My name started to reverberate all around the stadium despite the stadium only being a few hundred people.
"You good, Jake?" Mr. Miller squatted to be closer to me.
I nodded and wiped some of the dirt off my face.
The umpire declared time out. I slowly got up and saw that the coach for Branham came out and went to the mound to meet with his infielders.
"What's happening?" I asked, dusting myself off.
"You put them in a difficult spot, kid." Mr. Milled put his arm around my shoulders. "My guess is, they change pitchers."
"So soon?" I frowned.
He glanced at me. "Lefties don't face third base. They need a righty to keep doing check throws this way. You better pay attention."
I turned to look at him. "Do I have to leave the bag?"
He blinked. Opened his mouth. Then closed it.
"Garret will drive me home without a problem." I stated.
Mr. Miller sincerely thought it through. He straightened up and let go of me. "Okay. You stay on the base all you want. If it's clearly a hit, go home. In the air, you'll be in perfect position to tag up and go home. If it's a grounder, stay where you are and we'll change it back to a lead with Brian up to bat."
My shoulders dropped with relief. "Yea."
Branham really went through the trouble of changing pitchers despite a lefty having an advantage against Garret. With no outs and me at third, there wasn't much they could do besides to face him head on.
The third baseman didn't talk as much as the first baseman. He stood at third with me, making me a little nervous, but I knew I was safe. I wasn't going to look like a fool as we tried to win this game.
I looked at the pitcher on the mound and found him looking at me. I froze. He frowned and stepped off the rubber. I kept a foot on third.
The pitcher looked to his catcher. After nodding, he stepped on the rubber again. He looked at me once more. I simply watched him too. He did his motion and threw towards home. Garret fouled the ball back.
"Alright, Garret!"
"You've got this!"
"C'mon MVP!"
"Go Garret!"
"Drive him home!"
All the chants started to sound off for Garret at the plate. He took the next pitch for a ball. 1-1. The pitcher was outright glaring my way.
"Too scared to step off?" The third baseman randomly spoke up. I didn't look at him.
The pitcher soon lost interest in me as his battle with Garret started to stretch out to a full count. Garret may have been tired on the mound, but it was a different story at the plate. He fouled off a few extra pitches before hitting the ball to center field. The outfielder came sprinting in and made a dive, but as soon as I saw that ball dribble away from him, I took off for home.
I stepped on home plate and the crown erupted. Our team stormed out of the dugout and raced to me at home and Garret at first. 4-3. CIF Division Three Champions of the northern section.