239 Zeke’s Tryout 4 (1/2)
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.”