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On Saturday, April 29, the Piercehaven Panthers traveled to Temple Academy for a doubleheader. James, saying he needed to fish that day, didn’t make the trip. Jake Jasper did. Emily thought about letting him coach. It was an away game—who would know? But PeeWee Hopkins was on the ferry too. So, even though it went against every fiber of her being, she went up to Jake and asked, “Can I speak to you for a second?”
“Sure,” he said, following her out onto the deck, “but I know what you’re going to say.”
“You do?”
“You’re going to say, ‘Thank you anyway, but you can’t coach first today.’”
Emily hated the words even as they came out of his mouth. This was so stupid. He was such an asset. She wanted his help. “It wasn’t my decision.”
He gave her a broad smile. “I know that, and I totally get it. If it weren’t for the fact that Juniper is having fun, I’d be tempted to tell them to find another foreman for this job. I’d just a soon get off that rock entirely.”
“Juniper’s having fun?” Emily didn’t even try to hide her surprise.
He chuckled and leaned on the railing, looking out at the water, and the island shrinking in the distance. “She is. I mean, life’s not perfect, but the scales are tilting in her favor. She really likes that boy she’s seeing, and she really likes pitching. She probably wouldn’t have gotten the start at Mattawooptock.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“You wouldn’t if you saw the starting pitcher. She’s a senior, and she’s better. She’s got a curveball that makes college recruiters cry. Anyway”—he pushed himself off the railing and stood up straight—“thanks for putting up with her. I know she’s not always easy.”
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Temple was a small Christian school, and Emily could tell from their warmups that this battle was going to be far easier than anything they’d experienced before.
MacKenzie asked if she could lead off with a bunt and stepped up to the left side of the plate. She offered a few times, but the pitcher didn’t throw anything she could bunt, and MacKenzie ended up with a walk. Hailey stepped up next and was very patient in the box, also earning a walk. Ava was not patient, but still earned a walk. Emily felt much sympathy for the pitcher who looked near tears. Emily silently prayed for her, and then the Temple coach called a timeout and headed out to the mound. Emily didn’t hear everything he said, but she did catch, “Stop trying to windmill.”
The next pitch she threw, she didn’t windmill, but it still sailed over Hannah’s head. The tears came then.
“Do you want a sub?” the coach called out, with gentleness.
The pitcher shook her head fervently and turned to scrape dirt into her toe hole.
It was Emily’s turn to call a timeout. The ump looked annoyed, so Emily hustled. “If she throws anything remotely hittable, I want you to hit the ball,” she said to Hannah.
“Well, yeah, I was planning on it.”
“I know, but what I’m saying is, she might make it hard. You might have to swing at a bad pitch, but if you think you can hit it, I want you to try.”
Hannah frowned. “You told us never to swing at bad pitches.”
Emily didn’t want to tell her the real reasoning behind her direction, that a hit, any hit, would likely still get Hannah on base and drive in a run and would take the pressure off the pitcher and give her a chance to emotionally recover. So she said, “A walk will bring in one run. A hit will drive in two.”
“Oh!” Hannah’s eyes grew wide with understanding, and she stepped back into the box with a renewed motivation. And sure enough, she swung with all her might at the next pitch—and missed. Shoot. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. The Temple coach gave Emily a look of gratitude, though, so there was that. On the next pitch, Hannah cocked her weight and then swung and drove the ball directly at the third baseman’s glove. As she caught it, Emily screamed at MacKenzie to get back to the bag, but it was too late. The third baseman only had to take two steps to make the double play.
Emily had instructed her cleanup hitter to forgo the RBI and instead hit into a double play. Oops.
To make matters worse, Ava was confused by the whole thing, and hadn’t returned to first yet. Hailey, standing on second, was screaming at her to return to first, but Ava stood frozen. The first baseman was screaming at the third baseman, but she too was flummoxed. Finally, she threw it, but it was a terrible throw, and Ava made it back to first safely while Hailey advanced to third. This is like The Bad News Bears, Emily thought, not for the last time that season. She also thought, Sure would’ve been helpful to have a first base coach there for that. She was willing to bet Jake was thinking the same thing.
Juniper was up, and without being told to, laid down a bunt and easily made it to first, bringing Hailey in for their first run. Emily wouldn’t have told her to bunt with two outs, but Juniper made the safe bet that they wouldn’t be able to field the ball.
Sara was up next and looked to Emily for guidance. “Be patient,” Emily said. “Don’t swing unless it’s a strike.” She was done helping the pitcher. She’d learned her lesson.
Sara was patient and got the walk, loading the bases again. Chloe was up next and also walked. Another run walked in. But Jasmine was up next, and her strike zone was considerably bigger than the rest. When she had two strikes, Emily reminded her to protect the plate, but she either ignored her or didn’t know what that meant and stood there for the third strike.
It was time for defense.
When Juniper struck out their first three batters, Emily felt a little like a bully.
Even more so when Juniper did it again in the second inning.
Heading into the top of the fifth, Juniper still hadn’t allowed a single hit, and Piercehaven had eleven runs. Emily didn’t know they had that many until Thomas said, “We might actually get to mercy someone else for a change.”
They scored another two runs in the fifth, thanks to MacKenzie being hit by a pitch (Emily wasn’t sure whether it was on purpose); two errors; and Ava’s long hit to centerfield. Now all they had to do was hold them, which Juniper did with ease.
“Congratulations on your no-hitter,” Emily said to her. “I’m going to start you again, but I might give Ava a shot later in the game, if we get a good—”
“Why?” Juniper snapped.
“Just in case,” Emily said. “You’re not invincible. You could get sick or hurt at some point.”
She walked off in a sulk.
Emily told Ava to warm up for pitching. “Just in case.”
“What about me?” Hailey asked.
Annoyed, Emily said, “You can warm up too.”
