The Hitting Zone

The atmosphere at Friday's practice was filled with tension. Warmup was silent like always, but seemed to be at a faster pace. Everyone was kind of acting like Zeke: serious and bland. Even Noah. For the first time since knowing the trainer, I was happy to be with him instead of the team.

We worked out just as hard as any other day. I would definitely need an ice bath tonight if I wanted to be somewhat not sore for tomorrow. After training with him, I was sent back to the team, then we started to run plays. We worked on fielding, double plays, and getting the ball back to the pitcher as soon as possible.

At the end of practice, coach gathered all of us and had us stretch as he spoke. "Tomorrow is the Tulare Invitational. You boys know it's a single game elimination format. You also know that we'll play game one against Villa Park. What you don't know, is my thoughts about this weekend. I believe this is the best team we've had in the history of Watsonville baseball, including last year. We're not just going to try and win this tournament, we WILL win." The team cheered. "Settle down. We still have to put in the work. Let's talk strategy." He nodded at Zeke.

Zeke stood up and took a piece of paper out of his back pocket. "This is the lineup Coach and I came up with. Save all objections until the end." He stood in the center of our stretch circle. "Lead off will be Noah Atkins, shortstop."

Noah jumped up. "Yes! Woo-hoo!"

Zeke glanced at him. "Your job is to get to first. Your fast and able to steal bases but that only matters if you make it to first. Try for a walk or even get hit by a pitch." My jaw dropped.

"Hey! I can hit!" Noah protested. "I'm going to tell mom that you want me to get hit."

Zeke's glance turned into a glare. Even I straightened up, though he was only looking at Noah. "Sit down."

Noah quickly sat back down and went back to stretching, avoiding his look.

Zeke was taking this very seriously. He cleared his throat and started to speak again. "Number two spot will be Jake Hollander, second base." He looked at me. I quickly nodded. He moved on. "Third, in the hole, will be Mahki Holstrom, left field. Cleanup will be me at center field. Next, Julian Wilson at first base. Following will be Jason Morris at third base." There were a few gasps and whispering, but Zeke just spoke louder. "Seventh spot is Antonio Perkola, right field. Eight spot is Kelvin Bender, catcher." The murmurs got louder. I even saw Noah making a face. "Last will be the pitcher, Kyle Atkins."

The team was no longer whispering, and were even outright protesting. I scooted closer to Noah and tugged his sleeve, not understanding the big deal.

Noah took off his baseball cap and readjusted it, looking nervously at Zeke, who was looking at everyone else. "The team can accept me because I've been with them since school started in August. I've proved to be the best shortstop. You have great batting, we have to put you somewhere. But Jason replacing Chris at third is a slightly big deal. Chris started at third base every game last season." He took a deep breath. "But I think the biggest surprise is that Garret isn't starting at pitcher in a game that could be our only game this weekend. Usually in tournaments, you start with your strongest pitcher so you have a better chance of surviving to the finals. But it looks like we're gonna try and save him for later on."

I frowned, whispering back. "He can't pitch multiple games?"

Noah let out a laugh. "No way. There are rules for pitchers. In high school, pitchers are only allowed three appearances a week and/or 30 outs, whatever comes first. But the real tricky part comes with pitching limitations. A varsity pitcher is only allowed 110 pitches, a game. But you also have to pay attention to rest days. If a pitcher throws less than 30 pitches in a game, he isn't required to rest. So for example, we could use Garret for 30 pitches tomorrow in the span of two games, and he could still pitch on Sunday. But if he did ten pitches in game one, twenty in game two, he could only choose one game for Sunday, because he'd be at the three game limit. But Monday's are like the reset button for a new week. But that doesn't affect days of rest that would be required."

Ugh. I wish I had my notebook.

"31-50 pitches require one day rest. 51-75 requires two days. 76-110 requires three whole days. So say we use Garret like that and on Sunday in game three, he throws 100 pitches, we won't be able to use him in a game until Thursday. He would have to rest Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday." Noah continued.

I didn't know this much effort went into baseball. Coaches had a lot to keep track of just for the pitchers alone.

"That's why almost half the team has pitchers." Noah didn't stop even though I could no longer keep up. "There's about 25 games a season, excluding playoffs so it takes a lot of strategizing. We can only play two games during the week and one on Saturdays except for tournaments that require doubleheader's."

I held out my hand to stop him. I was thoroughly lost. I just wanted to know what the big deal was. I glanced at Garret to see if he was upset with not starting, but he looked perfectly at ease. I showed Noah.

"Of course he doesn't mind. Coach and Zeke are basically telling him that they value him so much, that we can't waste him on a game one." Noah's eyes sparkled. "But it also says that they think we'll win game one, even against an old powerhouse school."

I relaxed at the thought.