The Hitting Zone

Chapter 978 V3 Ch212

At the beginning of Tuesday's practice, Coach held a short meeting. Sean and I were told to rejoin the normal team practices and the twins had their focus on their upcoming respective starts.

"But Garret isn't going to pitch on Thursday either." Noah pointed out.

Coach cleared his throat and Dave stopped messing with Noah. "I believe in Dave and the rest of the bullpen. Our pitching is top tier in the high school level. Last year we lost to Golden West 2-3 and then beat them 1-0. Low scoring games so I want to focus on offense. Bryce has been good at the plate this past week so I want him in the lineup."

"Hey! I hit a home run in the 1-0 win." Garret threw out there. "Meanwhile, Jake went 1-2 at the plate in the same game. These guys aren't anything special."

"Jake didn't play in the loss last year." Noah spoke up. "And yea, they do have a good pitching program, but so what? Their best pitcher, Brady, has graduated. Our best didn't." He looked to me. "You're not afraid, right, Bambi?"

"You heard it here, guys." Noah looked around. "If you're more afraid or worried than Bambi, then I don't know what to tell you. You might not be ready for what I want to do this season."

"Go undefeated through and through." Noah stated.

"I want to be back to back CIF champions!" Noah raised his voice.

"YEA!!" The team echoed again and started to get up and move around.

"Alright, alright." Coach grinned. "Let's hit the field and start preparing. We've got some important games to win this week."

Back home, we took turns showering and homework before dinner.

"Your father and I will definitely be there." Mom assured him. She glanced at Grampa. "The drive might be a little long for your grandfather though. Golden West is nearly three hours away. Then another three hours back."

Grampa reached out to pat Dave on the shoulder. "I'll try to catch another one. This is one is a bit out of reach."

"You'll be okay without me there." Grampa laughed at Dave's dejection. "Half the season isn't over yet. I promise to be there every home game and maybe the closer away games."

Tuesday's practice followed a similar pattern, going hard until we nearly collapsed. Wednesday went much slower with a walk-through, going over situationals.

Jeremy: Good luck on the game today! It's a league game, right?

I wanted to mention that we lost to them last year, but I know in some roundabout way, it would become clear that he was sort of the reason I missed the game we lost. Better to just ignore it. In the grand scheme of things, it didn't matter. We still became champions with that one loss.

Me: Will do. Are you doing okay in Spring Training? I know Noah said they don't give you as many plate appearances as they look at some newbies.

I grinned. Jeremy had recently gotten in on the family smack talk. Especially when Noah gave him a hard time about his lack of steals.

Zeke: Unable to sleep on the bus still?

Zeke: Try to stay in a meditative state. Kind of relaxed, but focus on what you hope to accomplish today. Is Noah awake or sleeping?

Zeke:...

I sent a thumbs up emoji. Zeke didn't have any games this week since his school had end of quarter finals tests to do. Next week, he would technically be on spring break, but will have to stay at school for his team's practices. Next week would also be his 19th birthday. It would be hard to prank him this year. I started to Google some pranks people could do in long distance.

"It's okay." I told him. It was hard to be comfy on the aisle seat so I should be more sorry for him. "Zeke told me to wake you when we got closer so you would be more prepared for the game."

I started to shake my head. But then stopped and pulled up Jeremy's message.

I smiled and started to text.

I shook my head and pushed send for the text. "Not really. I spent more time looking up stuff." I grinned and pulled up the webpage I had found earlier. "Like this?"

I nodded. "It's a little pricey, but if we get the twins to join, we can share the cost four ways."

"Nice!" Noah grinned. "You're really one of us now."𝗳𝘳ℯ𝑒𝓌ℯ𝚋𝐧oνe𝘭. c𝐨ｍ