191 Game Two: Durham Preparatory 4 (1/2)

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.