121 Game Four: Paradise Preparatory 4 (1/2)

Garret was back on the mound and was still pitching straight strikes. With a 0-2 count, their cleanup hitter, tapped a slow grounder my way. I greeted the ball, fielded it, and made a nice easy throw to Julian at first base for the first out.

The fifth batter in the lineup took two called strikes as well, then swung at the third. The grounder went straight to Noah, who had no troubles fielding it to Julian.

The sixth batter also took two called strikes. On the next pitch, he sent a grounder within Chris's reach. He snatched it up and made the throw to Julian for the final out. End of the second inning.

Garret and Jordan walked back together and I jogged with Noah. The whole inning seemed weird to me. Three groundouts? All at 0-2 counts? I glanced at the other teams dugout and saw them taking the field, preparing for the third inning. For a team that's down 5-0, they looked very relaxed. No signs of distress or worry could be seen.

”What's wrong?” Noah asked as we got back in the dugout.

I plopped down to sit. I took of my hat and scratched my head, unsure if I could put my feelings into words. ”It's strange.”

Noah lifted both eyebrows. ”What? What is?”

”Their hitting.” I put my hat back on.

Noah glanced at the other team on the field. ”Oh. You mean how they all grounded out? With two strikes for each of them?”

I nodded, looking at him expecting him to know what was up.

Noah put on his helmet and got out his bat, then shrugged. ”I don't know. Maybe it's their strategy? Like which infielder might be bad at fielding..? Don't worry about it for now. You did fine.” He headed to the entrance of the dugout.

Don't worry? Zeke had said that about Jordan's batting. Was there a link?

To start off the third inning, Julian, Chris, and Noah would go up. Julian started with a strong single between the third baseman and shortstop. Then Chris followed up with a single of his own, between first and second. Now that I've been having weird thoughts all game, this started to seem strange too.

I watched Noah's at bat closely. With a 2-1 count, he sent a grounder right to the shortstop. I watched as the shortstop fielded it, nice and slow. But then there was a weird hesitation as he looked at second and third. Nevertheless, he tossed to the second baseman on second, who threw to the first baseman. They got the double play.

As Chris and Noah jogged back, I thought about what I saw. It's like they were moving in slow motion. No. It was like all their movements were calculated. Like they didn't want to get the outs. I frowned.

”Hey don't make that face. I thought I hit a good pitch.” Noah sat beside me. ”For a second, I thought I would beat out the double play, but, oh well.”