"We'll start with Kyle on the mound today." Coach told the team as the bus drove towards the sunset, heading for the coast. Coach looked at Kyle. "Work hard, try your best, and don't lose your cool. Anderson has a great lineup. It rivals ours, if not better."
"I can handle it." Kyle's voice broke midway through his sentence causing the whole bus to laugh and for him to turn red.
"I'm not asking you to." Coach said with a small smile. "You throw what you can. Garret will come in once you get tired. Dave and the rest will be in the bullpen just in case." He turned serious. "This is the farthest our program has ever come in CIF. We win, we go to the finals. We lose, and there won't be another game."
The team stopped laughing and sobered up.
"I don't want to sound like a broken record boys." Coach told us. "I'm not the one that can go out there and do all the work for you. You have to give it your absolute best. If you don't, you won't just be letting yourselves down. But your teammates too. The ones who didn't get to play. The ones who didn't make varsity and for the ones that were sent down. You have to give the underclassmen something to look up to and strive for."
"Striving to be like Zeke isn't enough?" Noah joked.
Coach's face twitched. "That's not a team goal."
"It should be." Noah said excitedly. "Could you imagine a whole team of Zekes? We would crush every game."
"You realize that Zeke doesn't pitch, yea?" Garret asked.
Noah rolled his eyes. "Who needs pitching when you got a team full of Zekes?"
"I think a team full of Jakes wouldn't be so bad." Dave laughed. "Could you imagine how they would all jump in unison every time a ball is hit? It'd be hilarious."
Some of the guys laughed and I bowed my head.
"That just means he's always ready for the ball to come his way." Noah shot back.
"Okay, that's enough." Zeke stood up at his seat in the front and turned to face everyone. "You all know the drill. Seven straight innings of hustle to get to another game."
"Killjoy." Noah mumbled.
"Lineup." Coach announced. "Mahki, Julian, Jake, and Zeke. We're visitors for this game too-" Some of the guys groaned. "There's no helping it. This is the consequence for not going undefeated in league. Not much we can do about it now. Back to the matter at hand, you four need to get on and score early. Let's try and give Kyle some breathing room." He made eye contact with the few of us. "Garret, Kyle, Noah, Kelvin, and Jason will be the bottom half. That doesn't mean you five can slack off. If anything, you have more time to study the pitcher."
"I would have practice my batting a little more yesterday if I had known." Kyle groaned, resting his head on the seat in front of him.
"Like that would have helped." Dave scoffed, making more of the guys laughed.
I watched as Coach just shook his head and sat back down near the assistant coaches. Zeke rolled his eyes and also took a seat.
For it being a semifinal, I thought there would be more tension, but with all the jokes and laughing, it made me feel at ease. The team was pretty relaxed overall. That didn't stop Zeke from demanding our best during warmups and being serious about the upcoming game.
With Anderson being the home team, they had first pick for dugout. They chose the third base side, leaving us the first base side. Not that it matters too much in an evening game when the sun sets so early, but I personally like having my team near third so when I reached there, it feels easier to score.
By the time we got settled, changed, and all warmed up, the sun had gone down and the lights were shining down on the field. Families had shown up and filled up the stands, with students joining in too. I was surprised by how many kids from our school made the drive.
"It is a big deal." Noah emphasized. "For high school at least." He looked over the spectators in the stands. "A lot of the JV and freshmen level players are here."
"They don't have any games?" I asked, putting my helmet on since we just finished the national anthem. We were up to bat first and I would go third behind Mahki and Julian.
Noah shot me a funny look. "No. CIF is only for the varsity level. Not that their games don't matter. I heard JV won league for their level, but the freshmen team didn't." He smirked. "Serves them right."
"Those levels are just so players can hone their skills." Garret said from his spot on the bench. He was tugging on batting gloves, eager for the game to start. "Not all freshmen play on the freshmen team, and it's not like we pay attention who moves up to JV. Me and the twins started out on JV, but I was called up to varsity a time or two."
"It's not like you're that much more impressive than us." Kyle walked over, smacking Garret with his glove. "Noah started out on Varsity. So did Jake. It's just based on demand. Besides, you only pitched a few innings."
"Still more than you."
"Remind me again, who's starting today?"
"Yea, that's only because Coach trusts me more to close it out."
"We won't need you at all." Kyle declared confidently.
"That's not what the coaches think." Garret got serious. "Do your best. Quality over quantity."
Kyle cracked a smile and bumped fists with him. "Yea, yea I know."
The game was called to start, with Anderson High taking the field and Mahki stepping up to bat first. Julian was taking practice swings diligently in the circle and I got up to stretch.
"The bandage feels alright?" Drew came over to ask.
"Not awful." I told him, giving my wrapped up arm a glance.
"Any problems, then let me know." Drew patted me on the helmet and left for the other end of the dugout.
I made a move to the dugout entrance closest to home plate with my bat in hand.