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Johnny noticed that there was no final tap of the cap, and thus deduced that there was no play on, and that he should swing away.

He pounced on a first-pitch fastball and slapped it the other way for a base hit. Living up to his name, Harry Hustle sprinted around third and towards home, and made it in safely after the throw from right field missed the mark.

(Johnny: XP +3, PWR +1)

Next up was Sam Gow, who hit the ball on the nose, but right at the third baseman for a lineout. Jaxon Stills followed, and on a 2-1 count, was hit in the shin with a breaking ball, and took his base, loading the bases for second baseman Danny Hummer.

Danny drew the count full, then attacked a fastball up in the zone, smacking it down the line for extra bases and driving in three runs.

With the lefty Schultz struggling on the mound, the Robert Milton coach instructed two of his right-handed relievers to get loose, but Schultz had to stay in to face the next hitter, catcher Cody Tibbits, who stayed patient and drew a walk. Center fielder Dante Dillard was up next, and also walked, bringing up Harry Hustle for the second time in the inning. By now, both Warhawk relievers were ready to go, and the Robert Milton coach came to the mound for a change. In came right-hander Coby Freeland, who threw a hard, moving fastball and a slider. Schultz, one of the team’s best hitters, came out of the game defensively, but was allowed to stay in as a designated hitter.

Freeland struck out Harry, but the damage was done, and the lead remained Walker Grove’s for the remainder of the game; Coach Miller allowed Lake to rest, putting in Wei Ling to pitch the fourth and fifth innings and Peter Royal to close it out in the sixth. The final score of 6-1 was good enough for Coach Collins to reward everybody on the team with a stick of gum for a job well done.

(Anthony, Johnny, Harold, Lake, Xander, Cody: XP +1)

Two days later, the Raiders traveled ten minutes down the coast to play perhaps their biggest non-conference game against Carlsbad East, a feeder school for nationally ranked high-school baseball powerhouse Carlsbad Central High School.

As was the case with the first game, the red team would play first at 4:00, followed by the blue team at 6:00; however, as the CEJH stadium had lights, time would not be an issue, and both games would be allowed to run a minimum of six innings, plus any extra innings that were necessary.

For the first game, the red team would be squaring off against Carlsbad East’s seventh-grade team. The school had three distinct teams, but their sixth-graders often did not see action and generally suited up as emergency backups for the seventh-grade games, as was the case here.

With Danny and Jason still injured, and Colby suspended for one game due to the fight, the Walker Grove lineup was depleted. Due to the lack of depth, sixth-graders Jonathan Smith, Xavier Owens, and Bobby Daniels were called up from the skills team to serve as emergency backups.

Walker Grove Raiders (Red)

(1) Brady Hewitt, CF
(2) Stanislaus Lem, LF
(3) Jimmy James, P
(4) Matthew Simpson, 1B
(5) Harris Potts, 2B
(6) Evan Woolsey, C
(7) Tanner Davis, RF
(8) Marky Phelps, SS
(9) Andy Teasdall, 3B

Carlsbad East Jaguars (7th grade)

(1) Thomas Muller, SS
(2) John Stanford, 2B
(3) Will Potter, LF
(4) Harrison Cole, CF
(5) Brett Nichols, C
(6) Terrence Cone, RF
(7) A.J. Edwards, 1B
(8) Zack Royster, 3B
(9) Grant Fuller, P

The opposing pitcher, Grant Fuller, was a tall lefty who didn’t throw particularly hard but had solid movement on all of his pitches and was very deceptive with his delivery. Thus, it was hard to tell exactly what he was throwing in warm-ups, but Brady could observe that he had a good breaking ball of some sort.

Brady led off the game by striking out on that same pitch, but Stanislaus managed to get a good read on a 2-2 curveball to foul it off, then fouled off three more pitches to keep the count at 2-2.

What do you do? (dustyfarmer)

A. Stay defensive
B. Get aggressive and swing for power
C. Take a pitch
D. Look for cute girls in the stands
E. Look for cute boys in the stands

S.Lem refuses to go down looking, and will
A: stay defensive

Stanislaus was having success staying defensive, and was really making the pitcher work, with eight pitches thrown in the at-bat thus far. He figured that if he kept it up, not only might he reach base eventually, but he might help drive the pitcher out of the game early.

However, the very next pitch was a fastball very much high and away, and Stanislaus took it, bringing the count full.

Finally, after fouling two more pitches away, Stanislaus got all of a hanging curve, and smashed it into the left-center gap for a stand-up double.

(Stanislaus: XP +2, PWR +2)

Next up was Jimmy James, who was the starting pitcher that day. After throwing twelve pitches in the previous at-bat, his counterpart was laboring a bit, and Jimmy decided to…

… (Kungfupandacam)

A. Make him throw you a strike
B. Jump on the first pitch
C. Sit on the curve
D. Bunt Stanislaus to third
E. Eat a taco

A.
Why do in. Need to put more characters

Jimmy tried to make the opposing pitcher work even more to get the second out of the inning by taking everything until he got a strike.

Fuller’s first pitch was a forkball that missed outside.

His second was a curveball, also missing down and away.

His third was a fastball, which he tried to spot inside. But perhaps he came a bit too far inside, and the pitch hit Jimmy square in the ribs.

What do you do? (Kungfupandacam)

A. Jog down to first
B. Slowly walk to first
C. Fall down and start crying
D. Charge the mound
E. Decline the HBP and stay at bat

(psst kfpc it's still your turn)

(if kfpc doesn't respond by monday morning i'll move on and start working on the next update)

Jimmy shot the pitcher a nasty look, but got up and trotted down to first. However, he immediately began wincing in pain, and had to be replaced by a pinch-runner. Bobby Daniels entered to pinch-run, with the coaches intending to hide Bobby in right while Tanner Davis came in to pitch.

Tanner managed to make it through two innings, only allowing one run, but he was too tired to continue pitching. The coaches decided to put him back in right field and put in another sub, Xavier Owens, as the new pitcher. With Matthew having thrown four-plus innings the other day and their only other pitcher, Jason Hamilton, out with an injury, there simply weren’t any better options; it was also inevitable that the other emergency backup, Jonathan Smith, would have to come in and pitch some as well.

Xavier had surprisingly good control for his age, but armed with only a fastball in the 45-mph range, he simply wasn’t going to miss any bats unless he threw the ball a foot off the plate (and even then, the batters very well might’ve swung and connected anyways).

The pitcher, Grant Fuller, was due up first in the bottom half, but Carlsbad East inserted a pinch-hitter, reserve outfielder/catcher Walter Watson, who promptly smacked a fly ball to deep left. Stanislaus, however, was in perfect position to catch the ball for out number one.

The defense wouldn’t have the same luck with the next several batters, as the Jaguars strung together five consecutive hits before an inning-ending double play stopped the damage at three runs.

In to pitch the top of the fourth for Carlsbad East was left-hander Sam Schilling, who proceeded to strike out the side in his only inning of work.

In the bottom half, Carlsbad again got two men on base, and second baseman John Stanford singled a run in on a flare to center field that would end Xavier’s night.

In came Jonathan Smith, the last line of defense for Walker Grove before they started having to throw out position players. He didn’t fare any better than Xavier had, walking the first batter he faced and then allowing a grand slam to cleanup hitter Harrison Cole, putting the score at 9-1 Jaguars. Catcher Brett Nichols also hit the ball hard, but slapped it right to Mason at short, who snared the line drive to end the inning.

In the fifth and final inning (the sudden change coming as a result of Walker Grove’s coaches being concerned for their pitchers’ health), Carlsbad East inserted several subs to give their starters some rest, including a new pitcher, righty Chris Thompson. After Thompson allowed the first four batters of the inning to reach base (including an RBI double by Brady Hewitt), he was pulled for the Jaguars’ final reserve, right-hander Xander McClure, who used his lively fastball and slow, loopy curveball to stifle the Raiders’ offense, getting two strikeouts and a weak grounder to end it.

The blue team immediately began warming up for their tilt against the Carlsbad East eighth-graders, but some of the boys on the red team decided to linger around to watch the game.

“Maybe we can learn something from watching them, and make ourselves better in the process,” catcher Evan Woolsey suggested.
“Nah *(censored)* that, I’m out,” Brady Hewitt said, and he left with his dad.

A few of the boys had to stay to get a ride back on the bus, but only Evan and Mason chose to stay back and watch the blue team’s game.

The teams lined up as follows for their six o’clock game:

Walker Grove Raiders (Blue)

(1) James Wilson, RF
(2) Johnny Boyega, 1B
(3) Sam Gow, 3B
(4) Jaxon Stills, SS
(5) Danny Hummer, 2B
(6) Cody Tibbits, C
(7) Dante Dillard, CF
(8) Grant Godwin, LF
(9) Anthony Mangum, P

Carlsbad East Jaguars (8th grade)

(1) Henry Hennessey, SS
(2) George Jones, 1B
(3) Peter Mallett, C
(4) Aaron Quinn, 2B
(5) Caspar Stephens, CF
(6) Will Rockford, LF
(7) Anton West, RF
(8) Jace Oliver, 3B
(9) Cody Martin, P

James Wilson led off the game against Cody Martin, a right-hander who was by far the best pitcher anybody on Walker Grove’s team would face that season. James went in cold, because the coaches’ pep talk had run into the Jaguars’ warm-up time, and nobody had gotten a chance to watch Martin pitch yet.

James popped out on the first pitch he saw, which didn’t give Johnny Boyega much help going into his at-bat. James did, however, note that the pitch he got was a regular fastball. With this in mind, Johnny slid the weight off of his bat and strode up to the plate, digging into the right-handed batter’s box.

What do you do? (GoTwins24)

A. Sit on the fastball
B. Wait for something offspeed
C. Swing aggressively
D. Stay patient, make him throw a strike
E. Offer to suck his dick (no homo)

Sit on the fastball.

Johnny decided to just sit on the fastball, but the first pitch from Martin was a slurvy breaking ball that missed for ball one. He followed by throwing a sinker low and away, which Johnny swung at and hammered on the ground toward second base. The ball was hit right to the second baseman Aaron Quinn, but took a funny hop and ate him up, and Johnny reached on an error.

(Johnny: XP +1)

Sam Gow followed with a classic bloop single, one of his specialties on offense, and Jaxon Stills drove them both in with a long double to left field. Danny Hummer laid down a nice bunt to move up the runner, but Cody Tibbits grounded out to short to end the threat.

In the bottom half, the Jaguars narrowed the deficit to one run, then loaded the bases with one out. However, the next two batters both grounded out, ending the inning without any further damage.

In the top of the third, Jaxon reached on a one-out base hit to left. Danny followed with an easy grounder to second, which Quinn flipped toward short, but Jaxon came in with a hard slide and took out the shortstop, Henry Hennessey, sending him to the ground clutching his right leg.

“*(censored)*!” Henry screamed in pain, sending a few parents in the crowd scrambling to make sure their little ones hadn’t heard.

As the team trainer came out to look at Henry, a few of the players began exchanging words. Involved in the scuffle were the Jaguars’ second baseman Aaron Quinn and the Raiders’ shortstop Jaxon Stills and second baseman Danny Hummer, the two baserunners involved in the previous play. However, a few of Quinn’s teammates appeared to be coming in to either join the fight or attempt to stop it, and some of the Walker Grove players on the bench were concerned for their teammates’ well-being — notably, the on-deck batter Cody Tibbits, left fielder Grant Godwin, and backups Peter Royal, Xander Woods, and Harold Henderson, all of whom had noticed what was going on and were now faced with a decision: whether to help their teammates out, attempt to break up the fight, or just sit back and see what transpired.

What do you do? (Baseballteen9500)

A. Go join the fight
B. Try to stop the fight
C. Sit back and watch
D. Follow a teammate (Cody, Grant, Peter, or Xander)
E. Sneak a glance at your phone while everyone’s distracted

B. Be a peacemaker

Xander thought about doing something to help his friend Jaxon out, but didn’t want to hurt his leg any worse, and decided to stay on the bench and out of trouble.

Citing his pacifist beliefs, Cody stayed in the on-deck circle, preferring to stay out of it entirely.

Grant and Peter, however, ran in to help the cause, rushing to their teammates’ aid. Harold also ran in from the dugout, but he attempted to stop anything more from happening.

He was relatively successful, as it turned out what had looked like a heated argument from the dugout was actually just a friendly debate over which pizza place in town was best.

“It’s obviously Pizza Hut,” Danny said, “and you’re both idiots for thinking otherwise.”
“No way, dude. Domino’s is way better,” Jaxon said.
“I like the local stuff better,” said Aaron. “Mikey’s Pizzeria has to be my favorite place in town.”

However, while the situation may not have escalated, there was a punishment required by the rulebook for players coming out of the dugout and onto the field, which was an automatic ejection from the game. Therefore, Grant, Peter, and Harold were all ejected, as was Carlsbad East’s backup catcher, Andy Brewster, which left them with no backup (and still without a shortstop, as Henry was currently being helped off the field with no weight being placed on his right leg).

The latter situation was fixed easily, as the Jaguars placed their backup infielder, Tommy Andrews, in at shortstop; the Raiders also had to replace Grant in left field, and inserted Harry Hustle, Tuesday’s starter, in his place.

After all that was sorted out, they still had to finish the half-inning, and the Cody vs. Cody matchup came up for a second time. Just like the first time, Cody Tibbits grounded out to end the inning against Cody Martin.

With one out in the bottom of the third, the Jaguars loaded the bases against Anthony Mangum, just as they had in the first inning, and with the same batter, Will Rockford, coming up to the plate. Rockford had hit into a fielder’s choice his first time up, and the next batter, Anton West, had also grounded out in his first at-bat.

What do you do? (PowerPro Jr)

A. Attack him with fastballs
B. Nibble with the curveball
C. Throw a knuckleball, even though you don’t know how to
D. Hit him with a pitch
E. Ask to be taken out of the game

A, go right after him