Saturday morning, we reached the sports complex and mixed in with other players and parents. Mom and Dad said they would stay in the car with Grampa until it was closer to game time. I bet he was getting to sleep in some more. I wish I could. I yawned for the hundredth time as I trailed behind the twins.
"I bet you're wishing to be back in bed." Noah accused beside me.
Feeling guilty, I glanced away from him.
Noah laughed and gave my back a slap. "Don't worry. I'm not mad or anything. I know what you like. Sleeping and batting. Come game time, I'm sure your attitude will change and you'll be more awake."
I relaxed.
"Hey! Hey!" Some random player, wearing a different school's uniform ran over and stopped just in front of the twins, causing us to stop just behind them too.
I looked up at him, curious as to whether the twins knew this guy, only to realize I recognized him. Noah was just showing me this guy's school picture just last night when we were looking over his stats. Brett McCauley. He was the pitcher that started against us last year and asked for Zeke's autograph. I had some impression of him even though I never got a chance to hit against him.
"Yo! What's up, man?" Dave greeted the player in a casual manner. "It's Brett, right?"
Brett nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! That's me. I'm glad that you guys can remember." He looked past the twins and made eye contact with me. "Are you playing today, Jake?"
I was caught off guard after be calling out. Also slightly embarrassed that he remembered that I didn't play last year against him. I looked at Noah to answer.
Noah grinned. "We'll be in the lineup this time. No problem." His grin turned to a smirk. "You'll be facing off against the best team in division three in the area. Are you nervous?"
His comments stunned Brett and he seemed to freeze up.
"Hey, guys, hurry it up!" Garret's voice carried over the crowd and he was easy to spot waving his hand. Most of our team seemed to be near him.
"We're being called." Noah took the lead to walk past the twins and Brett. He spared him a glance. "We'll see each other on the field soon enough."
"Y-yea." Brett murmured, lost in thought.
As soon as we joined the group, the twins started to laugh and gave Noah subtle looks of appreciation.
"You can always count on Noah to play some kind games." Dave patted Noah on the shoulder. "Without Zeke holding you back, I see some troublemaking in your future."
Noah scoffed. "Unintended or not, he made Jake uncomfortable. I only dealt it back."
Kyle shrugged. "You didn't lie." He grinned. "You did well, vice captain."
Noah stood proudly.
"Okay, okay, stop fooling around." Garret broke up the conversation. "Everyone is here. Let's follow Coach and Alisha to get checked in. You guys know the drill, lowest to highest jersey number."
"Nervous?" Noah raised an eyebrow at me.
I shook my head. "Not about lining up."
Noah laughed. "Last year, around this time, was your first game ever. You legit didn't even want to take your sweatshirt off and lineup behind Zeke."
My lips twitched as I hugged myself with my sweatshirt. "I still don't want to take layers off. It's so cold."
Noah laughed again.
We didn't have much time left to take it easy. Coach showed up with Alisha right by his side. Somehow she looked upbeat and just generally happy. Early mornings, even on a weekend, didn't bother her. She helped Coach check the roster and to take attendance. She was in charge of watching the bags as we lined up to do the pre-tournament ceremony.
As returning champs and the highest seed, we took the field first, hearing a crazy amount of cheers. I stood behind Garret, our captain. I glanced back at Noah and whispered. "Shouldn't you be behind him?" Since he was the vice-captain and all.
Noah shook his head and kept smiling. "I'm just a backup. Maybe if Garret wasn't around. But for now, we follow him."
I nodded. Makes sense. I started to scan the crowd as other teams were introduced. I could spot Mom and Dad with ease as they were the tallest couple standing up front. Grampa and Jeremy were right beside them, looking like the tallest trees in a forest. I smiled, happy that they could be here. Zeke has a doubleheader today against a big school so Mom and Dad were talking about going in between our games. Or, worst case scenario, we lose and all go to watch him play instead of playing anymore ourselves.
Safe to say, everyone believes we're playing a game two this afternoon. I think so too. No offense to the pitcher, Brett, but this was the same school that lost to our backups last year.
After the ceremony, we claimed our dugout along the third baseline and started to get organized. Cleats on, gear out, bags put to the back. Garret led our pregame warmup and we soon broke up in smaller groups.
Come game time, Kyle and Mitchell came back from the bullpen and took a small break as Garret addressed us as a team.
"New year, new us, but same concept." Garret looked around. "We hustle on every play. Sprint to first when you make any kind of contact at the plate. When we take the field for defense, don't forget the three B's. Ball, base, and backup the play." He glanced at Coach.
Coach nodded. "Our team is young but not inexperienced. If I see any slacking, I'll sub you out." He gave out the lineup.
1 SS Noah Atkins
2 LF Korrey Alvarrez
3 2B Jake Atkins
4 CF Garret Knudsen
5 1B Sean Isner
6 3B Jason Morris
7 RF Jesse Shipman
8 C Mitchell Torres
9 P Kyle Atkins
"Bring it in." Garret huddled us together and we started putting our hands in the middle. "Win on three. One, two, three-"
"WIN!" We shouted together.
Us starters took the field, the spare pitchers went to the bullpen, and the rest took a seat. Kyle threw some practice pitches off the mound as we did our usual warmup between innings. It wasn't long before the ump called for balls back, and for the first batter to step up to the plate.
It was a familiar face and name. Brett McCauley. He should be pitching today, but he's still leading off. When we had looked up his stats from last season, we didn't pay too much attention to his offensive stats considering how good our starting rotation is.
Sure enough, Kyle shut him down early, striking him out on the fourth pitch, down low. I could hear Mom yelling the loudest. "Way to start it off, Ky!"
Kyle let out a smirk. The next batter made contact on the first pitch, smacking a grounder to Noah at short. Noah handled it with ease, throwing him out at first. Kyle gave a small nod, looking back at Noah.
"Let's get it!" Noah clapped his glove.
Kyle got set to face the third batter. He cornered him quick, 0-2, then got him to swing and miss at a low and away fastball. Strikeout. The third out. Eight pitches in one inning and no balls came my way. I smiled along with the rest of the team as we headed back to the dugout. We weren't even gone for ten minutes. Good start.