Fast-Pitch Love

by Clay Cormany

  The team seemed to have found its groove. Then came some bad news. In his follow-up examination, Martha's doctor concluded that although she could now leave her house, it was too risky for her to go back to her job or to coaching. Jace still expected his team would make it three wins in a row when they played the Ladyhawks. After all, they had beaten this team once before. But misfortune ambushed the Valkyries again. A stumble during a badminton game left Corey with a hurt foot, a nasty summer cold felled Lauren, and a family death sent Angela to Scranton, Pennsylvania for the funeral. Even without these players, the Valkyries put up a good fight. Phoebe played her best game, going three-for-four and driving in two runs. But it wasn’t enough, and the Valkyries went down eight-six.

  The game did have one redeeming benefit for Jace. In the bottom of the second inning, Mr. and Mrs. Thornapple and a certain teenage girl with an angelic face and auburn hair climbed into the bleachers to watch the game with the rest of the crowd. Stephanie, clad in a pink sleeveless blouse and white shorts, applauded whenever the Valkyries scored a run and even cheered once when Tina stroked a single to center. At one point, she made eye contact with Jace while he coached at first base. She smiled at him, her lips soft and inviting even at a distance, and made a little wave with her hand. Jace waved back at her and then did his best to focus on Charlene, who reached base on a walk.

  For the rest of the game, whether the Valkyries were batting or in the field, Jace shot glances in Stephanie’s direction. Her beauty was captivating, mesmerizing, maybe even magical. Put her in a desert, and a sparkling fountain might spring up from the sand; put her in a barren wilderness, and a garden of lavender, lilacs, and daisies might emerge from the soil.

  When the game ended and hand slaps completed, Stephanie and the Thornapples came out of the bleachers. While her parents spoke with Sylvia, Stephanie walked over to Jace.

  "Tough loss," she said.

  "All losses are tough, but at least the team played well," he said with a little shake of his head. "Did you see Tina’s hit?"

  "Sure did. Tina loves this game. She’d play it all year if my parents let her."

  "I bet she’s glad you came to watch her."

  "Oh, I guess so. But I didn’t just come to see her play."

  Jace held his breath. "Why else did you come?"

  Stephanie's face brightened. "To see if you'd still like to go to the carnival with me before it leaves town."

  Jace paused, trying to recover from the joy and surprise that spiraled through his body. "I thought you already went with Carson."

  "Yes, but we didn’t do much. Mostly I just watched him play silly games with darts and water guns." She let a little laugh escape from her perfectly formed mouth. "He tried to win a teddy bear for me, but the best he could do was a goldfish."

  "Didn’t you go on any rides?"

  "Only the scrambler, which nearly made him puke."

  The thought of big tough Carson getting sick brought a smile to Jace’s face and made him feel triumphant. Except for the Ferris wheel, he could ride any carnival ride without a problem.

  "Would you like to go?" asked Stephanie.

  "Yes," Jace said. "What time?"

  "My dad wants me to reorganize some file cabinets in his office tomorrow. So it’ll have to be Saturday, which is the carnival’s last day."

  "Our make-up game is that afternoon," he said. "Why don’t you come and watch, and we can leave right after it’s over?"

  "Sounds great!" Stephanie answered.

  ****

  Two hours before the game, Jace got a phone call from Stephanie. "My dad just told me he wants me to work in his office again this afternoon!"

  "Is it those file cabinets?"

  "No. I finished them yesterday. Now he wants me to put together a bunch of packets for his clients. It could take hours."

  Jace fought to restrain the frustration that welled up inside of him. "You could come to the game late," he suggested, "like you did on Wednesday."

  "That might work — if I get done in time and if my dad will drop me off at Addison."

  "I’ll be happy to see you, whenever you get to the game."

  "But suppose I can’t get there at all?"

  "We’ll think of something," he assured her, trying to sound more confident than he was.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  One hour before the game, Jace drove to the Ridgeview Recreation Center where the girls' softball league had a small office. A table just outside the office had a row of plastic mailboxes labeled with the names of all the teams. Usually these boxes were empty, but this time each had a sheet of paper in it. Jace pulled the sheet from the Valkyries' box and saw that it was a memo from the league commissioner. On the subject line were two words in all caps that made the memo’s importance clear: POSTSEASON TOURNAMENT. He read what followed.

  As our regular season draws to a close, we wish to remind you that the top four teams in each league will advance to the postseason tournament, which will begin on July fifteen. Teams advancing to the semifinals will be informed who their opponents are no later than the evening of July sixteen. Semifinals are scheduled on July seventeen and the championship game will be held on July nineteen. The first round of the tournament will be organized according to the following brackets.

  Fourth-Place North League Team

  versus

  First-Place South League Team

  .

  Second-Place North League Team

  versus

  Third-Place South League Team

  .

  Fourth-Place South League Team

  versus

  First-Place North League Team

  .

  Second-Place South League Team

  versus

  Third-Place North League Team

  .

  North League Standings as of July Thirteen

  Firebirds eight wins, two losses

  Diamond Girls six wins, three losses

  Hornets five wins, five losses

  Valkyries four wins, five losses

  Ladyhawks four wins, six losses

  Dragons two wins, eight losses

  In the event that two teams have the same record, the team that scored more runs in head-to-head competition will be ranked higher in the standings. If they scored the same number of runs in head-to-head competition, the tie breaker will be the total number of runs each team scored during the season.

  Despite some unfortunate incidents, it's been a rewarding season. Let's keep it that way as we move into the tournament.

  Sincerely,

  Clarice Ryerson, Commissioner

  Ridgeview Girls North Softball League

  Jace folded the paper and put it in his back pocket. He knew a victory today would give his team a respectable five-five season. But something more was at stake. If the Valkyries won, they would advance to the tournament. If they lost, they’d have a four-six record like the Ladyhawks. During the season, the teams split their two games, but Jace was pretty sure the Ladyhawks scored more total runs, which would allow them to advance. The only way for the Valkyries to reach the tournament was to beat the Diamond Girls, a team that humiliated them in their first contest.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Each softball game was like a person’s life. It had a beginning and an end, highs and lows, as well as characteristics that set it apart from other softball games. At first, the Valkyries’ game against the Diamond Girls did not seem unusual. The DGs drew first blood with four runs in the top of the first inning, followed by two more in the second. The Valkyries struck back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the second and three more in the third. The teams traded two runs apiece in the fourth. Neither scored in the fifth, although the Valkyries came close after Denise lashed a single to center with Tina on second base. When she saw the center-fielder bobble the ball, Sylvia took a chance and waved her sister home. Tina beat the throw to the plate by at least a foot, but the umpire didn’t see it that way.

&nbs
p; "You’re out," he shouted, thrusting his thumb upward.

  "What?" yelled Tina, scrambling to her feet. "I was safe!!"

  "No, you weren’t and don’t argue with me, or I’ll put you out of the game," the umpire retorted. He was an older man — maybe forty—and the scowl on his face suggested that he wasn’t bluffing.

  "But I beat the –" Before Tina could finish her sentence, Sylvia came up behind her, grabbed her arm, and tugged her back to the Valkyries' bench.

  "I was safe," Tina continued to protest. "I know I was."

  "I thought so, too, but it won’t help to argue. You’ll just get thrown out of the game."

  With the score tied eight-eight in the top of the sixth, the Valkyries retired the lead-off batter on a grounder to second. Then disaster struck. The second batter, the DGs’ third baseman, was even bigger than Lauren. In three previous at bats, she walked and doubled twice on hard-hit line drives. This time, on a two-one count, she crushed the ball and sent it hurtling into the outfield like a cannon shot. Susie Alexander in center field had been playing deep, but she couldn’t reach it before it struck the ground with a thud and started to bounce. Fortunately, the hitter wasn’t too fast, and Jace realized that if Susie could recover the ball in time and get it to the infield, they might hold her to a triple.

  "Phoebe!" he yelled toward his sister at shortstop. "Get set to cut off the throw. Hurry!"

  As Phoebe scurried into short left field, the big DG runner barreled past her, headed for third, where her coach already waved her toward home. Susie’s throw was on its way to Phoebe when the runner reached third base. She stumbled when she pivoted toward home, sending a cloud of brown dust into the air. Then three steps past third base, the girl began to slow down. Two more steps and she came to a complete stop.

  "Keep going, Becky!" the third-base coach shouted. "What’s wrong with you?"

  Becky fell to her knees and put a hand to her throat. Phoebe, after receiving the throw from Susie, relayed it to Charlene at third who tagged the girl on the shoulder.

  "I don’t think she can breathe!" a man wearing a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt shouted from the top of the bleachers. "Please let me through. That's my daughter!"

  The man climbed down, bumping into other people along the way. The umpire flung off his mask and signaled time out. As he did, Sylvia rushed over to the girl, who lay doubled up on the ground midway between home and third base. Sylvia hoisted the stricken player up and seized her around the midsection. Using the Heimlich maneuver, she clasped her hands tightly together just below the breastbone and thrust inward once, twice, three times. There was no change in the girl, who was blue in the face.

  With the man from the bleachers hovering just a few feet away, Sylvia repeated the procedure. On the third thrust, a well-chewed piece of gum popped out of the girl’s mouth, followed by a gasp for air. Sylvia released her grip, and the girl slumped to the ground, still gulping in air. The man knelt down next to her and thrust his arms around her shoulders. Slowly the two of them rose as one to their feet, and people in the bleachers and on both sides of the diamond broke out in applause.

  "Are you all right, sweetheart?" the father asked his daughter as she dusted off her jersey.

  "Yeah, Dad," she said. "But I was so scared. I couldn’t breathe."

  "Lucky thing this young lady knew what to do," the man said, nodding at Sylvia. "Thank you so much."

  "No problem," said Sylvia.

  "Yes, nice work," the umpire added. He put his mask on and faced the Diamond Girls’ coach, who had come onto the field with several of his players. "Let’s get back to the game," the ump said. "There’re two outs now."

  "Wait a minute!" the DG coach protested. "The runner shouldn’t be out. This was an emergency. She should be allowed to go back to third base."

  "Yeah, it was an emergency," the umpire agreed, "but that doesn’t change the fact your player got tagged out after running past third base."

  "But that’s not fair," the man argued. "She would’ve scored if she hadn’t choked on that piece of gum."

  "Coach, I don’t make calls based on what would have happened," the umpire said in a firm but controlled voice. "I make them according to what does happen. And what happened was your player ran past third base and was tagged out before reaching home."

  The DG coach shook his head but returned to his team’s bench without saying anything more.

  Corey walked the third batter but no harm came of it as the next one hit an easy pop to first. Jace sighed with relief and, without thinking, put his arm around Sylvia’s shoulder.

  "You should've told me that you moonlight as Wonder Woman," he said.

  "A girl’s got to do something with her spare time," she said, giving her nose a cute little wiggle.

  "Try working another miracle and give us a run this inning."

  Sylvia rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, I learned the Heimlich maneuver in a Red Cross babysitters class. It was no miracle. And I don’t think we need a miracle to get that run."

  While he stood there with his arm draped over Sylvia’s shoulder, a familiar voice called his name from the bleachers behind him. Swinging around, he saw Stephanie seated about halfway up. She gave a little wave but frowned at the same time. What was wrong? Then he realized he still had his arm around Sylvia’s shoulder. He pulled it away. What was he thinking? Did Stephanie get the wrong idea?

  He looked at her again and saw her take a pair of sunglasses out of her purse. No harm done, he told himself. Putting his arm around Sylvia was just a gesture of support from one teammate to another. Stephanie would understand that’s all Sylvia was to him. A friend and fellow coach. Nothing more. Definitely, positively, absolutely. Just a friend and — The rambling little voice in his head stopped. Because no matter how hard it tried to convince him that Sylvia was only a friend, he knew she had become much more.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Sylvia was right. The Valkyries did not need a miracle to score the winning run. Charlene led off the inning with a single and advanced to second when Susie walked. Nancy’s sacrifice bunt put the two runners at second and third, and Charlene came home when Heather hit a slow roller that found its way past the outstretched gloves of the pitcher and third baseman.

  After the Valkyries exchanged hand slaps with their defeated opponents, Jace and Sylvia brought them together under a tree behind the backstop.

  "Because we won today, we’ll be playing in the tournament," Jace announced. Cheers filled the air while the girls gave each other hugs and high fives. Then they fell silent. Some looked worried.

  "Who’re we playing?" asked Corey.

  "Not the Firebirds, I hope," added Dana.

  "No, it won’t be the Firebirds," said Sylvia. "It will be a team from the South League."

  "Which team?" Corey persisted.

  "I don’t know," Sylvia replied. "Do you, Jace?"

  "No, but it will be the South’s first or second-place team," he answered.

  "First or second-place?" said Angela, frowning a little. "Then they’ve got to be good."

  "I guess they are," Jace agreed. "But so are we. And if they think they can beat us, just because they had a better record in the regular season, well…" He pointed a finger at their sad-faced opponents who were holding a team meeting of their own nearby. "They also had a better record than you, but you still beat them. If you play your best, you can beat any team in either league."

  After the meeting broke up, Jace scanned the bleachers, hoping to see Stephanie. He felt a pang of worry when he didn’t see her. Then someone tapped on his shoulder.

  "She’s over there," said Sylvia, pointing to the edge of the parking lot. "Got to go find my mom at the pool." She walked away with her back slumped, but then glanced at him over her shoulder. Jace thought he saw tears in her eyes.

  "Have a good time at the carnival," she said. The words sounded hollow. He watched her walk toward the pool, her head drooping along with her back.

  It didn’t make s
ense. Wasn’t Sylvia the one who encouraged him to date Stephanie? Even helped him arrange his first date with her? And didn’t she want him to be Stephanie’s boyfriend instead of Carson? Jace knew all this was true, but he also sensed that Sylvia’s feelings toward him had changed. He knew his feelings for her had changed, too, and yet his attraction to Stephanie felt as strong as ever. It was hard to figure out what was going on.

  As Jace walked toward Stephanie, she perked up, and when he reached her, she did something he would not have dared imagine a month ago. Without even saying "hello," Stephanie put her hands on his shoulders and kissed him — a firm, lingering kiss that warmed the whole left side of his face.

  "Congratulations on your victory," she said, ending the kiss and taking his hand while they walked toward his car. "You sure know how to inspire those kids."

  Jace shrugged. "The girls deserve most of the credit," he said. "They worked hard, and now they’re getting results."

  "You’re being too modest," said Stephanie. "Tina told me about the different things you’ve done during their practices, like using a hard ball and giving them heavier bats."

  "Yeah, Sylvia and I try to make the practices challenging so the actual games will seem easy by comparison."

  Stephanie shook her head. "Sylvia? It’s hard to believe she’s the reason for your team’s success."

  "Sylvia’s a great coach," said Jace, opening the passenger side door of his car. "More than that, really. Didn’t you see her help that girl who choked on her gum?"

  "Oh, yeah," said Stephanie, as she got into the car. "That happened right after my dad dropped me off." She sounded unimpressed.