Baseball World Series by Matt Christopher

Author:Matt Christopher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Fiction / Social Issues / Friendship, Juvenile Fiction / Sports & Recreation / Baseball & Softball, Juvenile Fiction / Boys & Men
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2014-06-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

SEVENTEEN

Nicely done, boys,” Coach Driscoll praised the West players as they joined him in the dugout. “Now let’s see if we can get some runs on the board.” He rattled off the batting order. “Dom, Phillip, Matt! Then Rodney, Liam, and Mason.”

“Rodney made a great stop, don’t you think?” Liam commented as he sat next to Phillip.

Phillip nodded but didn’t say anything or even smile. Instead, he leaned forward and stared at Carter on the mound.

“I never thanked him,” he said suddenly. “I should have said something last night, but I didn’t. I was too busy thinking about Nathan Daly.”

Liam looked at him, puzzled.

Phillip returned his look. “He didn’t have to say anything about this”—he wiped his cheek against his right shoulder—“but he did.”

Then Liam understood. “Your ‘tell.’ ”

A few weeks earlier, Melanie had accidentally sent Carter a video montage of Phillip pitching. Ash had watched the video with Carter, and he noticed that every time Phillip prepared to throw a changeup, he wiped his cheek on his shoulder. Any batter who knew about the face-wipe would know which pitch was coming.

Carter, still bearing a grudge against Phillip, had sat on the information for a few days. But his conscience got the better of him, and he explained the discovery to Liam. Liam had told Phillip—only to find out that Phillip did the face-wipe intentionally as a superstitious ritual. Since the cat was out of the bag, however, he and Liam had come up with a new plan. Instead of actually doing the move, Phillip just imagined himself going through the motions. Fortunately, it seemed to work.

“He could have used my ‘tell’ to his advantage,” Phillip murmured now.

“He’d never do that,” Liam said. “That’s not the kind of guy he is.”

“I wish I’d said something last night.”

“You’ll have another chance,” Liam assured him.

“Batter up!”

Dom headed toward the plate. As usual, he hopped over the foul line, believing that stepping on it was bad luck. He needed more than luck to get a hit, though. Carter mowed him down with three straight fastballs.

“Oooo-kay,” Dom said, looking dazed as he reentered the dugout. “Those weren’t regular fastballs. They were lightning-fast fastballs.”

Phillip picked up his bat. “I’ll handle ’em,” he said confidently.

He might have, too, except Carter didn’t serve him any. Instead, he got Phillip out on changeups.

That brought up Matt. Easily the most muscular player on the team, Matt channeled his strength into solid hits whenever he connected. This time, though, he didn’t connect. Like Dom and Phillip, he went down swinging.

As Liam strapped on his catcher’s gear, Coach Driscoll approached him with Mid-Atlantic’s lineup in his hand. “I thought you should see who’s batting this inning.” The coach showed him the order.

First up was Charlie M. Then it was Carter’s turn. Liam’s heart started pounding. His palms turned sweaty and his mouth turned dry. He’d known he’d be behind the plate when Carter came up to bat, just as he’d known he’d face Carter’s pitches. He thought he was prepared for it.

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