475 CIF Semifinal: Anderson HS 1 (1/2)
”We'll start with Kyle on the mound today.” Coach told the team as the bus drove towards the sunset, heading for the coast. Coach looked at Kyle. ”Work hard, try your best, and don't lose your cool. Anderson has a great lineup. It rivals ours, if not better.”
”I can handle it.” Kyle's voice broke midway through his sentence causing the whole bus to laugh and for him to turn red.
”I'm not asking you to.” Coach said with a small smile. ”You throw what you can. Garret will come in once you get tired. Dave and the rest will be in the bullpen just in case.” He turned serious. ”This is the farthest our program has ever come in CIF. We win, we go to the finals. We lose, and there won't be another game.”
The team stopped laughing and sobered up.
”I don't want to sound like a broken record boys.” Coach told us. ”I'm not the one that can go out there and do all the work for you. You have to give it your absolute best. If you don't, you won't just be letting yourselves down. But your teammates too. The ones who didn't get to play. The ones who didn't make varsity and for the ones that were sent down. You have to give the underclassmen something to look up to and strive for.”
”Striving to be like Zeke isn't enough?” Noah joked.
Coach's face twitched. ”That's not a team goal.”
”It should be.” Noah said excitedly. ”Could you imagine a whole team of Zekes? We would crush every game.”
”You realize that Zeke doesn't pitch, yea?” Garret asked.
Noah rolled his eyes. ”Who needs pitching when you got a team full of Zekes?”
”I think a team full of Jakes wouldn't be so bad.” Dave laughed. ”Could you imagine how they would all jump in unison every time a ball is hit? It'd be hilarious.”
Some of the guys laughed and I bowed my head.
”That just means he's always ready for the ball to come his way.” Noah shot back.
”Okay, that's enough.” Zeke stood up at his seat in the front and turned to face everyone. ”You all know the drill. Seven straight innings of hustle to get to another game.”
”Killjoy.” Noah mumbled.
”Lineup.” Coach announced. ”Mahki, Julian, Jake, and Zeke. We're visitors for this game too-” Some of the guys groaned. ”There's no helping it. This is the consequence for not going undefeated in league. Not much we can do about it now. Back to the matter at hand, you four need to get on and score early. Let's try and give Kyle some breathing room.” He made eye contact with the few of us. ”Garret, Kyle, Noah, Kelvin, and Jason will be the bottom half. That doesn't mean you five can slack off. If anything, you have more time to study the pitcher.”
”I would have practice my batting a little more yesterday if I had known.” Kyle groaned, resting his head on the seat in front of him.
”Like that would have helped.” Dave scoffed, making more of the guys laughed.