tell I was ready. He said I had really good stuff. I thought the same thing.
We had a really good crowd turn out for the game. The game was all it was advertised to be. The writers from the Kentburg and Mayfield weekly papers were there, and so was the writer from the Centralia Daily. They all wrote later that there was no way they could miss the matchup between the two top pitchers in the league.
As expected we didn't hit much. After all, Ben was good. However, we got hits at key times and had a 2-0 lead after five innings. Kentburg's offense didn't seem to be much better than ours, and not because I held them in check. They appeared to be only four deep when it came to good hitters. We were much deeper than that.
The Royals scored a run in the top of the sixth. They got a one out single. The runner stole second when the next batter struck out. My strikeout pitch was in the dirt and got by Kevin. Not much got by Kevin, but this pitch did. He managed to throw the batter out at first for the second out, while the runner on second made it to third. He scored on a weak little hit to second which Noah couldn't make a play on. The next batter popped up and the inning was over.
Coach Sanders had Korey warm up Lars in the bullpen. He told me I'd be starting the seventh, but he wanted Lars to be ready. We got an insurance run when Scott led off the inning with a triple. Carl, who hit the ball hard in his first two at bats with nothing to show for it, belted a long fly ball to deep center. Their center fielder caught it, but it was so deep there was no way he'd be able to make a play on Scott, who tagged up and scored standing. I pitched a 1-2-3 seventh and we ended up with a huge 3-1 win over our arch rivals.
Ben talked to me after our teams shook hands. "You guys are way better than your record says," he told me. "That Justin kid is a fucking vacuum cleaner at short. You guys still play great D. And you pitching a four-hitter, wow, great game dude. I hope we both pitch the next time we play each other."
"You did okay yourself."
"You were a little bit better, plus you guys got the big hits to score. We got hardly any hits at all. That's now new. We're not as good as people think. The bats just aren't there, and when somebody else other than me pitches, our pitching isn't that great either."
After showering a bunch of us ended up having pizza at The Bear. And by a bunch, I don't mean just seniors. There were ten of us there and once again we didn't bother sitting with just our best friends. We were becoming more of a team, and beating the Royals today didn't hurt when it came to showing how a "team" felt.
<Thursday, March 27>
[KEVIN]
The bus ride to Lakeshore was a quiet one. Even the girls' softball team kept their usual chatter down. The Sentinels were undefeated. We were 3-3 and 2-3 in league. Even though we beat Kentburg, who everybody says is one of the best teams in the league, I had a feeling Lakeshore wasn't going to take us serious.
I don't know if they took us serious or not. All I know is Scott pitched his ass off. Yeah, he gave up some hits and some runs, but damn, these dudes could hit and overall he kept them in check. They'd scored 55 runs in their first five games, and only Harborview kept them under five runs in a game. Lakeshore won that one 4-3.
Our scouting report said their pitching was decent, but not great. It also said that they weren't very good on defense. Everything the scouts said was true. Okay, I know scouts sounds a bit big time. We really have just one scout, and that is Coach Miller, who gets off work early to scout the good teams.
Mark was our umpire for the first time this season. He worked home plate and it was good to talk to him some between innings. But this was a big game, and we kept the chit chat down during the game, although the two of us could never stop all of our talking.
The game was exciting. Like I said, Scott pitched good, but they were a tough lineup to pitch to. The lead bounced back and forth. After five innings the score was tied at 5-5. It was nice to see us hitting, especially Carl, who struck out on a pitch in the dirt his first at bat. But, in his second at bat, he knocked a long shot off of the left field fence with runners on first and third. Eric was on first, and the dude might not be big, but he can motor. He came home safe by a whisker. That gave us a 4-3 lead. As you can tell, we didn't hold it.
Because Scott had thrown a lot of pitches, Coach Sanders brought Blaine in to pitch in the sixth, which I thought was a smart move. Scott was running on fumes. The Sentinels got three hits that inning, but none of them were hit hard, which pissed us off. But it happens. It's not like we haven't blooped teams to death. Blaine did a good job of damage control, though, and Lakeshore only got one run. That made the score 6-5 in favor of the Sentinels, and we had to score to stay alive.
No problemo. I singled to start the inning. Toby was my designated runner and he came in to run. Noah hit for Kraig. Some of us thought Coach would signal bunt, but he didn't. He wanted more than one run if he could get it. Instead he gave the hit-and-run. Noah executed it perfectly, slapping the ball through the hole between second and first as Toby took off for second base and the second baseman moved to cover the base. By the time the right fielder got to the ball, Toby was chugging for third. He slid in and Mark made a good call when he signaled safe.
Hunter hit next and scored Toby on a single up the middle. But that was all we got. The score was 6-6 going into the bottom of the seventh. The Sentinels went down in order. We were going into extra innings.
We had our two-three-four hitters up to lead off the eighth and were feeling pretty good. What might have been didn't happen as Eric lined out to short, Scott flied to right, and Carl struck out again. Blaine pitched another inning, giving up a two out double. But he got out of that little jam and we were off to the ninth.
We saw the same pitcher in the ninth that we saw in the eighth. This time the results were different though. Danny started us off with a double. I was up next and grounded out to second. The second baseman made a good play and nailed me at first, as Danny moved up to third. It's what they call a productive out. If you ask me, I'd rather get a productive base hit any day.
Kraig, who had re-entered the game, hit for himself this time and singled in Danny. That gave us the lead. Hunter hit a line drive that rolled to the fence. He ended up with a triple and Kraig scored. We were up by two runs. Trust me, everybody in the dugout had been up and cheering the whole game. This was way different from how quiet we had been the first few games. Everybody had his head in the game.
Korey hit for Blaine and struck out, but Justin singled to score Hunter. Eric hit a hard line drive to third and got robbed of a hit for the second straight at bat. We had a 9-6 lead. Lars, who was our closer, got his first chance to close this spring. He got the first two batters out, walked the next batter, and then got a big strikeout. The Lakeshore Sentinels weren't undefeated any more, and we had our third straight win.
Coach Sanders got some big news on the bus ride home. Chinook upset Harborview 5-2. That meant only Lakeshore had fewer than two losses.
"That makes two upsets today," Lars said.
I asked him who had the other upset.
"We did. We beat Lakeshore, remember?"
"Um...Lars, I love you a lot. But that doesn't mean you don't have things to learn," I told him.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that our win over Lakeshore was no upset."
<Monday, April 1>
[CARL]
I admit it. I stunk to start the season. I stunk and I blamed it on everybody else. I was back to being my old fat self, even if my body was no longer fat. The good news is I've got good friends and good teammates. Danny is the best friend a guy could ever have, and Scott has become a great friend in the last year.
Scott's always seemed a little standoffish. He was best friends with Danny back in elementary school. Then he became best friends with Eric in sixth grade. They were almost like boyfriends. The thing that interested him the most was chasing girls. But it became one girl real fast, and that was Tama.
Tama had been a real bitch and treated him like crap. Then she got nice for a long time. Over the last year, though, her inner bitch, as Danny likes to call it, has come back. That's when Scott started hanging with Danny and me. And by hanging, I mean us not only hanging around together, but being bed buddies too. The three of us love girls and none of us are virgins, but there is something special about sex with a buddy.
Eric is the other guy I need to mention. He had a lot of quiet talks with me when my attitude sucked. He's not a loud type leader and team captain like Marty was. He's just mega-organized, and he's got no problem quietly calling you on your shit. With him, Scott, and Danny showing me what a dickhead I'd been, I think I've been turning things around. At least I'm not blaming everybody else for my own problems, and I guess that's a good start. Eric told me my attitude needed adjusting and I listened.
Today is the first day of spring break. I know, we had Saturday and Sunday off, but this is the first official day—those two days are weekend days. We have practice at ten the next two days; otherwise, the days are free. Me, Danny, and Scott plan on hanging out a lot, which is good. I got this itch in my butt that both of them know how to take care of.
The Mustangs are turning things around since our meeting. I'm turning things around since our day at the batting cages and my attitude adjustment. We all thought we had a great team and just had to show up and kick ass. That's not how it works. We had a team attitude adjustment at the lunch meeting. I really think that last part of the season is going to be amazing for both me and the team. I really, honestly do.
<Wednesday, April 3>
Wednesday of spring break was the day of the traditional Nooner for the Mayfield Mustangs. For the first time ever, their opponent would be from out of state. They would be playing against the team from Multnomah High School in Oregon. The Sockeyes were undefeated and would be a tough opponent for the resurgent Mustangs.
As usual, the stands were full for the annual Nooner. Those who could get off work did so. Many took an extended lunch. The cheerleaders did their cheers and the pep band played loudly to add to the atmosphere.
Eric started the game, pitching two scoreless innings. Blaine pitched the next two, giving up two runs in the third. A two-run double by Hunter in the fourth had Blaine leaving with the score tied at two.
Scott came in next and was shaky. His control was off and when he did throw strikes he was hit hard. His pitches were up in the strike zone, which was always dangerous for a pitcher. He gave up two runs in the fifth and one more in the sixth. The Mustangs went into the seventh down 5-2.
[COACH SANDERS]
Phil and I talked long and hard about the state of the Mustangs the night before the Nooner. Phil is my partner and is the summer coach of the upperclassmen, so knew the players well. We both felt that the lunch meeting the boys had called for themselves had been productive, at least judging by the result. The caliber of play had improved, and the negative attitude seemed to be dissipating. While we don't know exactly what went on behind the closed doors of my classroom, we do know that it had been a much more low key meeting than the one a few years ago in the dining car.
I've learned that improved attitude and level of play don't always translate to wins, and the Nooner against an excellent team from Oregon looked to be that kind of game. We had played well and played hard, but it was a game where we always seemed to be a step behind.
A shaky two innings by Scott, along with our usual problems on offense, saw us going into the seventh down 5-2. As was the plan, I had Lars pitch the seventh inning, no matter what the score was. He did an excellent job, putting their 4-5-6 hitters down in order. Now, we had to make up a three run deficit against a good team in the bottom of the inning.
I couldn't help but notice the entire team standing at the screen that protected the dugout. The team was animated and noisy, even with us being down by three runs. This was not the quiet, laid back, almost indifferent group that had started the season. They might be three runs down, but they acted like they were three runs up.
I'd had Toby in the game playing third in place of Danny. I reentered Danny, which had him leading off the inning. He got the inning off to a good start with a bouncing single up the middle. Lars struck out swinging, which brought us to the top of the order.
Justin was our leadoff man. He made good contact, had good speed on the bases, and was a smart hitter. He wasn't as polished as Jerome had been, but he was an above average hitter for our level of ball. Justin worked a walk, which brought the tying run to the plate in Noah.
Noah was smart, fundamentally sound, and competitive. Although he's not the most talented player on the team, nobody was going to out work, outthink, or out play him. He did the right things at the right time. But, baseball is so often a game of failure and he couldn't come through this time. His groundout to first managed to move the runners up a base, which gave him a productive out.
Scott had started in the three-hole, but I'd substituted Gavin for him in the fourth inning. I could have reentered Scott, but this was a nonleague game and I wanted to see what Gavin could do. My feeling here was that it could only help us to put him into a clutch situation. It was not a good idea to send the message to a senior that you didn't trust him. Gavin didn't have much of a chance to show what he could do as he got plunked in the ass by the second pitch, loading the bases for Carl. There was a pause in the action as the Multnomah coach changed pitchers.
Carl is a bit of an enigma. We all know how hard he worked to go from the fat kid in his class to an excellent athlete who had signed a letter of intent with Montana. He and Scott are our two best hitting threats. A lot of people like to compare him to Marty, since they both could hit the ball a long way. Marty was an incredible talent, and once he got his mental act together his talent blossomed. He was a disciplined, patient hitter, as well as an intelligent player overall. He not only could hit the ball a long way, he also hit it often, as evidenced by his .540 batting average.
Carl, on the other hand, could generate a lot of ooohs and aaahs with his power, but he often lacked discipline at the plate, chasing pitches that were out of the strike zone. The result was a .240 average so far, and he was still looking for his first home run.
Carl got overeager and swung at a pitch up in his eyes.
"Patience, Carl. Make him pitch to you," I called out in baseball cliché fashion. I knew he knew what to do; he just needed to do it.
The pitcher decided to pitch to the same spot on his second pitch, but Carl didn't bite. He took the next pitch, which might have been a little outside, for a strike, and found himself in the hole at one and two. He showed some discipline on the following pitch, holding up his swing on a pitch in the dirt. The count was now even at two and two.
The pitcher decided to come in high again, only he didn't go high enough. Carl put all of his energy into his swing and the ping of the ball off his aluminum bat sounded sweet. As soon as the ball left his bat, there was no doubt that we had just picked up a come from behind, walk-off win. The Multnomah left fielder only moved a few steps and then stopped to watch the ball soar over the fence.
Carl's grand slam gave us a 6-5 win. As I watched the kids celebrate, I couldn't help but think that this team was starting to play to its potential for the first time. Maybe they were finally coming out from under the shadow of the graduated seniors. I don't know about them, but I was more than ready to watch them play the game at their best.
Next: Playing the Game