Zeke had taken a few practice swings while the pitcher threw off the mound, but neither looked serious. They were both sizing one another up before the actual showdown. Righty vs. Righty. Zeke stepped in the batter's box.
The pitcher bent over and read the catchers signs, and nodded with acceptance. He stood straight, did a full windup and came at Zeke with some speed. Zeke returned the ball just as fast with an easy swing, getting it over the shortstops head. Then he took off to first like it really was a game. He rounded the bag just as the left fielder came in to field the hit. He picked up the ball and threw a bullet straight to the second baseman, who was covering the bag. Zeke started to slide and the tag came down. It was pretty close. One of the assistant coaches, acting an umpire, extended his arms and called safe.
The Atkins family as a whole, started to clap and cheer. I joined in, moved by their happiness for Zeke.
Zeke jogged back towards home plate, sparking confusion on why he ran if he was just going to bat again. Murmurs from around made me remember that quite a lot of people came, just for a practice. Tomorrow's game would have even more people. I swallowed the lump in my throat at the thought. No need to panic. Everyone will be sitting. And I'll be with Noah and the Atkins.
"Oi. Look! They're sending a baserunner to take Zeke's place at second." Noah patted my shoulder while pointing at the field. Sure enough, some player from the dugout with a helmet on ran to second base.
"He's not only testing Zeke. But his own players too." Willie's eyes didn't stray from the field.
"Why would he do that? Shouldn't he already know how they'd react?" Kyle asked, leaning forward to watch Zeke step up to bat again.
"It's better to have a runner instead of some hypothetical situation." Willie explained. "That way there's no cheating and no denying that something else could have happened. Look at the infield right now. With no outs and a runner on second, the middle infielders can't stray too far or the runner will steal. But they can't be in on the infield grass because they'll have a smaller chance of stopping grounders. If there was only a pretend runner, they could just cheat and hang back."
Oh, that makes sense. I let out a light smile, facing Noah. "Next time Zeke wants to do situationals, we should demand that there be a real runner. Otherwise how will I remember anything?"
Noah nodded, smiling even more than me. "No more cheating for Zeke!"
The twins both let out groans and started to conspire against us.
"That would make us the runners."
"I don't want to do that at all."
"Democracy. We'll tell Zeke we should vote on it. I'm sure we'll win. 3-2."
"Math homework." Noah taunted in a low voice so Mrs. Atkins couldn't hear. The twins stopped and stared at Noah, glaring daggers at him, making me shiver. "Be good. You don't want mom to ask any questions do you?"
"You would get Jake in trouble too." Dave narrowed his eyes at Noah.
Noah shrugged. "I'll just tell mom you bullied him."
They both shot him looks of disgust and disdain, but didn't say any more about opposing the real runner program.
A 'ding' sound reverberated around the stadium. Our heads all snapped towards the field, looking for the ball to see what would happen. Zeke's hit headed dead center, high in the air, giving us plenty of time to locate it.
The center fielder tracked it all the way down to the fence. Just when I thought it was a goner, the center fielder jumped, his gloved hands outstretched as high as he could get it. With a plop, he landed back on his feet. He then pulled the ball out of his glove and took two steps to make a strong throw to second base. The runner, who didn't go too far thankfully slid back, head first, narrowly beating the tag.
"What a grab! What a steal!" Noah jumped up. "Did you see that Jake? That's Bradley Thompson! He was number two in the country when he graduated high school. The timing on his jump was perfect. His height also gave him an advantage." Noah got all excited, but he wasn't the only one. The men that came to watch the practice was also impressed and shared their thoughts on it.
Willie was taking notes like his life depended on it. "The runner on second was also notable." He muttered. "Normally someone would take off on contact or even as it looked like it was going over. But he held himself back. He knows his teammates well. He probably guessed that Thompson could make a play at it and didn't want to risk the double play. Good judgment." He spared us a glance. "If you guys want to learn a little about base running, this kid looks good." He tapped his pen on his head. "I'm gonna have to get his name afterwards. Just in case."
By now, Zeke came back to the batter's box, picking up his bat. The runner on second took his lead off the bag as they started the new at bat. Zeke had learned his lesson and started to show great control with his swing, avoiding hitting balls towards Bradley in center field. Instead, he hit quite a few up the baselines and snuck some between the holes of the infield. After scoring an imaginary four runs, he grounded into a double play, ending the inning.
The coach had the team gather in once more and held a group discussion. He spoke with them at length, easily taking up twenty minutes. Just when I thought it'd go on forever, the team did a chant of 'Stanford!' Then they filed back to the dugout for their gear.
"Will you be waiting here for Zeke?" Willie stood up and asked the parents. "If you don't mind, I'd like to share a few words with him."