747 V2 ch219 (1/2)

”It's your call, Dave.” Mitchell said, not bothering to cover his mouth as he spoke. ”You can face him or we can walk him and face Kelvin, who is 0-2 for today.”

Dave grinned and squinted. ”I'll take him on. I'm not one to back down from a fight.”

”That's how it should be.” Noah nodded in agreement.

Sean shrugged. ”At most, he can only score one run. We'll still have the lead.”

Jason let out a small laugh. ”Yo. Don't jinx him like that.”

Dave wasn't bothered. ”I didn't get to pitch against him last week. Might as well see if I improved at all.” He waved us off the mound, sending us back to our positions.

Dave looked rather relaxed on the mound despite his opponent. He got set and faced Zeke head on. He started with a fastball, low and inside. Zeke let it pass for a called strike. The second pitch was high, slightly still outside. Zeke didn't take the bait. Ball one. The third pitch came inside again, but a bit higher. Zeke fouled it down the line for strike two. Dave stared him down before the fourth pitch. He was going to face him. I could tell.

My stomach sank. If I could tell, then Zeke could definitely tell. I really wanted to yell out to Dave, but I froze as Dave started his motion. He threw a pitch with a little movement like it was dropping, but it didn't fool Zeke. He made perfect contact and sent the ball flying. Straight center. I turned to watch. Garret chased it to the fence, but it was just for show. He didn't have a chance at it.

Zeke ran the bases with a quick jog, tagging home plate after one last glance at Dave. On the mound, Dave was weirdly pretending to throw a ball, like he was trying to get the arm movement right.

”Dave!” Mitchell called for his attention before throwing him a new baseball.

Dave caught it and got set again. He wasn't upset about Zeke's homerun at all. Not even a frown. He bounced back well, getting Kelvin to strike out to end the inning.

We went back to the dugout.

”Not a bad outing, Dave.” Coach greeted. ”You're done for the game.” His eyes roamed the dugout. ”Luke, you pinch hit for the number six spot. Stretch while you're in the hole and make sure to take some quality practice swings in the circle.”

Luke nodded and started to prepare. He would be the third up this inning behind Sean and Korrey.

I went to sit with Noah. Both of us were watching Dave and Garret at the end of the dugout. There was no bickering or joking, just a quality discussion in low tones with Dave occasionally fake pitching. They looked at their fingers a lot, and eventually picked up a baseball.

”I think Dave is trying out a breaking ball.” Noah said.

Noah hummed. ”Guess he thinks he can't just rely on speed and accuracy.”

”Is that bad?” I asked.

”Depends on what he's trying to throw.” Noah told me. ”Some breaking balls can really mess you up if you're halfhearted. Or if you don't take care of yourself. There's a lot that goes into breaking balls. The way you hold the ball, the way you throw, those are just the basics.”

I nodded. I knew a little by now. We've seen Rhys in action. When he was trying out his slider, there was a lot that went into it. Even after practicing for a such a long time, he didn't have perfect control of it. ”Pitching is tough.”

”No kidding.” Noah sighed. ”Though, I wonder what Dave is trying out?”