The Baseball Doubleheader: A Short Story

The most embarrassing baseball season in my life was in spring 2014. I played baseball for a decade when I decided to retire. I thought that I should end on the best season I have ever had because I’ve had already made up my mind that this season was going to be my last season. I played for North West in the junior division. There was only one other junior team, so we had to travel a lot for our games. I was probably the fifth or sixth best player on the team (I was a very average player). My team was not the best team in the league, but they were the worst. I think that we would have won a game, if we would have picked up our heads after the first lost.

In between high season and travel ball season my dad has been trying to build up my confidence. Which back to the story in Alabama, something is tugging on my arm. It’s not going to well but I’m trying. New team, new coach, and new competition. Explosion are half way into the season, it’s July 16, 2016. The tournament was at Clearmont, IN. I get to the field and heard that we were playing the team that my friend from my high school team, Ellie Hulwager, a girl that is short with dirty blonde hair, with noticeable blue eyes. She plays for the Aftershock, a team that I tried out for that didn’t give me a second look, Ellie pitches for the team and also plays center field. It’s game time I get to the field, all the teams go out for the coin toss. Aftershock calls heads, it lands on heads, after conversation with the coach the player says,”We’ll take home.” The teams run back into their dugouts and we grab our helmets and bats. Looking at the lineup, I look for my spot, fourth. I sit on the bench and talk to my teammates, not paying attention to the game, I heard someone yell,”Katie, your up.” I shoot up and throw my gloves and helmet on and grab my black and red, thirty-three inch bat. I step in the batters box, I look around, bases loaded. I didn’t think anything of it. The pitcher isn’t Ellie, she winds up and the pitch comes, it’s low and out side, I hit the ball and I’m at a dead sprint to first. I looked at my

I could feel the pitcher’s stress from 200 feet away in the dugout. We were up five at the top of the eighth, but the win was not secure. I could tell the pitcher was struggling to keep his composure. Suddenly, the coach calls me to warm up in the bullpen. I was excited and nervous to enter the game; I knew my warming up would add pressure to the pitcher and this was the Legion Sub-State Semifinal game, which determined our chance to advance to state. By the time I got to the mound, the bases were loaded with two outs. I noticed the packed stadium, felt the sweltering 90 degrees, and sensed the crowd’s tension. I had never pitched against this team, so I relied on communicating with the catcher. I threw a knee high fastball--STRIKE ONE. Next, I threw low and away curveball--STRIKE TWO. The catcher signaled a high fastball, knowing the batter was expecting another curveball. The batter chased the ball--STRIKE THREE. We won the game and moved on to finals. Two hours in the dug out, five minutes in the bullpen, and thirty seconds on the mound--not to mention fifteen hours a week, ten months a year for fifteen years--all culminated in a few seconds to advance

The game started and our team was batting, and I was third on the batting order. I was nervous because it was only my second season and the other team’s pitcher was pitching fast. Isaiah batted and hit, Miles struck out, and I struck out and was disappointed.

Every one was stretching and doing hitting practice. Unfortunantly I was not gonna pitch this game. The game finally started and in the first inning the pitcher was giving up so many runs. Eventually he got three outs and the score was 4-0. When we went up to bat we scored no runs unfourtanatly and the coach was kind of mad at us. When we went back on the field our pitcher gave up one more run and the coach decided to take the pitcher out and switch him out with the first base men. Also i was playing 3rd base throught the game. The new pitcher threw really hard and was striking everyone out, and because of that the inning went by really fast. When we went up to to hit this time we started scoring runs on the other team and when the pitcher finally got us out we had already done all the damage and the score was all tied up. The other team was scoring no more runs because of the dominate pitcher we had on the mound. However, for some reason we couldnt score no more runs against the other team, even when we had runners on base we couldnt do nothing, they

In the first inning we were on defense and we had our ideal positions out on the field. I was on first base and the coach's son William was the pitcher. All the other positions were filled with other athletes mostly dedicated to baseball or another sport. We had a great start to the game with an easy pop out. Although the next hit was wacked into left field getting him an easy double. We retired the last two batters with easy

Then in the fourth inning we scored one more run making it five to three going into the bottom of the fourth at this point I was beyond scared because the coach told me to be ready to pitch. In the bottom of the fourth inning they scored one more run making it five to four we did not score in the top of the fifth and in the bottom of the fifth West Central got their first two batters on base. The coach walked on to the mound and motioned to me that I was going to pitch. I was very scared; all I was trying to do was throw strikes which I did, we got out of the inning without them scoring. Then the bottom of the sixth came where again their first two batters got on base, I thought I am going to lose the state championship for my team, but somehow I struck out next three batters. When the bottom of the seventh came and we were still ahead, I knew that we were going to win I was not scared at all anymore. I got the first three batters out to win the championship the team’s first ever state championship.

It was a hot summer day in Hammond, Louisiana and I was pouring down sweat like I had just jumped in a pool. The game was just about to begin, me and my team was eagle eyeing the bomb squad. It was so quiet that you could hear your own sweat hitting the bench. The umpire broke up everyone’s concentration by saying, “play ball”! The defense had ran out on the field and I started rolling ground balls from 2nd to short-stop to third base. They had all made good throws back to me and then I threw the ball into the dug-out because the game had begun.

Nothing beat the overwhelming emotion of stepping up on the pitcher’s mound and hearing the chant of my name, my heart clawing its way out of my chest. Before throwing the first warmup pitch, my mind raced through the entire season. How, as a team, we have made history winning all three major tournaments in the high school level. We had beaten many top competitors and lost plenty crushing defeats as well. My mind pondered, which situation will I be in today, glorious victory or destructive loss. This is the feeling I lived for during high school, it was my sole purpose. However, this was merely one minute of that fateful day in which I played prodigiously trying to win a baseball game.

Sixth inning, I was deep into a no hitter with the score one to zip our favor. I had gotten the first batter to ground out to first base. Dad came trotting to the mound waiving Ihram in. I could see the concern on both faces. Looking at me what seemed like eternity, dad said “Looks like you got yourself in a pickle. There are two ways out, one is to blow the game and loose. The other is to pitch three strikes to the next two batters and win. What do you want to do?”

It was a good day to play baseball. Sun in the sky, cool breeze in the air. Nothing that could stop me from playing, or messing around. It was the Brentwood Pony All-Star game and I was fired up to play. Since I had the coolest Coach ever and my team just recently won the championship, my coach let us slack of a little bit just because, why not? It was about four o’clock in the afternoon and I was up on deck taking my practice swings, lefty! I was using a batting sleeve to weigh down the bat to make the illusion of it feeling lighter. But as I was watching on deck I realized something, the pitcher was throwing some serious heat. Even though I was experienced hitter, I was just a beginner lefty. I take a deep breath and walk to the plate, one of my teammates walks back to the dugout in deep despair as I go to the plate. As I start walking I hear my mom screaming my name and cheering for me as she always does, and I look back to see my sister laughing so I then let out a quiet giggle.

We practiced everyday nonstop and won game after game. We became infamous to the other teams for our ability to decimate our competition. Everything was going well until the semifinals when I was called up to bat. I never had to bat in any of the previous games because there was a turnover before I even had a chance to bat. I was completely dumbfounded, I double checked with the coach to make sure I was truly next, I then asked the batting coach and he said the same. I nervously put on my gloves and helmet as I watched the previous player who had stuck out come back to the dugout with his head down. It was the last inning and there were players on first, second, and third. A tied game between us and the White Sox. I slowly dragged myself to home plate and stood there. I raised the bat behind my head and held it firmly just as my batting coach said. I concentraded my breathing as sweat began to collect on my fore head. We had two outs and all I had to do was tap the ball and we would go on to the finals and then glory. The pitcher gazed took a deep breath and paused. Then in a blink of an eye he

The crowd was roaring like wild animals. Our teams had switched sides to start the second match and everything came into focus then. I could hear individual people cheering in the crowd, the student section was going nuts. The smell of the butter coming from the popcorn at the concession stands suddenly stood out to me. Most importantly, I could feel the yearning and the passion coming from my teammates. We wanted this win–bad. I was one of the leading hitters on the team and it was my job to produce the big hits for the team and motivate them to take everything the other team would hit at us. We started the second game and things were still going well for us! It wasn’t a fluke! We were playing well because we were working hard. If we didn’t hit hard they were going to pound it down, we couldn’t let up. So when our setter set me up and I saw out of the corner of my eye a triple block I knew I had to get it through their hands, but the ball was behind my head. In that split second I made a decision that changed my life forever. I swung away and I felt my shoulder pop and then the worst pain of my life went through my entire arm. I grabbed it right away knowing something was wrong. I’ve never felt pain like this in a game before. In that moment I knew that was the one. Every player knows what it’s like to get hurt. You get sprained ankles and sprained knees all the time, but this was the injury I knew had been coming to me. I looked up at my parents in the crowd and they knew too. Something was wrong.