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The hike ended up being the kids’ favorite activity that day. It was a lot more fun in the end than many of them had originally thought it would be. The barefoot boy actually enjoyed sloshing through the mud, and a handful of other kids — both boys and girls alike — joined him in finishing the hike with their shoes (and socks) removed.

Of course, the dreariness of the other activities that day also helped improve the kids’ feelings about the hike. Lunch was served an hour later than scheduled to a bunch of very, very hungry preteens, and the team-bonding challenges were so intense that several kids had to go to the nurse’s office — some with stomach cramps from rushing into the exercises so soon after they had eaten, others with a variety of ailments and injuries, cuts and bruises and even a broken bone (a sixth-grade girl had taken quite the trust fall, no one had caught her, and she had braced herself with her left arm, resulting in a hairline fracture of her hamate bone).

As the counselors scrambled to come up with more exercises to keep the kids busy, about a half-dozen boys and girls came up with a proposal: that everyone got some time to rest from their busy morning and afternoon, by going back to the cabins. Most of the counselors and nearly all of the kids agreed, although none of them could have predicted just how bored they would get after two hours in the cabins trying to hide from the now-blinding rain (which had soaked nearly everyone’s clothes on the way down).

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The Panthers’ first tournament was hosted by a business that very desperately wanted to sell tickets, and thus offered packages of reduced-price weekend passes to each of the 16 teams involved in the double-elimination affair. At practice on Friday, the coaches gave a speech to the players and told them to drum up interest and take names to see how many passes they could try to sell to friends and family members and co-workers and friends of friends and that one guy you saw at Target the other day.

Thurgood decided to go with his dad to work the following Monday and try to pitch his dad’s co-workers.

Harold, meanwhile, told his mom (an elementary-school teacher) to post on her Facebook, hoping that some poor kid’s parents would drag him or her to watch their teacher’s kid play, perhaps seeing it as an opportunity to get in Mrs. Henderson’s ear about their child’s grades or behavior or something along those lines.

Matthew, though, was the most successful of the trio, as he went door-to-door with a huge smile on his face and spoke passionately about how much he loved baseball and how much he would love it if he saw some friendly faces in the stands for the tournament.

But Ug was stuck at home until the weekend, and he had plenty of time to brainstorm a list of people to go after.

Who do you try to sell tickets to? (Tdud123)

A. Kids from school and their families (baseball teammates, friends, classmates, etc.)
B. People at church
C. Neighbors
D. Parents’ co-workers (dad is a physicist, mom is a biology professor)
E. Your pet hamster Milo

B, then shout praise Jesus every time I get a hit.

On Sunday, Ug went with his family to church and attempted to sell tickets to several members of the congregation between services. He succeeded in selling ten tickets, which far exceeded the goal of five set by Coach Williamson.

The next day at practice, the coaches tallied up the amount of tickets sold by each player and awarded medals for the top three.

In third place was Matthew, who had sold twenty-two tickets, and was awarded a bronze medal.

In second place was eighth-grader Jace Williams, who had sold twenty-seven tickets and was given a silver medal.

But the gold medal went to Maddie, who had given a passionate speech about the lack of girls participating in baseball and how she was proving that girls could play baseball, and had sold a whopping sixty-one tickets.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

As soon as the boys had gotten inside Cabin 18, nearly all of them disrobed. Everyone left their shoes just inside the door, and only a few boys kept their shirts on. It was there on the cabin floor that the ten of them sat, cross-legged, talking just for something to do.

After half an hour of pointless, back-and-forth banter, Xander spoke up. “This is boring. I’m going outside.” And without any thought for putting his shoes or his striped T-shirt back on, Xander opened the door and walked outside into the blinding rain.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

After a week’s worth of practices, the Panthers were ready for their first weekend tournament of the summer season.

Coach Williamson took a look at the tournament bracket, snickered and laughed, and turned to the boys. “We’ve got an easy one to start off the tourney. The team we’re facing went 0-22 last summer and hasn’t won a game since 2013. Here’s how our lineup’s gonna look.” And he scribbled some names down on the lineup card and tacked it up on the dugout wall.

(1) Wallace cf
(2) Stubbs 2b
(3) Wilson 1b
(4) Ross 3b
(5) Jones ss
(6) Henderson rf
(7) Lee lf
(8) Harris c
(9) Li dh
(NB) Alford p

“Whoa! I’m in the starting lineup?” Thurgood exclaimed.

“Hey, same here,” said Harold.

“Guess I’ll be sitting the bench today,” a dejected Matthew said.

“Cheer up, you might come in as a reliever,” said Ug, smiling as he saw his name listed in the nine-hole.

Coach Williamson cleared his throat. “Now, these guys won’t go down without a fight, but if we play hard and give it our all, I think this could be a very fun way to kick off the season.” He winked and put his hand in. All of the boys followed suit. “Panthers on three…1, 2, 3…”

“PANTHERS!” bellowed the boys, and they took the field.

The opposing team led off with what were clearly their three best (and biggest) players: a tall, skinny first baseman who kicked things off with a bloop single over the shortstop Mat Jones’s head; a stocky catcher who followed by popping out; and a well-built shortstop who grounded into a double play, 6-4-3, to end the inning.

Their pitcher was a lefty standing roughly four and a half feet tall and rail-thin. His oversized glove flapped around as he pitched, and his pitches seemed rather slow as Maddie watched from the on-deck circle.

But his deceptive delivery did offer him some help that he desperately needed, and he started things off with a 1-2-3 inning, mowing down the top third of the Panthers’ lineup with a mix of slow pitches, slower pitches, and even slower pitches.

Grant Alford again took the mound for the second inning, and found himself in a bit of a jam after walking the first two batters, then hitting another to load the bases. Coach Williamson came to the mound to talk with him and try to calm the nervous sixth-grader down, and it worked as Grant induced two flyouts, although the first did allow the left fielder Jarvis to score. He ended the inning by catching the second baseman looking on a fastball just over the edge of the plate.

After Joey and Mat singled and walked, respectively, to open things up in the bottom half, Harold came up to bat.

What do you do? (Baseballteen9500)

A. Try to work a walk
B. Swing for the fences
C. Push bunt!
D. Dab, then hit the ball right at the shortstop
E. Go opposite-field

D. Sounds so very tempting but I'll go E. Don't want to hit into a double play.

The skinny southpaw rocked and fired, lobbing in something that might be referred to as a fastball. Harold had been trying to work on spraying the ball, and tried to stay back on the pitch. He swung a bit too late, though, and swung and missed for strike one.

He redeemed himself on the next pitch, and slapped a little flare past the leaping second baseman for a base hit, loading the bases for left fielder Colton Lee, who pulled one down the right-field line for extra bases, clearing the bases with a three-run double.

(Harold: XP +3)

Josh Harris struck out, bringing up Ug Li, who punched one between the shortstop and third baseman for a single, bringing Colton around to score as the left fielder struggled to get the ball into his glove. Ug called time and bowed his head in prayer before hollering out “Praise the Lord!”

(Ug: XP +1)

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Xander skipped around outside for a few minutes before going back into the cabin even wetter than before. “It’s freakin’ pouring out there,” he said glumly as he sat back down in his now-soaked jeans.

The rain continued into the next day, making it nearly a total wash until one group of kids had the genius idea to create an obstacle course for everyone to play on in the muddy field. Boys and girls alike were taken into a state of childlike amusement as they slipped and slid through the wet areas, rolled through mud, ran barefoot over a stretch of dirt, and finally weaved through some set-up traffic cones while trying to avoid patches of gravel that lay in their way.

A group of kids who were interested in the course, but were too timid to give it a go, took turns using a stopwatch borrowed from one of the counselors to time each kid’s run through the obstacle course.

“The top three so far are Chris Morrill, 1:23.55; Danielle Holtz, 1:25.26; and Percy Lewis, 1:33.92,” a dark-haired boy announced, reading from a clipboard the kids had written each time down on.

“I beat I can beat that,” Xander said confidently. He removed his shirt and shoes and tossed them to the side, then reached down and streaked his face with mud. By the time he was done preparing, he looked like a character straight out of Lord of the Flies.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Maddie caught hold of a grooved fastball and lined it into center field for a run-scoring single, bringing up Thurgood with runners on first and second. The Cougars’ coach came to the mound to relieve the skinny left-hander, putting in a right-handed pitcher from the bullpen. The righty was about average sized, and came to the mound with glasses on, which he was only allowed to keep on after he proved they were prescription spectacles.

Finally, the new pitcher began his warmup pitches.

What do you do? (LetsGoMets77)

A. Watch his warmups intently
B. Don’t watch, then ask a teammate for the scouting report
C. Stare at hot girls in the stands
D. Take reckless warmup swings
E. Get a drink of water from the dugout

*(censored)* UPDATE NICCCCCEEEE


A ALL THE WAY

Thurgood watched the new pitcher warm up with full focus, noting to himself that the kid’s fastball seemed to have some tail to it, and that he also threw some sort of breaking ball that wasn’t very good.

The righty’s final warmup pitch kicked up a storm of dirt into the catcher’s face, skidding away to the backstop. Thurgood confidently strolled up to the plate and tapped his aluminum-alloy bat twice on the center of the plate.

The first pitch was a fastball that tailed over the outside edge. Strike one.

His next pitch was the breaking ball, down in the dirt. The stocky catcher dropped to his knees, but kept the ball in front of him. Out at second base, Ug craned his neck to see where the ball was, and decided to stay put.

On the 1-1 count, the pitcher tossed in another fastball — this one way high, and a bit inside, brushing Thurgood off the plate a bit. His next pitch was nearly the same, but in the other batter’s box for ball three.

With the count at 3-1, Thurgood knew he had to be selective, and he got his pitch, as the bespectacled right-hander grooved a slider that didn’t slide, which was promptly clobbered into the left-center gap for a two-run double.

(Thurgood: XP +4)

Two more base hits followed, bringing around Thurgood to score the Panthers’ eighth run of the inning, making it an 8 to 1 lead.

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Xander easily worked his way through the slip n’ slide, and laughed with utter joy as he rolled in the mud before leaping to his feet and sprinting through the dirt path laid out before him. But the final portion of the obstacle course was where his footwork came into play, and luckily for him he had been working on his footwork for baseball in recent weeks. Xander deftly leapt this way and that, ducking through the traffic cones while narrowly skipping past the dangerous gravel.

“One, twenty-nine, eighty-two,” the dark-haired boy called out as Xander made his way back to the group, his unkempt blonde hair dripping with sweat and his entire body plastered with mud.

“*(censored)*!” Xander growled into his palms.

Of the group, only the timekeepers and Anthony had yet to attempt the obstacle course. The dark-haired boy and a timid Chinese girl looked at each other sheepishly, then turned their attention to Anthony, who was gazing off into the distance and paying them no attention as they crept up behind him and begged him to take a shot at the course.

PPJ, what is your response?

(FREE RESPONSE!)

He'll do the course but he'll put minimal effort into it in order to not look like a tryhard

“I guess I’ll do it,” Anthony said with a shrug. “Why not? It looks fun, after all.”

He did not spend nearly the time Xander had to prepare, simply doing a couple stretches and bouncing up and down a few times before taking his spot at the starting line.

“Ready? On your mark, get set, GO!” the dark-haired boy yelled, and Anthony took off, squealing with joy as he rode the slip n’ slide. He took a tumble through the mud pit, then rolled back and forth a couple more times for good measure before slowly helping himself up and jogging through the dirt path, then showing off his football moves in the traffic-cone portion, performing spins and jukes he had picked up from watching Chargers and Patriots games on TV.

“Two, eighteen, fifty-six,” the dark-haired boy said as Anthony finally finished the course.

He shrugged and casually walked back towards them with a sheepish grin plastered across his face.

(Anthony: XP +2)

Then there were only two left.

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By the end of the inning, the score had been run up to 13-1, and the Cougars were mercy ruled in the following inning by a final score of 22-1. The final box score showed that all nine Panthers starters collected at least one base hit and scored at least once. Coach Williamson gathered them all together after the game and told them that he was proud of them for playing hard and thoroughly dominating their opponent, no matter how weak they may have been.

(Ug, Matthew, Thurgood, and Harold: XP +4)

Their next game would be at six o’clock that evening against the Santa Monica Crusaders, a recent startup who had some talent but not much depth. Coach Williamson told everyone to get some food in their bodies and have some down time before showing back up at the field at four o’clock to stretch and warm up.

Matthew decided to spend his down time hanging out with Cody, who had just gotten home from an exhausting hockey practice and didn’t want to do much — which was perfectly fine with Matthew, who challenged him to a video-game tournament.

Three hours later, the boys were still glued to the screen when Mrs. Simpson sent Scottie, Matthew’s baby brother, up to check on him and tell him to come down and get ready to go to the game. Cody shrugged and said he would call his mom to come pick him up, but Mrs. Simpson invited him to accompany them to the game, and Cody gladly obliged. The four of them rode in Mrs. Simpson’s cramped sedan, with Matthew riding shotgun and Scottie chattering away in the backseat.

In the dugout, Coach Williamson lined the boys up like so:

(1) Eldridge cf
(2) Anderson ss
(3) Ross dh
(4) Thorn c
(5) Wilson 1b
(6) Jones 2b
(7) Terrell lf
(8) Lee rf
(9) Stewart 3b
(NB) Mathews p

After stretching and warming up, the boys took the field for the second time that day.

The Panthers were the designated away team, and thus would bat first against the Crusaders’ best pitcher, a lefty named Dalton Huffman who threw a killer curveball to go with his good fastball and changeup. Up first was Owen Eldridge, the right-handed-hitting center fielder.

“Strike one!” Dalton pumped in a fastball.

“Strike two!” Another fastball just caught the inside corner.

“Ball.” A curveball bounced sixty inches in front of home plate, smothered by the catcher.

Owen swung at the next pitch and blooped it over the infield for a base hit, but there was nothing doing as Dalton retired the next three batters on a fielder’s choice, a strikeout, and a popout.

Eighth-grader Wil Mathews toed the rubber for the first time of the season.

Leading off against the tall right-hander was center fielder Luke Harrell, who had hit .282 the previous season. Luke watched two balls go by before pouncing on a fastball, sending a two-hopper out to short for the first out.

The pitcher’s duel raged on until the fifth inning, when the Panthers finally got another chance to score. After Mat Jones walked to lead off the top half, Jaxon Terrell laid down a nice bunt to move him up to second, and Colton Lee drew a walk to put runners on first and second with one out for C.J. Stewart, a weak-hitting third baseman.

“Henderson! Grab a helmet and get in there, you’re hitting for Stewart,” Coach Williamson suddenly barked. Harold jumped up from his seat on the bench, selected a helmet and a bat he liked, and skipped out to home plate, digging into the right-handed batter’s box.

Dalton checked the runners, then turned and fired home. Fastball strike.

Again a check of the runners, then the pitch. Changeup, nicely spotted but a hair low for ball one.

Check. Pitch. Fastball high.

From the dugout, Coach Williamson signaled to the runners to run as soon as Dalton turned away to throw his pitch.

Dalton glanced back at second, then over to first, then toward home plate. Mat and Colton took off. Dalton kicked, fired, executed a nice fastball on the black. The catcher Towles flung off his mask and hurled the baseball down to second. A cloud of dirt went up.

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“What, are you scared to do it? Scared of a little mud?” an older boy in the crowd taunted.

“I’m not s-scared,” the Chinese girl said, trembling.

“I, uh, don’t want to get mud on my nice clothes,” the dark-haired boy said. He was wearing a regular white T-shirt and ripped-up jeans. Mud already covered his sneakers.

“Come on, it’ll be fun!” Anthony encouraged them.

“We won’t even time you,” one of the other timekeepers, a girl with blonde hair who had already done the course twice, told her frightened companions.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

“Safe!” the umpire yelled after a long pause, during which Mat had sprinted for home. The Crusaders’ second baseman leapt to his feet but decided to eat the ball, allowing Mat to score the game’s first run. Harold was instructed to bunt the runner over, and he…

… (Baseballteen9500)

A. Bunted softly toward third
B. Bunted softly toward first
C. Bunted hard toward the pitcher
D. Swung for the fences
E. Called time, then went to play with some dogs in the stands

Percentage Wise I'll take myself out of the play by choosing A.

Harold squared up and bunted it down the third-base line. The third baseman, a tall kid named Anders Grady, ran in to field the ball and immediately pivoted and fired the ball to third.

The problem for Colton was that the throw had him beat by a mile.

The problem for Anders was that nobody was covering third base.

Batting with a runner on second and one out (again) was leadoff hitter Owen Eldridge, who laced a single into center to advance Harold one base.

Right-hander Chase Appleby, who was normally a pinch-runner and backup outfielder, entered the game as the new pitcher. From his warmups, it appeared that he had a sinking fastball of some sort, a good changeup, and a weird-looking curveball, as well as what appeared to be a knuckleball.

Shortstop Zach Anderson batted next, and grounded into a double play to end the inning.

In the bottom half, Wil walked the leadoff batter, and after a long argument on the mound, he was removed from the game by Coach Williamson, who inserted righty Jace Williams in relief.

Jace immediately fanned right fielder Brad Berry on a splitter, bringing up Appleby, who was pinch-hit for by infield reserve Chad Kowalski, who also struck out on a splitter. Luke Harrell was up next, and he grounded one between Dax and Matt, getting through the hole for a base hit. After a mound visit, Grady also singled, loading the bases for the catcher Towles. Coach Williamson came to the mound again, this time bringing in a reliever: Thurgood Stubbs, who had played second base in the previous game, but was not tired.

Towles was one for two on the day, having struck out in the first and singled in the fourth. It was righty on righty, and Thurgood had the advantage against the .253 hitting backstop.

How do you pitch to Towles? (LetsGoMets77)

A. Pitch him hard inside
B. Throw him some junk away
C. Right down the pipe
D. Change speeds
E. Throw the ball at his left temple

—————————————————————————————————————————————

The dark-haired boy looked over at the Chinese girl, then to the anxious crowd, then back to his friend. He nodded, and instantly they began to take their places at the starting line. Side by side.

The boy scanned the crowd again with a nervous look on his face. He perked up his ears but did not move. He could hear the crowd whispering. They thought he was scared. Of what? Perhaps the course. Perhaps the crowd’s reactions. Perhaps even of himself.

Suddenly, he underwent the most dramatic transformation of character anyone in the crowd had ever witnessed. His puzzled yet bright face became dark and intense. He held out his left hand, and the Chinese girl placed something into it — some containers of body paint, which he smeared all over his face, then his torso and arms, then his legs as he slowly stripped down to nothing but his jet-black boxer briefs.

The crowd gasped audibly.

The blonde-haired girl fiddled with the stopwatch. The boy suddenly whipped his head toward her and mouthed something. She nodded and grasped a firm hold on the stopwatch, her right index finger placed on the start/stop button.

Three…

The boy twitched back and forth a couple times. His slender, pale body caught drop after drop of water; his underwear was soaked, or would be soon.

Two…

A few kids in the crowd were talking, in hushed tones, about how unathletic and clumsy the boy looked. Two boys placed bets on his finishing time, putting the over/under at two and a half minutes.

One…

The girl suddenly burst into tears and ran past the crowd and into the main camp. The boy took no notice of this. He blinked once, twice, three times, then glared ahead.

Go!

The boy exploded off the ground, sprinting straight ahead with incredible speed. He seemed either not to notice or not to care about the obstacles in his path. He simply ran through them, continuing on as his feet stomped into mud puddles and were cut by rocks of all shapes and sizes and even as he collided into the traffic cones. Finally, he finished, and with a long sigh he flopped down onto the grass, his arms raised in a half-hearted celebration of victory.

His time was 1:22.19.

He had beaten everyone else.

The boy in the crowd who had taken the “over” bet slammed his palm into his forehead several times, cursing himself for betting a whole week’s allowance, five dollars and twenty-five cents, on the over.

Xander suddenly decided to dogpile on top of the battered boy, and led the charge, suffocating him in a congratulatory mob of middle-schoolers.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

The only problem, of course, with such an activity as a muddy, rocky obstacle course was that the kids were left covered in, well, mud and rocks.

And it was only eleven o’clock, and the counselors were at once relieved and furious with the campers. Relieved, yes, because they had finally found something to do other than sit inside and stare at each other, but also furious, because they had behaved irrationally and were now quite messily milling around the dining area. The red-and-white checkered tablecloths were given brown stripes as kids brushed past them, leaving some dirt behind. The food itself became soiled after just a few kids had used the serving spoons — not that the other kids seemed to mind. The conversation at each table and around the room was buzzing with a sort of feverish excitement.

At the center of this spectacle was the dark-haired boy, who sat at the center table surrounded by inquisitive campers of all ages. His body was many colors at once: blue and white and gold, from the paint; brown and green, from the mud and the grass; and red, from the blood that gushed from his wounds. His feet ached with cuts and bruises but he did not care. His shirt and his pants were still laying in the grass over by the starting line, getting more and more soaked as the rain began to pour down again. A shock of his dark-brown, almost black hair fell down across his face, briefly blinding him from the world and the chaos around him until he swept it away with his left hand.

Xander, Anthony, and the rest of cabin 17 sat one table over, wolfing down their lunches with impressive speed. A few of them were taking bets on how much trouble everyone would get into.

“I bet he gets the worst of it,” Grayson said, pointing toward the dark-haired boy.
“No shit,” Jackson bluntly replied.

After almost everyone had finished eating their lunch, a couple of the counselors and staff members stood up in front of the assembled campers and began shuffling through some papers. All eyes were on the dark-haired boy as he fidgeted back and forth on the muddy bench, polishing off the remaining scraps of his turkey sandwich.

The counselors took a sweeping look around the tables, then honed in on the dark-haired boy. Nobody seemed to know much about him, although from listening to a few staff conversations Danny had picked up that the boy’s name was Brady, and he shared this with the rest of the table hoping it would entertain them and keep them from noticing that he had spilled some milk on the crotch of his khaki cargo shorts, giving the appearance that he had peed his pants.

Brady ate one last bite of his sandwich, then took a big swig from his water bottle, gathered his stuff, and walked over to the trash can to dump his plate. The eyes of over a hundred and fifty campers followed him as he trudged back toward his seat, making a pair of detours to avoid feet thrown out to trip him. He finally sat back down, and immediately buried his face in his hands and started to cry.

Finally, after he had finished crying, he dabbed at his eyes with a napkin and stood up.

“Look, if you want an apology, you’re not gonna get it from me,” he confidently blurted.

A few kids in the crowd were shocked at hearing this. They were certainly expecting an apology, and who knew what the counselors would have in store for Brady after hearing the exact opposite.

The counselors at the front exchanged a glance. One of them paused as if to say, I told you so.

“Good.”

Let's go with A

“Good.”

Brady was confused. He had definitely been expecting a harsh rebuke after refusing to apologize.

“We don’t want an apology. In fact, we want to apologize to you.”

Now everyone was confused, stunned.

“We failed to prepare you for the rainy weather. We pretty much left you for dead.”

Xander silently agreed with this.

“We would like to commend you for coming up with something to entertain yourself. It may have been messy, but hey, you’re kids, and getting messy is kind of the whole point of this camp, is it not?”

A murmur of agreement came up from a table of eighth-graders.

—————————————————————————————————————————————

Thurgood worked Towles hard inside, challenging him by changing speeds on his fastball but keeping the pitches in on the stocky catcher’s hands.

With a 2-2 count, after several long foul balls, Towles finally swung and missed as Thurgood pulled the string on a changeup.

In the top half, Joey, Marcus, and Dax all struck out, making total fools of themselves against soft-tossing lefty Cooper Ellis.

Coach Williamson elected to bring in his closer, Nick Robertson, for the bottom of the sixth.

First up was the second baseman and cleanup hitter, Ryan Jackson, who was the team’s overall best player, having hit for a .310 average with 5 home runs and 9 stolen bases on the prior season. Jackson had flied out in his first at-bat, then walked in his second, putting him at 0 for 1 on the day.

Now planted safely back on the bench, Thurgood could do nothing but watch as Nick got ready for the at-bat.

He could do nothing but watch as Nick threw a hanging curve on a 1-2 count.

He could do nothing but watch as Nick looked to the scoreboard, which now indicated a narrower, 2-1 lead for the Panthers.

Next up was first baseman Sean O’Hara, who pulled the ball into right for a single and was replaced by a pinch-runner, who advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by the shortstop Mike Colyer.

With one out and a runner on second, left fielder Tim Miller came up to the plate. Miller came in with a .207 batting average, but had singled and walked so far on the day to put his season OBP at 1.000 (he had gone 2 for 2 in the team’s opening game).

Coach Williamson gave his signals to Marcus behind the plate. Marcus stood up and extended his right arm.

With one out and two men on base, right fielder Brad Berry again strode to the dish.

In the bullpen, right-hander Brady Browne began throwing.

Berry came in with a .155 average, and had struck out in each of his two at-bats thus far. Nick’s first pitch to him was a fastball strike, followed by a curveball which Berry whiffed on.

On an 0-2 count, Nick threw another fastball, this one high and out of the zone, but Berry chased it for strike three.

With only two bench players remaining, the Santa Monica coach had to insert light-hitting utility player Cory Green as a pinch-hitter. Green had gone 1 for 11 the prior season, and had popped out in his only at-bat of the Crusaders’ first game.

After three straight balls to open the at-bat, Nick pumped in a fastball for a strike. Cory swung at the next pitch, and grounded it hard toward the hole between shortstop and third. As Zach Anderson ranged over behind him, Harold faced a tough decision: whether to make a play on the ball, possibly alienating his shortstop teammate, or to let Zach take it, possibly risking a bad throw off of his back foot.

What do you do? (Baseballteen9500)

A. Play the ball
B. Let Zach take it
C. Act like you’re going to play the ball, but let it go
D. Act like you’re going to do nothing, then dive at the last second
E. Sucker-punch the runner going for third