by Clay Cormany
"You’re up first, Coach Waldron," said the umpire after the Dragons chose to be the home team.
Martha motioned to Sylvia. "Go get our first two batters ready."
The umpire then reviewed the basic rules with the two head coaches. While he spoke, Jace noticed the Dragons’ assistant coach staring at him, apparently sizing him up. He took a few steps toward her and extended his hand.
"Good luck. May the better team win."
The woman took off her sunglasses. Jace saw her eyes narrow and a sneer began to distort her upper lip. But before the sneer fully formed, she tilted her head down, spat on the ground, and tramped away. Jace walked off the field with the distinct impression that the young woman would have preferred to hurl her spit right into his face.
Martha brought her players into a huddle near their bench on the third-base side. "You know you can hit," she said with her arms folded. "Jace told me you proved that at the batting cages. Now prove it here." She paused and then pointed at the opposing team, as they practiced on the field. "There’s nothing magical about them," she intoned. "They’ve lost all their games so far just like us. Today, one team will walk off this field a winner. That team can be you if you keep your heads in the game and remember everything you’ve learned in practice."
Jace still saw uncertainty in the girls' faces and wondered if it would always be there, even if they did win today. He trotted out to the first-base coach’s box and glanced toward the sky, grateful for the clouds overhead that would keep the late afternoon sun from beating down on him and his players. The umpire put on his mask and chest protector, and signaled for the first batter to come up. "Okay, Corey," Jace yelled. "Get us started now with a hit."
Corey responded. After taking two balls and a called strike, she stroked a grounder that found its way between first and second. Whoops and cheers erupted from Valkyrie fans in the bleachers and on lawn chairs and blankets.
"Way to go!" Sylvia hollered from the third-base coach’s box. "Keep it going, Angela!"
Angela did keep things going, even if her walk was less dramatic than Corey’s single.
Two lead-off runners on and no one out — a perfect set-up for the power hitters.
Tina came up next. Jace watched her take some practice swings and then shifted his attention to the Valkyrie family members and friends who sat in the bleachers near home plate or behind the protective fence that ran along the third base foul line. By now, he recognized some of them: Mrs. Caldini with her purple visor, Mr. Davenport in his usual orange t-shirt and khaki shorts, and Susie Alexander’s grandparents in their umbrella-covered lawn chairs. How he wished Stephanie was there, too, cheering on him and his team. What a morale-booster that would be.
Tina swung and missed the first pitch and then followed with two foul balls. She seemed to be trying too hard.
"Relax, Tina!" Sylvia cried out from the third-base coach’s box. "Just try to make contact."
On the fourth pitch Tina did just that. The ball shot off her bat toward right center field. While it hung in the air, the Dragons' assistant coach bellowed at one of her fielders.
"You better get that, Tara!"
Jace didn’t know if the girl heard her coach or not, but she did make the catch, extending her arm and snaring the ball in the webbing of her glove before stumbling to the ground.
A collective moan of disappointment came from the Valkyries. Then Sylvia’s voice rang out.
"Tag up, Corey! Tag up! You can make it to third."
Recovering from her disappointment, Corey scampered back to second base, planted her foot on the bag, and then made a mad dash toward third where Sylvia waved her arms excitedly.
"Get up, Tara, get up!" the Dragons’ assistant coach exploded once again. "Throw her out, get her!"
The outfielder struggled to her feet. As she arched her arm to throw, Angela looked at Jace.
"Should I go to second?" she asked.
"No," he answered. "The shortstop could cut off the throw and tag you out."
The outfielder released the ball and for one agonizing second, Jace feared there might be a close play at third base. But the ball fell behind Corey. It bounced twice before the third baseman grabbed it, and by the time she tried to make the tag, Corey had both feet on the bag.
"You could've thrown her out if you hadn't fallen down," the assistant coach snapped at her outfielder.
The girl hung her head and ran fingers over strands of dark brown hair that escaped from under her cap. Jace felt sorry for her. She made a great catch on Tina’s fly ball, but far from receiving praise, she took flak for her late throw to the infield.
Jace returned his attention to home plate where Lauren prepared to bat.
The first pitch went too high, but Lauren swung hard anyway, striking the ball on its underside. The pop-up went high in the air but stayed in the infield, wiping out any chance that Corey could come home. After a moment of uncertainty, the second baseman made a shaky catch, falling to her knees when the ball smacked into her glove.
Lauren, her face contorted in frustration, slammed her bat on the ground and skulked back to the bench. An inning that started so well then looked a lot less promising.
Denise came next. An inconsistent player, she could have a solid hit one time and a pathetic strikeout the next. This time, she had no chance to do either. After throwing two balls way outside the strike zone, the Dragon pitcher unleashed an errant pitch that struck Denise on her left ankle. That loaded the bases with Corey still on third, Angela on second, and a somewhat sore-footed Denise on first.
"You better get it under control, Diane." This time the words came from Patsy, who stood with hands on hips by her team’s bench. Jace wondered if Patsy and her assistant would alternate badgering their players, the way a tag team in professional wrestling would take turns grappling with opponents. The comparison made him chuckle, but he stopped when he realized Phoebe was coming to the plate. With two outs, any hope for a strong first inning rested with his dill-weed of a little sister, whose main talent in life was annoying him. But much could be forgiven if she came through now.
"Come on, Phoebe," Jace urged. "Get us a run."
His sister looked small standing by home plate, her head engulfed by her helmet. She gazed at Jace and grimaced before holding her bat aloft.
The first pitch went inside. The second was a call strike. Another inside pitch and then a swing and a miss.
"Strike her out! She can’t hit! Strike her out!" the Dragon players cried out to their pitcher.
"Protect the plate," Martha urged her daughter. "Just try to put the ball in play."
Jace didn’t want to watch as the next pitch came homeward. But he did anyway, and what he saw was Phoebe swinging away and making enough contact to send the ball bouncing slowly toward the gap between the pitcher’s mound and first base. As Phoebe took off down the baseline, Corey made a mad dash toward home, and the other two runners also tried to advance.
"Come on, Phoebe, you can beat it out!" Jace shouted.
With arms and legs churning, Phoebe tried to comply.
Realizing her pitcher would not reach the ball soon enough, the Dragons' first baseman ran forward and scooped it up. Then she pivoted around and ran back toward her base, trying to get there before Phoebe. When both girls closed to within a few feet of the bag, the first baseman lunged at Phoebe, trying to tag her out.
"Dive for it!" Jace cried.
Phoebe lowered her head and flung herself horizontally with arms outstretched toward the base. This caused the first baseman to miss the tag, but the girl had enough sense to thrust her foot toward the base in the hope of still getting the force out. To Jace’s not-unbiased eye, Phoebe’s hand reached the base a split second ahead of the Dragon infielder’s foot. The umpire, who had moved from behind home plate to within a few steps of where Jace stood, saw it that way, too.
"Safe!" he shouted, crossing his arms two or three times.
The cry of joy from the Valkyries’ si
de matched the roar of dismay from the Dragons and their fans. Jace signaled time out and reached down to help Phoebe to her feet. As he did, the Dragons’ assistant coach brushed by him, charging like an angry rhinoceros toward the umpire.
"Are you blind? Are you crazy?" she yelled only inches from the young man’s face. "She was out by at least a foot." The angry woman pointed at Phoebe, as if she had committed a crime.
"No," the umpire retorted. "It was close, but she was safe."
"How would you know? You weren’t even in position to see the play."
"I saw enough to know the runner was safe."
"You’re full of it. You have no business being on this field."
"And you need to shut up and get off the field right now. Your team is going to forfeit the game if you don’t."
"Oh, so you’re going to pull that forfeit crap on me, are you? What a chicken you are."
The two glowered at one another for a few seconds, and then the umpire took a step away and pointed at the Dragons’ head coach, who had watched the conflict in silence.
"Coach, you need to get your assistant off the field right now, or your team forfeits the game."
"Well, you did blow the call, but I guess we have to accept it, don’t we?" the older woman said. "Wouldn’t want to upset the league office." Her voice was soft but still sarcastic. "Come on back here, Annie," she said. "It’s just the first inning. There’s plenty of time to kick these guys’ butts later on."
"Get control of yourself," the umpire warned the Dragon assistant as she stalked back to her team’s bench.
"Get an optometrist," she shot back.
"Kick her out of the game!" Mr. Davenport howled from his seat on the third-base side. He opened his mouth to say more but stopped when Martha stood up from the bench, stared at him, and put a finger to her lips.
"Was I safe, Jace?" Phoebe asked once things began to settle down.
"Looked that way to me."
"And we got a run, didn’t we?"
"Yep, we’re up one to nothing."
Her face brightened. "Maybe we’ll win a game, huh?"
"We might, but there’s a long way to go," Jace cautioned. "Right now we need Charlene to get a hit or a walk."
But Charlene fell to an easy grounder that went right back to the pitcher. As he trotted to the Valkyries' bench, Jace realized that this was the first time his team had ever scored this early in a game. But it wouldn’t mean much if they ended up losing.
The Dragons wasted little time eliminating their one-run deficit. After their lead-off batter grounded out to short, their second and third hitters recorded back-to-back doubles, scoring their first run. The clean-up smacked a fly ball to center, which Heather caught, but when the runner on second tagged and ran to third, Angela let Heather's throw get past her, and the runner scampered home for a second run. The Dragons threatened to add to their lead when their fifth and sixth hitters each singled. But Tina averted further damage when she struck out the seventh after running the count to three-two.
"We’ve got to stay close," Martha told the team before they started their second at bat. "If we can stay close, we'll have a chance to win."
The Valkyries couldn’t score in the second inning, although two managed to get on base. For their part, the Dragons made it three-to-one with a two-out single that brought home a runner from second. The Valkyries cut their deficit to one run again in the third inning when Tina’s double scored Corey all the way from first base. The hope of a big rally vanished, however, when the Dragons’ shortstop caught Phoebe’s line drive, and then tagged out Lauren, who had started to run toward third base. Hopes dwindled further when the Dragons plated three runs in the bottom of the third, benefiting from two extra-base hits and some walks.
When the girls returned to the bench to await the start of the fourth inning, Jace could see the discouragement in their eyes. Sylvia apparently saw it, too.
"What can we do?" she asked him.
Jace shrugged. "I’m fresh out of ideas. Why don’t we just tell them to have fun?" He looked at his mother. "That’s what they’re supposed to be having anyway, isn’t it, Mom?"
"Absolutely," Martha agreed. "Go ahead and tell them that, if you want. It might help them relax."
Sylvia nodded and Jace watched her walk to where the team sat. In her own way, Sylvia was just as pretty as her sister. Her beauty was more subtle, more laid back. It came out in the way she carried herself, in the motion of her hands, the arch of her eyebrows, the smooth fullness of her cheeks, and the occasional strand of hair that escaped from under her cap. Jace felt drawn to her, which seemed odd, since Stephanie was the girl he wanted.
"Girls," Sylvia said, folding her arms, "don’t worry about winning. Just have a good time. You’re playing great in the field. Just go out there, swing away, and do your best."
Ironically, it was Charlene’s choosing not to swing at poorly-thrown pitches that earned her a lead-off walk. She went to second on Sarah’s ground out and then to third on a dribbler by Nancy that hugged the third baseline but stayed fair. With runners on first and third and one out, the Valkyries had a chance to get back into the game. Unfortunately, the team’s three weakest hitters came up next. Jace wished they could just go to the top of the order. The thought made him feel ashamed, yet that always seemed to be the fate of this team. Opportunity knocked and the lower end of the batting order slammed the door on it.
But light-hitting Heather at least managed to put the ball in play with a bouncer to the left of second base. As the shortstop gloved it, Charlene bolted for home. The Dragon infielder glared at her, obviously tempted to try to stop the run from scoring, but then chucked the ball to first for the easy out. Another run scratched out through a walk and some nickel-and-dime hitting. But it was all the Valkyries got in their half of the fourth, as Susie struck out on a two-two pitch. That left the team down six-three with only two more at bats. Jace didn’t like their prospects; he liked them even less when he realized that Dana would be their lead-off hitter in the fifth.
The Dragons started the bottom of the fourth with a single off Corey, who took over on the mound. The next batter hit a knee-high line drive up the middle. Corey snared the ball and in one fluid motion threw it to first base, doubling up the runner, who took off toward second too soon. When the careless player reached the bench, Jace saw the Dragons' assistant coach snarl at her. He was too far away to hear anything, but he could imagine what the assistant said. The next time you do that, I’ll have you and your family burned at the stake.
After making the great play on the line drive, Corey lost her control, walking two batters and then wild pitching them to second and third. Fortunately, she escaped from the situation when the next batter — the Dragons’ equivalent of Dana — hit a pop-up above home plate that was so gentle, Lauren caught it in her bare hand.
As they ran off the field, the Valkyries high-fived Lauren and Corey for their good defensive plays. But Jace could see Dana holding back. She had to know she was up next and dreaded what would follow. Slowly, hesitantly, Dana picked up a bat and plopped a helmet on her head. Jace walked over to her.
"I think it’s time for you to get a hit," he said.
"I probably won’t," Dana replied. "I can’t even bunt very good."
"But there’s something you can do that might help."
"What’s that?"
"Choke up on the bat."
"Like this?" she said, moving her hands about a quarter of the way up the bat.
"Even more."
When Dana hesitated, Jace took the girl’s hands and slid them up to a point just a couple of inches below the label.
"This feels funny," she said.
"Yes, but it will let you swing the bat much faster."
She took a few hesitant swings.
"Batter up!" the umpire shouted and glanced impatiently in Jace’s direction.
"Just make contact, Dana," Jace said before he ran toward the first-base coach’s box. "Just put
the ball in play."
Dana held off on the first pitch, which sailed far outside the strike zone. On the second pitch she swung and missed. The third pitch was a call strike.
Jace sighed and began thinking ahead. Even with one out, they still had a chance with the top of the order coming up. If Corey could get on and –
The sound of metal striking leather interrupted his thoughts. Dana hit the ball! Valkyrie fans cheered as they watched an easy roller start toward the pitcher’s mound but then suddenly veer left. The pitcher and catcher, who both went after the ball, found themselves on a collision course. The catcher slid to the ground. For her part, the pitcher tried to hurdle her prone teammate but stumbled over the girl’s back and came down next to her with a painful thump.
"My ankle!" she screeched in pain.
Arriving at first base, Dana gazed at the fallen pitcher and then at Jace.
"What happened?"
"She hurt herself trying to pick up the ball," he said. Then realizing that the ball was still in play, he yelled, "Go to second, Dana, go to second!"
Dana dashed away, and an angry cry arose from behind Jace.
"Don’t just stand there! Somebody get the ball!" bellowed Coach Patsy.
The Dragon infielders, who had been spellbound by the sight of their stricken teammate, came back to reality. The third baseman scrambled over and picked up the ball. She threw it to the shortstop, who swung her arm around, hoping to tag Dana before she reached second base. But Dana was already there.
At that point, the umpire called time and a small group gathered around the fallen pitcher. After a couple of minutes, a teammate helped the girl to her feet and escorted her to the Dragons’ bench. The Dragon coach pointed at her first baseman.
"Dorie, go in and pitch."
"Me?"
"Yes, you. Get in there."
A reluctant Dorie went to the pitcher’s mound and began to warm up. Jace watched her. She had a wobbly delivery, and her pitches tended to go high or outside. To Jace, the new pitcher looked like an open gate to a big rally. He ran to the plate where Corey waited.
