A Young Pitcher by Jay Henry Peterson

Author:Jay Henry Peterson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Baseball, High school baseball, Pitcher
Publisher: Jay Henry Peterson
Published: 2019-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

The next two weeks passed quickly. Two days of practice had been cancelled because of rain, but very few complained because the moisture was needed by the area farmers for their newly emerging crops. The boys who lived in the city didn’t appreciate it as much as the farm boys, but everyone understood that the economy of the entire region hinged on the success of the farmers.

It was Tuesday and time for the first game of the season. It was a home game. Eight rows of bleachers ran from behind the dugout along the third base side, curved behind home plate and then ran behind the dugout near first base. The home team had the third base side dugout. Irma, Uncle Fred and Uncle Joe were sitting in the bleachers on the third base side but not far from behind home plate. Uncle Joe had said they would have great seats there to watch George. They knew it was unlikely that George would get to play this soon, but they wanted to be at his first game, just in case.

Toby was the starting pitcher and he got off to a good start. At the end of the fourth inning the Tigers were ahead of the Cardinals 3-2. In the top of the fifth inning the Cardinals lead-off batter hit a single and the next batter brought him home with a double that rolled all the way to the left corner. Tie game. The next batter hit a line drive to Bob Cortez at shortstop. A bloop single over the second baseman’s head brought in the go-ahead run and the Tigers trailed 4-3. The next batter hit a hard grounder right to Bob Cortez. He fired the ball to the second baseman, who stepped on the bag and quickly threw to Lefty at first. Double play.

In the fifth inning Rifle hit a fly ball to center that bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double. That was followed by a strikeout. The next batter hit a ground ball to the first baseman. Two outs. The following batter popped up.

Toby started the sixth inning with a strikeout, a walk and a single, putting runners at the corners. He walked the next batter and the bases were loaded with one out. The coach called time and walked to the mound. Rifle and Lefty joined him. “Are you getting tired, Toby?” Coach asked. “It looks like your fastball has slowed down and you’re missing your target.”

“Yeah, my arm feels like a piece of spaghetti,” Toby told the coach. “Right now I don’t think my control is good enough to guarantee I could get the ball to the plate. I hate to say it but I think you better sit me down.”

“Okay,” the coach said as he held out his hand for Toby to give him the ball. The coach rubbed the ball around in his hands. “You take a seat in the dugout and we’ll see if Peterson can get us out of this inning.

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