by Clay Cormany
"This pitcher doesn’t have her control down yet, so don’t swing at anything that isn’t close to the plate."
"Okay," Corey said. Five pitches later, she stood at first base with a walk.
The pitcher began to find her groove with Angela, but still gave up a walk on a three-two pitch. That loaded them up for Tina. After taking a called strike, Tina hit a hard grounder to the left that the third baseman stopped but couldn’t pick up in time to make an out. Dana raced for home and planted her foot on the plate with all the drama of a Broadway actress on opening night. That made it six-four and brought Lauren to the plate with the bases still loaded.
The Dragon pitcher looked at her coaches, seeking — what? Jace wondered. Sympathy? Encouragement? Advice?
"You can do it, Dorie," a Dragon fan shouted, but the Dragon coaches remained silent. The girl took a deep breath, went into her motion, and heaved the ball toward the plate. Lauren slammed it, sending it like a bolt of lightning between the center and left-fielders. While the Dragons pursued the ball, the base paths came to life with galloping Valkyries. Corey glided home with the team’s fifth run, and Angela followed close behind with the sixth. As the ball came hurtling in from the outfield, Jace saw Sylvia waving in Tina. The shortstop plucked the ball from the air and fired it toward home plate.
"Slide, Tina, slide!" Martha and Sylvia cried almost in unison. Tina went into her slide and a cloud of dust flew up around home plate. At the same time, the incoming softball glanced off her shoulder and bounced toward the pitcher’s mound. The catcher retrieved it, but her tag on Tina’s outstretched leg came too late. Not even the quarrelsome Dragon coaches could complain when the umpire signaled her safe. Sylvia stopped a panting Lauren at third base. The girl’s ear-to-ear grin was so wide, Jace could see it from the opposite side of the diamond.
Jace gave a thumbs-up sign to Sylvia. For the first time, the Valkyries owned a lead late in the game. "Come on, Denise!" he shouted to the Valkyries’ fifth hitter. "Keep the inning going."
Denise tried to comply. But on a one-one pitch, she hit a lazy fly ball straight to the center-fielder. Jace saw Mr. Davenport grip his hair in frustration when the center-fielder caught the ball and relayed it to the infield too quickly to allow Lauren to score. Phoebe followed with a pop-out to shortstop, and Charlene grounded out to first, leaving Lauren stranded. Just the same, they did well this inning, Jace thought. It was still anyone’s game.
The Valkyries’ one-run lead did not last long. A lead-off walk, a wild pitch, and two infield singles tied the game at seven. When the next two Dragon batters went down on a strikeout and a force out at third, Jace hoped the score might stay that way into the last inning. But the next hitter scorched a single to left field, and the runner from second made it home on a close play at the plate. Jace and Sylvia both looked at Martha, who read their thoughts.
"It won’t do any good to argue," she said. "The ump’s already ticked off at the other coaches. I don’t want him to be ticked at us, too."
Another strikeout ended the inning, but now the Valkyries trailed eight-seven. If they didn’t at least tie the score in the sixth, all they would have to show for the day’s effort was another game in the loss column.
A new pitcher took the mound for the Dragons. She had a fast delivery but even less control than her predecessors. Even while warming up, she threw two or three balls past her catcher.
"She’s wild," Martha warned Sarah as she put on a batting helmet and picked up a bat. "Make her throw at least one strike to you before you swing at anything."
Sarah never had a chance to swing or even take a strike. The first pitch veered toward her head and clipped the bill of her batting helmet. She stumbled backward and landed on her rear end with her helmet knocked comically askew.
"Take your base," the umpire instructed her, pointing toward first.
A cry of protest arose from the Dragons' bench.
"She shouldn’t get first base!" the Dragons’ assistant coach screeched, stomping onto the diamond. "She didn’t try to get out of the way of the pitch."
This was too much for some Valkyrie fans. Shouts of "get off the field" and "throw her out of the game" filled the air.
The umpire pulled off his mask and pointed at the woman. "This is your last warning. Go back to your bench and stop griping about my calls or your team forfeits."
The assistant coach complied, but when Sarah arrived at first base, Jace glanced over his shoulder and saw the woman clenching her teeth in silent rage.
Nancy came up next. Even with a batting glove, she struggled at the plate in earlier games, often striking out and never getting the ball beyond the infield when she did make contact. But her little dribbler of a hit in the fourth inning must have given her some confidence, because she went after the first pitch without hesitation. Again, she sent the ball down the third baseline, but with more power behind it. The third baseman lunged but didn’t even come close to putting the ball in her glove.
The instant Nancy struck the ball, Jace sent Sarah to second, and from there, Sylvia waved her to third.
"Keep going! Go to second!" Jace yelled to Nancy even before she reached first base. The girl’s helmet tumbled off her head as she dug her foot into the bag and began sprinting toward second. The Dragon left-fielder finally caught up to the ball and relayed it to the infield, but by then, Sarah had reached third and Nancy was secure at second.
"Way to go, Nancy! Way to hit the ball," Jace cheered.
Two runners in scoring position and no one out! At this point, Jace felt that if his team didn't win the game, they didn’t deserve to.
"Keep it going, Heather!" he shouted to the next Valkyrie batter who stepped up to the plate.
As Heather waited for the first pitch, a voice came from behind Jace.
"Hey, wimpy guy, what are you doing out here with all these little girls?"
He recognized the Dragons' assistant coach’s voice, but he wasn’t sure to whom she spoke. Her next remark, however, removed that doubt.
"Hey first-base coach, what are you? Some kind of pervert who likes to get it on with eleven-year-olds? Is that why you’re coaching this team?"
Jace tried to ignore her, but as other comments about his sexual preferences and family background continued, he could see that wouldn’t work. Finally, he spun around and tipping his cap, he gave the woman the sweetest smile he could.
"Excuse me, ma’am, but I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced yet have we?"
He shifted his attention back to the plate where Heather faced a two-O count thanks to the continuing control problems of the Dragon pitcher. The girl’s next pitch was not only out of the strike zone, it got away from the catcher and went bounding toward the third-base coach’s box.
"Go in! Go in!" Sylvia shouted to Sarah, who took off for home. Before the third baseman could flag down the errant pitch, Sarah scored the tying run and Nancy moved to third.
On the next pitch, Heather walked, and Jace thought that with young ears nearby the Dragons' assistant coach would stop her barrage of insults. He was wrong. The sneering coach, whose oversized sunglasses matched an overactive mouth, kept the abuse coming. A particularly gross comment caused both Jace and Heather to stare at the woman. At almost the same moment, Susie hit a crisp grounder to shortstop.
"Go to second!" he belatedly exclaimed to Heather, who had not noticed that the ball was in play. The shortstop picked up the grounder and tossed it to second well ahead of Heather. The second baseman then whipped the ball to the first baseman, who stretched out as far as she could. When the "whump" of the ball smacking her mitt reached Jace’s ears, his heart sank a little. Susie was still a good three steps from the bag.
"Out at first and out at second!" the umpire shouted. Jace looked back toward home plate, where Nancy had just scored the Valkyries’ ninth run. They had their one-run lead again. But now they had two outs, and once again, weak-hitting Dana was coming to the plate. Could she somehow get another hit
and keep the inning going? She couldn’t. After running the count to three-two and getting a couple of foul tips, Dana swung and missed a pitch two feet out of the strike zone.
Before Jace could head back to the Valkyries’ bench, another snide remark came from the mouthy Dragons' assistant coach.
"Bet you got something going with that hot chick at third, don’t you?"
"No, I prefer huge, hairy women who look like mastodons," he shot back. "You know, women like you."
Before the assistant coach could respond, Jace ran back to the Valkyries’ bench.
"Were you talking to that coach of theirs?" Sylvia asked, as she helped Lauren put on her catcher’s gear.
"Just saying ‘hi’ and discussing the weather," Jace answered with a smirk.
"No kidding?"
"Actually I said she looked like a mastodon."
Sylvia finished hooking on Lauren’s chest protector and shot a glance at the Dragons’ assistant coach. "A mastodon?" She furrowed her brow in mock disapproval. "That wasn’t nice."
"She was saying things about us, things that weren’t nice either."
"But Jace," Sylvia continued, "she doesn’t look like a mastodon. Where are her tusks?"
Jace burst out laughing. Sylvia joined him until Martha’s voice interrupted. "When you’re finished with the joke, come over behind the bench with the rest of us."
Martha put the team in a semicircle in front of her before speaking. "We’re up by a run, so this is our game to lose," she said. "Stick to fundamentals. If the ball comes to you, keep it in front of you, if you can’t make the play, and back each other up. Know what the count on the batter is and how many outs there are. Whatever happens, keep your cool. Corey, how does your arm feel?"
"It's okay," Corey answered.
"Then let’s go out and win this game."
"Yeah!" said Lauren, pumping her fist. A few other Valkyries did the same, but Jace couldn’t help feeling uneasy. Even in the last inning, a one-run lead meant almost nothing, and he worried that a loss this time would be especially discouraging to the team given all their hard work to improve. His feelings of unease mounted after Corey walked the first Dragon batter, but after that, he had little reason for worry. The next three Dragons went down on a pop-up, a fielder’s choice, and an easy grounder back to Corey’s glove, giving the Valkyries their first win.
Parents cheered while their daughters created a mob scene at the pitcher’s mound, giving hugs and lifting each other into the air. Some of the players’ younger siblings got involved, including one little girl who did cartwheels and somersaults. Jace joined the celebration. He hugged Corey and Heather, patted Lauren on the back, and even gave Phoebe’s shoulder a quick squeeze. He was about to herd the team off the field when Sylvia bumped into him. She threw her arms around his neck.
"We won, Jace! Doesn’t it feel great to win?"
"Yeah, it sure –"
Before he could finish his sentence, Sylvia planted her lips on his slightly open mouth and gave him a kiss that made his head spin. The sight of their two assistant coaches kissing brought a chorus of giggles from the girls around them.
"Wow, look at the lovebirds," quipped Heather.
Sylvia broke off the kiss and took a step back.
"Oh, I’m sorry, Jace," she blurted, her face reddening, "I guess I got carried away."
He took a step back and caught his breath. "Maybe we better line the girls up," he said. "There’s probably another game here after ours."
As he and Sylvia watched their players slap hands with their defeated foes, it occurred to Jace that he wasn’t the least bit sorry Sylvia kissed him. And another more impudent thought also bullied its way into his mind. Maybe the mouthy coach’s description of Sylvia as a "hot chick" was not so far from wrong.
Chapter Twenty-one
Martha stood with her hands on her hips surrounded by her team. In a few minutes, they would be battling the Ladyhawks and maybe coming away with their second victory. "You know you can win now," she said to the young faces looking up at her. "You can’t doubt that anymore. You proved it against the Dragons. Now prove it again today. Don’t try anything fancy. Just relax, stay focused, and have fun."
The Valkyries roared with enthusiasm and bolted onto the field as if they couldn’t wait for the game to start. But in the early innings, they fell back into their old habits. Batters swung at pitches way out of the strike zone, and fielders bobbled balls that should have been easy catches. Angela even managed to make two errors on the same play when she let a grounder bounce off her toe and then threw the ball four feet over Sarah’s outstretched glove at first base.
"What’s the matter with you guys?" Jace scolded the team before they went to bat in the bottom of the fourth. "You look flat out there like you don’t even want to play."
"Well, Mom told us to relax," said Phoebe.
"She also told you to focus," Jace countered, "but you’re about as focused as –"
"Never mind," interrupted Martha. "We’re only down two runs. Let’s get them back now. Heather, you’re up."
Heather — a patient batter if not a strong one walked on a full count. Susie might have walked, too, if she hadn’t flailed at pitches nowhere close to the plate and struck out. Then Dana went down on an easy pop-up to third.
"Just get on base, Corey!" Martha called out from the bench. Corey nodded and went into her stance, the top of her bat twitching while she waited for the pitch. It went outside for a ball. So did the next one. The third pitch came right where she wanted it.
Corey smacked it hard down the third-base foul line. But was it fair? From where he stood in the first-base coach’s box, Jace couldn’t tell, but he yelled at Heather anyway. "Hurry — go to second!"
The teenage umpire pulled off his mask, paused for one agonizing second, and then shouted, "Fair ball!"
Several things happened at almost the same time. The coach of the Ladyhawks, a chunky, middle-aged man, erupted in protest. "No, it was foul!" he bellowed. "It was foul by a foot!" The third baseman and right-fielder joined their coach’s protest and several parents on the Ladyhawk side, sounding like a Greek chorus, added their angry voices, too.
When Corey came charging into first base, Jace waved her toward second, while on the opposite side of the diamond, Sylvia urged Heather to run to third. Amazingly, the Ladyhawk players and coach, in their dismay over the umpire’s call, forgot the ball was still in play.
"That ball was foul!" cried the Ladyhawks' coach again. Then, seeing Heather closing in on third base and Corey approaching second, he realized his mistake. "Go get the ball, Jenny, hurry up!"
It took the center-fielder two seconds to locate the ball and another five to retrieve it and heave it toward home plate. By then, Heather had scored and Corey was well beyond third base. The ball bounced into the infield where the shortstop grabbed it, but Corey crossed the plate before the girl could do anything more. Tie game!
The Ladyhawk coach, still seething, called a time out and approached the umpire. "You missed that call, blue. That ball landed foul by at least six inches."
Some umpires, who were often just high school kids, could be intimidated by coaches. Jace even heard his mother complain once about an umpire who, after being verbally bullied by an opposing coach, reversed a call in favor of her team. But this time, the umpire stood his ground.
"The ball stayed on the foul line all the way past third base, making it a fair ball," he said. "Now, coach, please go back to your team’s bench."
Muttering to himself, the Ladyhawks' coach trudged away, and the umpire called for the next batter. That brought Tina, batting second, to the plate. She singled to center, and Lauren followed with a walk. But a ground out by Denise kept the Valkyries from taking the lead.
Good pitching by Corey and good fielding, including a shoestring catch by Tina at shortstop, prevented the Ladyhawks from scoring in the top of the fifth. That put the Valkyries in good shape to forge ahead in the bottom of the inning.
/>
"You’re up, Phoebe!" Martha called to her daughter. "Just stay alert and get on base."
Phoebe fouled off the first pitch, took a call strike, and then let an outside pitch go by without swinging. Two more foul balls followed before she connected on an inside pitch that sent the ball just beyond the outstretched glove of the second baseman.
"Way to go, kid!" Jace told her when she arrived at first base.
"I know," she replied with a grin.
"Hey, don’t get wise. You’re the go-ahead run, so just work on getting yourself across the plate."
And that’s what she did. After Charlene popped out to third, Sarah stroked a single to right that let Phoebe make it all the way to third. From there, she came home on Kay’s sacrifice fly. Her run proved to be the only one the Valkyries scored, however, giving the team just a six-five lead over the Ladyhawks, who still had one more at bat.
"How do you feel?" Martha asked Corey, who’d been on the mound since replacing Denise in the second inning. "Can you get three more outs, or should I put Tina in?"
Always the competitor, Corey bobbed her head. "I’m fine."
Martha put an arm around her pitcher. "You’ve thrown a lot of pitches out there, but all right, I’ll keep you in. I’ll be watching you, though. Tell me if you feel you’re running out of gas." She paused and scanned the young faces in front of her.
"This is our game, guys. They’ll only win if we hand it to them. Now get out there."
The inning had a rough start. After taking the count full, the first hitter smacked a single between short and third. The following hitter also took the count full before walking on a pitch that Martha thought was a strike. She didn’t yell at the umpire as other coaches sometimes did, but head shakes, rolling eyes, and frowns were fair game. On this call, she went one step further and clapped her hands to her cheeks, as if imitating McCauley Caulkin’s left-at-home pose.
"They’ll bunt now, won’t they?" said Sylvia, standing right at Martha’s elbow.