174: An Invitation (3)

An Invitation (3)

0Noah didn't notice me looking at him, waiting for answers. He was too busy looking at Zeke and coach to see what they would do. Zeke was the first one to make a move. He stepped between the twins and simultaneously hit them both on the back of the head. "Zip it. Neither of you will start the first game. We'll come out strong and start with our ace."1

Garret straightened up and smirked at the twins. The twins glared at him, seemingly ready to tackle him, but Zeke held them by the collar of their shirts. "That's enough. Time to practice. Coach will divide us up after warmups." Zeke spoke with authority. He looked at the rest of us, who were still on one knee. "Like coach said, new year means new team. The same goes for us. Now, let's lineup." He turned and headed to the outfield. We all got up and followed.

Even though Zeke only repeated what coach said before, it seemed to settle down the team and instill some confidence. Everyone started to concentrate on what we were supposed to be doing and gave 100% effort throughout practice. After warmups, Coach divided us up into smaller groups and we started the circuit. This was my first time getting to participate with the team in the full practice. Usually I would have to run laps or I would be sent off to the side with Drew. My group was filled with other infielders like Noah, Julian, Chris, John and Daniel.

The only one we were missing was Jason, who still had a few more days of being sidelined. As infielders, coach made us start with Drew first. Drew had set up what looked to be a mini obstacle course filled with cones, ladders, and poles. I had no clue on what to do. Luckily Drew gave a brief overview on what to do and had me go last. Apparently the whole course was to work on agility and speed since they go hand in hand.

After Drew, we moved to Coach in the infield. He had a bucket of yellow beside him, waiting for us.

"Straight line. One at a time. After fielding the ball, I want you to sprint to me and drop it in the bucket."

That's weird. Julian was in the front so he became the first to go. Coach picked up one of the yellow balls and did an underhand toss towards Julian. Julian went up to it, but as soon as it bounced, it diverted to a different direction. My jaw dropped. But after a look at the others, I realized they weren't surprised. Even Julian, who had to chase down the ball and then sprint to put it in the bucket. Coach threw a new one to Daniel.

I poked Noah in the back. "What is that??"

Noah shot me a grin. "It's a reaction ball. It has bumps to make it uneven so when it hits the ground, it'll change direction. Cool, right?"

I frowned. No. Definitely not cool. I already have enough problems.

"Just stay loose. Don't be going all-in, in one particular direction. You've got to be flexible both in body and in mentality." Noah gave me a light pat on the shoulder. "It's fun."

I soon found out why Noah said it was 'fun'. It's because he was ridiculously good at predicting the unpredictable directions. Meanwhile, I was the worst. I didn't cleanly get one ball. Instead I was chasing it all over the place. The other infielders laughed at my display, making my face flush.

However, I was able to redeem myself at the next station: batting practice. Mr. Miller was in charge of the machine and would adjust the speed for each of us. As the speed would increase, they would start to struggle even though it was all fastballs. For me? This was a piece of cake. The cages are like my original home. The first place I felt happy when living with my mom. The cages also showed Noah my talent in hitting and inspired him to get me on this team. Today, I used the cages to show the other infielders why I deserved to be a starter. When the speed reached 90mph, the guys started to have more misses, a few fouls, and maybe a hit or two. I continued to hit every pitch perfectly, back into the netting. When it was my turn to step out, the boys surrounded me.

"Why don't you hit like that in games?" Chris glared at me, hostility evident.

"That was amazing!" Daniel complimented.

"You should be able to do this much if you could hit off Garret during your tryout." Julian conceded a head nod.

My face flushed like before, but this time from their compliments and not their insults.

Noah jumped in to save me, addressing Chris first. "Zeke signals what Jake should do. If he signals for a walk then there's nothing Jake can do about it." He smirked. "Jake will be our secret weapon this weekend."

Chris snorted. "How can he be a secret when they can easily look up his stats and see his 1.000 on base percentage. They'll be on guard immediately."

"That's on the assumption that they don't factor in his height." Julian patted the top of my head. "If they see that a five foot player gets a lot of walks, then they might lean to the fact that the pitchers in division three can't throw strikes when given such a small strike zone."

Noah nodded, excited. "Right! Zeke planned to save him for league games, but I'm sure he'll be asked to get on base no matter what this weekend."

"Huh. We'll need it." John mumbled in the back. The faces on our teammates stiffened, and the excitement over my batting died. Even Noah had nothing to say in response. We just moved on as a group, going back to where we started: to Drew.

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