COACH ALLEN BROKE INTO A smile. “Well, that’s music to my ears, son. Get yourself warmed up. We’re at the bottom of the order, but I’ve got an idea.”
Out on the field, Gertzy struck out Dirk, and the Rockets player pounded the ground with his bat and yelled at the umpire, “That was terrible. That was awful.”
“Awful!” Coach Gamble ran out of his dugout and kicked the third base line, sending a puff of white chalk and dirt into the air before retreating back to the dugout without even looking at the umpire.
“The worst call I’ve ever seen!” Dirk scowled at the umpire.
“You want to finish this game, or hit the showers?” The ump glared at Dirk, who disrespectfully turned his back and walked away, cursing to himself.
“Two outs.” Coach Allen pointed as Chris swaggered up into the box. “But your ‘not buddy’ was the one who got their run. Put one of Gertzy’s fastballs out of the park in the second inning. Practically hit that building.”
Jalen looked past the outfield hedge across the parking lot at the big brick building. “He’s big.”
“And good, too.” Coach Allen looked at his score book. “He’s not afraid to use that curve, and we just can’t hit it. Fanny took a walk in the fourth, and Gertzy hit a single, but otherwise we haven’t had a sniff. When we do connect, they’re dribblers.”
“Well, I hit him in Little League, and in practice, too,” Jalen said.
“That’s what I’m hoping for.” Coach Allen put a hand on Jalen’s back. “We ended the last inning with our first two batters, so Fanny is up. He’s our number three, then Gertzy is cleanup. You’ll bat five. I figure if those two know the pitches, at least one of them can get on and then—if we hold here—you could get us on the board and win this thing. It’d be a good day for you to do it, because not only is the Harvard coach watching, someone said Yale and Princeton are here too, so . . . you can never start impressing people too soon.”
Jalen looked into the stands and swallowed, thinking he’d probably rather not have known about the college coaches. He saw Cat sitting alone and gave her a little wave. The crack of a bat turned his attention to the field. Chris ripped a line drive over second base and stretched a single into a double when the center fielder bobbled it. Chris hopped up and down on the bag and hooted and hollered, pumping a fist at his teammates, who jeered at the center fielder, shouting, “Hey! Dribbles!”
“These guys are pretty low on sportsmanship,” Coach Allen said with a frown.
Jalen saw that the next batter was Caleb Paquet. He burned at the thought of how Caleb had thrown a beanball at him to get in with Chris and Dirk.
“What do you think? Is Gertzy too worn down, or do you like him to finish this?” Coach Allen was talking, and Jalen wasn’t sure if it was to him.
“Are you asking me?”
“You’re the genius, right?”
“He can get them,” Jalen said, knowing it was what he hoped, not what he knew.
Caleb got behind on a 1–2 count before he blasted one of Gertzy’s fastballs toward the right-field hedge.
Jalen’s stomach plunged.
Daniel took off at a full sprint, hit the track that ran along the inside edge of the hedge, and leaped into the air, reminding Jalen of Reuben Hall’s amazing catch at Fenway. Daniel twisted in the air, stretching, and snagged the ball, but was immediately swallowed up by the hedge.