Back at the dugout, we were surrounded by the team and accepted compliments and cheers. Even Coach gave us a satisfied nod. Mahki was starting his at bat as we put away our helmets, and took a seat to rest.
After Zeke placed his helmet in his bag, he went up to Coach and they had a private discussion that didn't involve anyone else.
"Do you think that pitch hurt him?" Noah whispered to me as we both looked at Zeke and coach. Coach had his arms across his chest, his body slightly turned to the field so he could still watch the game going on. Zeke's arms were at his side as he stood ramrod straight. If he was injured, then he hid it well.
"He looks okay to me." I shrugged.
Noah squinted down the dugout, looking suspiciously at his oldest brother. "Yea, but he always looks like that. Happy. Sad. Mad. That's just his face."
I gave another weak shrug before leaning in. "What about Kyle? I'm more concerned about him..."
Noah waved me away. "Don't even bother. Kyle will either sink or swim on his own. Just field and focus on offense. I told you before, good hitting wins games, bad fielding loses games. Pitching is irrelevant."
I let out a laugh, and Noah joined in.
"What's so funny over here?" Sean scooted down the bench to be a little closer.
"Nothing much." Noah replied. "Just telling Jake that pitchers don't matter. They're just part of the game so the ball can be put into play."
Sean let out a laugh too. "Don't let your brothers hear you saying that." He elbowed me. "Don't take Noah's words too seriously. Pitchers can make or break a team. They're the core and we fielders are just side shows."
"That's a lie." Noah refuted. "Just look at the Mets last year. They had a great pitcher like DeGrom, yet they couldn't win a game to save their lives. Without batting, you can't win."
"No way, in the major leagues you need a good pitching staff if you want to make a run at 100 wins in a season." Sean argued.
They bickered throughout the rest of the inning, but I didn't pay any more attention to it since I didn't know much about the MLB. All I knew was some team names and even then, I couldn't name them all.
Instead, I watched our team finished out the inning. Mahki sent a very hard hit line drive to the second baseman for the second out, then Kyle struck out swinging, leaving Garret stranded on second base.
The second inning didn't hold much action for either team. Kyle was able to finish them off with a groundout to Julian at first, a swinging strikeout, and then a line drive right to Garret in left field. Three up, three down. The same went for us. Chris and kelvin both struck out swinging, and Julian only hit a fly ball to their left fielder. Three up, three down.
Kyle stood on the mound at the top of the third inning, looking more comfortable after shutting them out in the second inning. The third inning started with Durham's ninth batter, who popped out to Zeke in center field. After catching the ball, Zeke threw it in to Noah, who played middleman. Noah got the ball from him, and spent a few extra seconds looking to the outfield with an odd look on his face. Finally he shook his head as if he was lost in his thoughts and were trying to disperse them.
He turned and threw the ball to Kyle on the mound, not noticing my curious look pointed his way. He just peeked behind him, then faced forward, looking like nothing happened. I tried to do the same to focus on the batter coming up.
Kyle was back to facing the top of the lineup, starting with the guy who had hit a single off of him almost immediately. He didn't fare any better this time, giving up a line drive down the first baseline. It was just out of Julian's grasp, meaning that Mahki had to run to the corner where the ball had started to roll to. Julian went out to be the cut off man, Noah took near second, and I moved towards first to back up the catch in case Julian misses or Mahki overthrows.
Mahki picked the ball up out of the dirt and threw to Julian spot-on. Julian quickly relayed the ball to Noah at second base, but the batter had already slid into the bag safely before Noah could even attempt a tag. Noah gave the ball back to Kyle, who was back to looking whiter than normal. Oh boy.
We moved back to our positions, with Noah staying a little closer to second base than normal, making sure the runner didn't take a nice lead off the bag.
Kyle's pitches started to drift away from the strike zone again. The second batter hit an outside pitch between me and Julian. I took a few steps and dove for it, before it rolled to the grass. From my knees, I quickly fielded the ball to Julian for the second out. Julian stepped off first and pumped a fake throw to second, keeping the runner from advancing.
After making sure he wasn't going anywhere, Julian gave the ball back to Kyle. Kyle's struggles continued as he walked the third batter with pitches all over the place, and then even hitting the fourth batter. The cleanup hitter who had smacked the ball out of the park in the first inning.
Durham Preparatory started shouting accusations:
"That was on purpose ump!"
"He's just faking losing control!"
"He just so happens to hit our best player?!"
The yells not only came from the dugout, but the stands as well. It didn't take long for the Durham coach to step out of the dugout and our own coach followed suit. The home plate umpire called 'time' and met with the two coaches, with another ump coming to assist.
"Pot calling the kettle black." Noah spat out as he came over. "What a load of crap."
I shook my head in confusion.
Noah nodded towards the Durham dugout. "They're accusing Kyle of purposely hitting their best player, right? Well what about them hitting Zeke? Not only is he our best player, but he's the county's best player too. If the ump is going to discipline Kyle, he'll have to be fair and call it both ways."
"How?"
Noah started to answer me, but it looked like the coaches and umpires discussion had came to an end. The head ump took a few steps forward and pointed at our bench and then he also pointed at Durham's.
"See? He just issued warnings to both teams." Noah explained. "So the next time a suspicious or questionable play happens, he can eject the offender without argument."
I gulped and worriedly looked at Kyle.
"Don't worry. Kyle's fine." Noah tried to placate me. "The worst that can happen is that he continues to struggle and accidentally hits another player. Then he'll be ejected from the game and some other pitcher will take over. Pitchers are expendable like that."
My lips twitched at his last statement before he moved back into position. Noah really didn't hold pitchers into high regard and I wonder if that had something to do with growing up with Zeke as an older brother. You can't really see the importance of a pitcher if you have a brother who owns an unbelievable hit streak, no matter who the pitcher is.
With the bases loaded and two outs, the inning ended kind of anticlimactic as the fifth batter popped out to Chris at third base. Not that I have anything against boring when it was in our favor. It's just...maybe a little disappointing. Like it should have ended with a comeback strikeout from Kyle, or a great diving stop by one of us infielders, or even a jump at the fence to rob a grand slam by the outfielders.
I stopped my imagination from running wild and focused on getting my helmet on and pulling out my bat. I would be second up to start the bottom of the third inning. With our 3-2 lead, I'm sure Zeke won't mind if I get a hit or not.