Chapter 797 - V3 ch32 (end of practice) (1/2)

”I can't let the twins down.” I said proudly. I can't wait to see them and have them compliment me on a job well done. Garret may be the better pitcher, but he's still on the same level as the twins if he can't strike me out.

Garret pulled me into a headlock and patted my helmet loudly, trying to give me a headache. ”You're starting to sound more and more like those Atkins. Now that you have brothers, you don't care about friends, do you?”

I laughed as I tried to get out of his grasp.

”There's always next week.” Coach reminded him.

Garret let me go. ”You think I can change anything in the next week, Coach? It took me forever to learn that pitch as it is.” He sighed dramatically. ”All that work just to have one pitch hit to the outfield.”

I looked to Mitchell. ”Does that mean you'll pair up with other pitchers next week?” Because he only worked with Garret today.

Mitchell nodded. ”Yea, I already promised a few of the other guys I would pair up with more pitchers next week. Don't know if it'll change the outcome for anyone though.” He laughed. ”You really killed it today. Great job.”

”Thanks.” I accepted his compliment.

”You three clean up here for me.” Coach instructed. ”There isn't any reason for you boys to join in the scrimmages so late. Take it easy and collect all the baseballs, then you can head home.” He headed to Alisha.

Garret pointed at the bucket of balls near the first base dugout. ”Mitchell, you can stay over here and collect the balls that we throw in.” He nodded at me. ”You don't need your glove. Just leave your bat here and let's work on getting all the baseballs you hit back to Mitchell.”

It was my turn to sigh. If I knew I had to clean up, I wouldn't have hit the baseballs everywhere. I would have tried condensing where the balls would go. Garret and I jogged out to the grass and picked up the balls, throwing them towards Mitchell, who was in charge of putting them in the bucket. It didn't actually take that long since Garret did a lot of sprinting for the far ones, and his throws were really accurate.

We cleaned up, put everything away, and packed our bags. As we headed for the parking lot, we ran into some players coming up from the lower fields.

Dave started to laugh obnoxiously. ”Let me guess. Jake still kicked your butt?”

Garret rolled his eyes. ”At least I gave it a shot.”

Dave reached for me, putting an arm around my shoulders and leaned down. ”Did you strike out at all, Jake?”

I shook my head. ”I came close a few times, but no.”

Dave grinned.

”I got him to a 1-2 count.” Garret defended himself.

”What was the deciding pitch?” Noah joined us.

”A slider.” I told him. I looked up at Dave. ”I hit to right field. Definitely would be a hit.”

Dave shook me around. ”What a champ! A new pitch can't even throw you off. You and Noah have made me proud today!”

I looked to Noah.

Noah beamed and straightened up. ”I got two hits off Kyle. And Dave pitched three scoreless innings with me as a catcher.”

”You can play catcher?” Mitchell asked. ”Should I be worried I'm going to lose my chance to start on varsity?”

Noah laughed. ”No way. I still prefer shortstop. That's where all the action is. Catching is okay because you get to touch the ball a lot, but it's not that exciting.”