401 Game @ OLU (2) (1/2)

Top of the second started with Mahki. I sat beside Noah as we watched the bottom half of our lineup get ready.

Seeing the opportunity to talk to Noah, I spoke up. "Hey...did you see that the pitcher only threw Zeke curveballs?"

Noah nodded. "Yea, it's probably a tactic or something."

"What for?"

Noah shrugged. "To try and get Zeke out? What other reason could there be?"

"Does Zeke have trouble with the curve?"

Noah rolled his eyes. "No way..."

"But he just grounded out.."

"That's because you're too slow!" Garret fake punched my shoulder, just knocking on me. "You need to stop being so scared out there, Bambi. You've been working on you're running and sliding so why were you hanging so close to first base?"

Oh, it's because of me.. I slumped against the bench. "Sorry. I thought...Actually I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe it's a bad habit."

"Don't listen to him." Zeke said as he walked by. "I would have been out if he threw to first instead. Don't worry about it. Move on." He didn't stay long before going straight to Coach.

"You must be his favorite." Garret laughed.

Noah chuckled too, but before I could refute there was a loud 'ding' coming from the field. We turned to watch as did the rest of our team.

Mahki and hit a high fly to right field. The corner.

"Go, go, go!" Garret jumped up and yelled, trying to direct the ball.

The right fielder tried chasing it down but the ball dropped into the corner, bouncing off the outfield fence. He ran over, picked it up, and threw it back to the infield.

Mahki, who had been sprinting this whole time was on his way to third. The cutoff man, their second baseman, received the ball, and turned to throw it to third.

Mr. Miller was throwing his hands down to sign to Mahki that he needed to slide. Mahki dove head first at the base and used both arms to hug the base so he wouldn't slide pass it.

"Safe!" The umpire extended his arms.

Our dugout made some noise, cheering for Mahki's leadoff triple.

Julian came up next.

"Just get it to the outfield!" Noah cheered.

Julian complied, hitting a fly ball to left field. As soon as the left fielder caught it, Mahki sprinted off third base and tagged home as the ball was thrown back to the infield. Julian had done a great job hitting the ball far enough so there wasn't a play at the plate. 1-0.

Our dugout welcomed those two back inside and gave out pats and high-fives, as Jason went up for his at-bat.

The pitcher must have been tired or frustrated or both, because on the very first pitch, he nailed Jason with the ball. Luckily, Jason had turned away from the ball and it plunked him on the butt.

Noah laughed and I tried not to join him. It shouldn't be funny when a teammate gets hit.

Jason rubbed his butt pitifully as he jogged to first. Alex moved to the batter's box and Dave to the on deck circle.

Noah reached for his helmet and put it on. He stood up and stretched with his bat in his hands. "Hopefully they'll load the bases for me." He grinned.