"Hey! Not bad." Noah told me as I rejoined him and the group.
I sighed. "I only got three out of five. It's certainly not good."
"That last one was tough." Noah comforted me. "If this was a real game, with other players, then you wouldn't even track back that far. Zeke would have called you off a long time ago."
"Not everyone is Zeke." I pointed out.
"So pessimistic!" Noah exclaimed. He threw his arm around my shoulders. "Stop stressing. It's just preliminary grading. Plus, you might have a second chance if we can get done in time. Don't even worry about it. Hitting is more your thing than catching fly balls."
I frowned. "Yea...but catching fly balls is required in almost all games."
Noah spoke more words of comfort, but...they weren't comforting me anymore. I don't know what it is, but I don't feel like my hitting can keep compensating for my fielding. I'm not as bad as I was in the beginning, but...
I sighed. I have a lot of 'buts'.
The group finished in good time like Chandler said we would. He asked the group who wanted to try again. I raised my hand, however so did Noah. I glanced at him. I wasn't the only one.
"What?" Noah grinned. "No one said I couldn't do it again even if I was satisfied." He looked at Chandler. "I want to do it again."
"Alright." He noted down Noah's number. And mine. And then three others who also had mediocre performances like me. "The rest of you step aside."
This time I made sure to get in front of Noah. He gave me a look like I was being weird, but I consider this as strategy. There was only one guy before me and he had also gotten a three out of five. He did his second round and improved to four out of five. Good. I can do that too.
Coach Jason started to hit high fly balls to me again. This time it wasn't a wide variety in location. Three were straight and in front of me. Easy. The fourth one was over my right shoulder again. I turned to run and kept my head over my shoulder, trying to track the ball the best I could. At the last second, I knew I wasn't going to make it, so I dove. I could feel the ball in my glove, yet saw it bounced out when I hit the ground. Ugh. I clenched my teeth, picked the ball up, and threw it back.
Ball five went high into the air, and looked like it was going over me. I jogged backwards, got under it, and made the catch. Four out of five. It's an improvement too. I went back to the group as Noah came running out.
After two good catches, he caught a hard-to-reach fly ball over his shoulder, earning some claps from the coaches.
"Is he trying to show off to get a better score?" One of the guys mumbled.
I swallowed a nervous lump in my throat, yet stood up for my best friend. "Noah just likes to play..."
Travis laughed. "Yea, I see that too. That kid looked energetic after warmups, and then during sprints, he looked like he wanted to do more."
Some of the other guys agreed and I sighed with relief. I didn't want them to see Noah in a bad light. He just likes playing around.
Noah came back after making the last catch, grinning like he was in a good mood. "Man, I wish we can just play instead of doing this evaluation thingy. It's not as fun as I thought it would be."
Adam chuckled. "It's not supposed to be fun. It's like a test. You get graded and maybe they'll help you improve."
"Have you been to camps before?" Noah asked.
"Of course." He nodded. "I'm going to be a senior in the fall so I've been going to a few camps this summer. If I'm lucky, I can sneak into a D1 program. If not, I'll accept a scholarship to a D2 school near my home."
"Very cool." Noah nodded. "This is mine and Jake's first college camp."
"Oh are you going to be freshmen in the fall?" Travis asked.
"No, we'll be sophomores." Noah said.
"Back to the bags!" Chandler commanded. Everyone who had wanted to, had done their second round. We obediently followed him back and got a sip of water. "Bring your batting gear. Whatever you would normally wear during an at-bat. We're going to be doing two different stations that involves hitting so don't forget a batting glove or an elbow guard."
He gave us a second to grab our gear. Noah had pulled his hat off and put his helmet on so I copied him. He grabbed the same aluminum bat he's been using since I've known him, and then a pair of batting gloves.
I simply held the wooden bat that Jeremy had given me. Rhys hadn't said anything yet, about helping me get some cheaper wooden bats for practice so I was stuck using the only one I had left after that showdown with Rhys. I sighed at the thought of another broken bat.
Noah knew what I was sighing about with just a glance. "Ah, I forgot. Well, maybe Rhys did too. We can ask him at lunch."
I nodded.
"Ready?" Chandler glanced at us. "Alright, lets go. First stop, the batting cages."
A weight had been taken off my shoulders. The cages. My happy place.
Noah laughed at my face. "Looks like your confidence will be restored soon."
"I think everyone feels that way." Travis pointed out. "I don't know one baseball player that doesn't like hitting practice or playing in the batting cages." He laughed. "Maybe a few pitchers but even they like to practice hitting."
"You don't understand." Noah explained. "Jake didn't get to play baseball as a kid. He only got to play in the cages."
"That's too bad." Adam joined in. "Games are the best. Winning them is an even better feeling."
Noah smirked. "We win all the time." A few of the guys looked his way. "We were state champions in our division."
"No way! That's awesome." Travis said. "I could only dream about being a state champion. My school isn't that good so it's usually a long shot to even be league champions."
"My team is bad." Adam said. "But our school was just pushed into division three so it's been different this past year."
"We play in division three of the northern section. You?" Noah looked at Adam, excited to see a potential rival.
"Same!" He smiled. "What league are you in?"
"Bay Counties League!" Noah deflated after he said that. "But there's no new team in our league."
Adam nodded. "Yea, I didn't think so. I would remember if any of the schools we played against became state champions." He laughed. "You two must have made varsity to claim to be champions. Did you get any playing time as freshmen?"
Noah smirked. "We're starters. I play short and Jake plays second." That caught the attention of others who weren't interested in the beginning.
"Lineup by numerical order of your sticker." Chandler broke up the conversation as we reached the batting cages by the main field. The cages that I've been in before.