438 Servite @ Golden West (1/2)

The rest of the car ride to Golden West was more relaxed. It felt a little weird with Kyle missing, but slowly that void was filled by the sophomores. It wasn't until we got to the game and ran into some of our other teammates: Garret, Alex, and Tanner.

Garret glanced around us, searching for the missing brother. "Where did Kyle go? Snackbar already?"

Dave rolled his eyes. "No. He's too busy dating."

Garret laughed, but the other two looked unsure of what to do. Garret tilted his head to the center bleacher that was filling up as the two teams were still warming up. "Should we grab some seats? Who knows who else will show?"

Zeke nodded. "Let's just sit at the top. Good view. Some of the guys told me that they were going to come so save some seats." He looked down at me and Noah. "Snacks and drinks?"

Noah scrunched up his nose. "Can't we get them later? We just had breakfast."

Zeke lifted an eyebrow. "It was a yes or no question. I don't want to play vendor in the middle of the game. Nor can I trust you two to do it on your own without causing some kind of problem."

"We're not kids, Zeke." Noah rebutted. "We've never caused trouble before."

Zeke's lips twitched, unable to reply. Or maybe just refusing to.

"Let's go sit, Jake!" Noah put his hands behind his head leisurely and headed for the bleachers. Noah led me and the others to the center bleacher and climbed up to the top.

Zeke pulled out his phone and spent some time on it as Dave told the three about Kyle choosing to hang out with a girlfriend instead. The sophomores talked to each other about their shared classes, leaving Noah and I with one another.

"I see Sanchez in the bullpen." Noah mumbled to me, eyes on the field. He checked out the two teams as seriously as Zeke would. Or will. I glanced over at him to find him still playing with his phone. Okay, so maybe he's not interested in their warmups. "Can't tell who that is for Golden West though."

"It's the guy we played the first time?" Bryce joined in, halting his conversation with Brian. "I thought for sure, with Brady being unavailable, they would use the pitcher that was able to hold us down."

Noah shrugged. "I don't pay too much attention to the stats. Do you guys know if Golden West have other strong starters?"

Brian pulled out his phone. "I'll just look him up. What's the number on his jersey?"

Noah squinted. "90...they must get to pick their own numbers. So unfair."

Brian was able to pull up his bio from the sports page on their athletics website. "He's a righty. Sophomore. First year on varsity. So far this season he has five starts, but only a 1-1 record. ERA is a respectable 2.18, WHIP is 1.21. Wow. Pretty good. Not too many strikeouts though. He doesn't have a whole lot of innings...he must be their spare wheel." He nudged Bryce. "Like you."

"Rude!" Bryce shoved him away. "At least I get more work in than you."