Landon didn't let me down. He hit a single to right field and stayed on first base with a smile. I can understand his happiness. He already has two hits in front of a few scouts and was performing well.
Batter eight came up again. He had previously hit a line drive to center so it showed that the order of the lineup didn't matter much. Any of these guys could hit. Our team is full of players that performed the best this past weekend.
The pitcher for team two led with two balls outside, then tried for something inside. He threw a curve that didn't break and ended up hitting the batter in the butt. Batter eight was fine, and jogged to first base without any problems. Landon moved to second base.
A coach for the other team came out and called for a pitching change. Rather rare in this camp because the coaches have been fair to let the pitchers complete their inning regardless of the score.
Coach Leroy also made a change, putting in a pinch hitter for the pitcher in the nine spot. We both went out of the dugout together to take practice swings. Though his were more aggressive. Almost like he wanted to win this game right now.
My lips twitched as I watched from the corner of my eye. This guy had the same idea as me, hitting a homerun, but his swing screamed that he won't be able to do it.
And I was right. During his at-bat, he was over swinging. Too focused on the speed of his bat over making solid contact. He did get a piece of a pitch, hitting a grounder between the first and second baseman. The first baseman got to it first, fielded the ball, and threw to the shortstop at second. The shortstop threw to the pitcher covering first, but it wasn't in time.
Landon made it to third and now the ninth batter was on first, while the eighth batter was sent back to the dugout.
I walked up to the plate. Two on. One out.
The pitcher got set and threw his first pitch. Normally I would like to study a pitcher and his movements, nitpicking at his motion, but he threw a fastball right down the middle. Too good to pass up. I swung and pulled it to left field. The ball carried as I started to jog. It cleared the fence for a three run homerun. Landon scored. The ninth batter scored. I tagged home plate, greeted by the pair.
We now had a 5-1 lead.
Coach Leroy had a giant smile on his face as I came back into the dugout with the other two. "Knew you could do it kid."
"I got lucky." I stayed humble, knowing that a big part of my homerun came from the easy pitch I got. I glanced back to the field and saw that the other coach came out again, but just for a short chat on the mound.
Whatever was said, had calmed down the pitcher. He got the second batter to fly out to center field and then struck out the third batter to end the inning.
Top of the fifth. Coach Leroy had to find a new pitcher to send out. I watched his warmup from the corner of my eye, noting that he had some good speed. He started with the bottom of the lineup, but it didn't mean much in a game like this. We were all close to being equal. The top fifty to sixty players in this camp were divided in these two teams.
Team two sent out their eighth batter who pulled off a homerun shot of his own to make the score 5-2. The ninth batter also did some damage, hitting a double to the corner of right field. Back to the top of the lineup, the batter got under the ball but it was just a short pop up to me.
I made the catch and threw the ball back to the pitcher on the mound. "One out." I stated, trying to sound upbeat.
"One out!"
"One out, keep it going!"
"One out, two to go!"
The team started to echo, bringing some energy to the defense.
Team two came out with a pinch hitter...a familiar face...Adam. I guess he's finally getting his chance in the game. I felt some guilt that I would be playing longer on a better team while he couldn't even though he was better at fielding than me. It made me want to cheer for him during his at-bat.
Adam worked hard during his at-bat, fouling off four straight pitches in the beginning. He held back from swinging at the obvious balls and then fouled some more pitches that were too close to tell. By the thirteenth pitch, you could visibly see the distress and annoyance on the pitcher's face. He decided to challenge Adam by throwing a fastball in the middle low zone. Big mistake.
Adam swung with ease, taking advantage of the easy pitch, making perfect contact. The ball flew off his bat to left field. Landon chased it to the fence, timed his jump, but couldn't come down with the ball. A two run shot to make the score 5-4.
I resisted the urge to smile at Adam as he rounded the bases. He wasn't on my team after all.
Chandler came out to speak with our pitcher, probably giving him some words of comfort. The pitcher didn't bounce back as well as team two did. He gave up another single to the following batter. The next batter also put the ball into play, but we turned a double play to end the offensive.
Bottom of the fifth. Adam stayed in the game as shortstop. He saw action right away after our cleanup hitter hit a hard grounder right at him. Surprisingly, he bobbled the transition and dropped the ball, letting our hitter reach on an error.
"That sucks." Landon sighed as he put his helmet on. "He's probably beating himself up over that error." He grabbed his bat and went towards the entrance.
I looked at Adam closely, but couldn't see any anger on his face. If he's beating himself up over that, then he's pretty good at hiding his emotions. At least he hit a homerun to cover for that error. Maybe that kind of thought is helping him stay cool.
The pitcher didn't seem to care either. He just focused on the batter, trying to move on. He made a nice comeback with three straight strikeouts to end the inning. One of which was Landon.
"Man, what a letdown." He moaned as he switched his gear. "I was really hoping to be perfect at the plate today. It would be a great way to end the camp." We both headed for the field. "Even a groundout or fly out would have been better." He sighed.
I laughed. "And if you had either of those, you would have still wanted a hit."
"What can I say? Baseball players are greedy when it comes to their batting average." He laughed too.
We jogged to our respective positions as the sixth inning began. Our pitcher had changed once more, but at least there wasn't any homeruns this time. The fifth batter did hit a powerful line drive, but the center fielder made a diving grab to get the out. The sixth batter followed with a fly out to right field.
Team two did another pinch hitter, putting in Ansar in the seventh spot. I wanted to cheer for him too, however I was feeling a little superstitious right now. I mentally cheered for Adam and he hit a homerun; I didn't want the same thing to happen again so I held back.
Ansar worked the count in a similar way, but didn't get a hit. Instead he earned a walk. It didn't mean much though, because the batter after him hit a fly out to right field to end their sixth inning.
Bottom of the sixth, I would get another chance to bat. If the scores stayed the same, this would be my team's last chance at scoring runs. It wasn't a good start with the two before me hitting into groundouts. The first to short and the second to third. Unfortunately I came up with two outs and nobody on.
With nobody on, it wasn't hard for me to decide to try for a homerun again. The pitcher was different once again, and wasn't as silly to throw me anything down the middle. This time, I had to watch as I tried to find something good to hit. He threw a lot of breaking balls low in the zone. I fouled off a few until I tried to hit one to the right field fence again. The right fielder paused on the warning track, came in about a yard and made the catch to end the sixth inning.