The Hitting Zone

We, legitimately, watched baseball videos all morning. And not the fun kind. All of it was informative or a tutorial on what to do for each situational play. Noah had briefly gone over situational plays with me before my tryout, but we ended up not having to go over it since my batting impressed everyone. By lunch time, I had wrote down five pages of notes with an attempt at some diagrams for reference. Safe to say, I've retain at least half of it. Maybe.

I looked over my notes during lunch and on the way to the park, trying to make sure I'll pass the test Zeke wants to throw at me.

Their neighborhood park was bigger than what I had expected. It had a playground, soccer field, and a baseball field. We lugged our gear on over and placed it near home plate. Then Zeke had us do the same warmup as always, even though we weren't doing a full practice. Surprisingly the twins showed up with Garret and they joined our warmup.

"What are they doing here?" Noah asked Zeke.

"In situational plays we need extra players. Someone to hit the ball to Jake. Someone to play first. You'll play short. Depending on what I want to do, we'll need those guys to stand in for real players." Zeke informed us.

"Hey!" Dave yelled out. "You basically just called us lackeys!"

"And your point?" Zeke continued the warmup without stopping.

"Is this really the way you treat your younger brother, who's doing you a favor?"

"You're doing the team a favor. Not me personally. Take it up with Coach." Zeke remained expressionless as always. We wrapped up the warmup and got our gloves.

Zeke took up a bat instead and dragged a bucket of balls closer to himself. "I'll hit the balls since I have the best control." No one refuted. "Noah to short. Jake to second. Garret, you'll play first. Dave to right field and Kyle will be a catcher."

"Wouldn't Garret in the outfield be a better choice since plays it more?" Dave disagreed.

"I'm left-handed." Garret made a face. "It would only make sense If it was left field. Glove side closest to the foul line and whatnot."

"It's just practice." Dave put his hands on his head. "I don't want to go all the way out there and shag balls. Make Kyle do it instead."

Zeke's eyes cut through him, making me feel nervous for Dave. Zeke looked like he was about to thrash him. "Fine. Kyle does have the stronger arm. It would only make more sense to send him."

Kyle smirked at Dave. "You're right. I'll do it. Since I have a stronger arm." He jogged to the grass and found a good spot to stand.

Zeke ignored Dave's look of displeasure. "Since you're catcher, you're responsible for handing me a ball. And making sure the rest make it back into the bucket."

Dave grumbled and took a spot next to the bucket. He gave a ball to Zeke.

Zeke looked at me. "I'll be calling out the situation before I send the ball to you. You field accordingly. Every wrong one will equal a lap, which you'll run on Monday."

I nodded nervously and got set.

"No outs." Zeke smacked a light grounder my way. I quickly fielded it to Garret who waited at first patiently. Zeke nodded, satisfied. "Simple and quick. Next. One out, runner on first." He sent me another grounder towards my right hand. I bare handed it, and lightly tossed it to Noah, who was waiting on second base, then he fired it to Garret on first.

Garret whistled. "Not bad. Already attempting bare hands? You also paired with Noah very nicely."

"Wrong." Zeke shut down Garret's compliments with one word. "That'll be a lap."

"What. Why?" Noah looked as upset as I felt. That was my first real attempt at a bare hand and Zeke isn't even giving us credit as a pass?

"I said runner ON first." He stressed. "That could possibly mean he staying close to the base. Maybe without a lead. The batter could also be a slow runner. It would have been a safer play if you backhanded with your glove to ensure it didn't get past you. We don't need fancy and nice looking plays. We want safe plays that'll win games."

My jaw dropped.