The thwack of the ball connecting with the mit shook Joe to his senses. He looked over his shoulder to see the catcher squatting with the ball in the cushioned pocket of his glove.

“Steeeerike three!” hollered the umpire, jerking his thumb to the bench to motion that Joe was out. Joe slowly trudged over to the bench, his oak bat drawing a line in the dirt. He had been in a horrible hitting slump in the past few weeks, going from cleanup in the batting order, to eighth, only in front of the pitcher. His glory days of hitting monster home runs and walk off hits were over was what he thought. For some reason, he just couldn’t get a hang of the new speed of pitchers in the 14U travel league. Coach Fleds saw Joe sit down, and walked over.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“I just can’t hit right now,” Joe responded sourly, “No matter how hard I try, I can’t connect with the ball.”

“You’re just in a slump,” Coach reassured him, “You’ll be out of it soon. All good players go through bad hitting streaks once in a while.”

“Whatever,” Joe grumbled.

“Anyway, Fletch just struck out, we have to take the field now. You’re still the best shortstop in the league, so don’t let your bad hitting affect that.”

“Alright,” Joe responded, grabbing his glove and getting up from the bench, “I won’t disappoint.”

He kept that promise right away, by diving to snag a low line drive to record the first out. The next two balls weren’t hit his way, though and the other team- the San Jose Rattlers- got two men on base, one in scoring position.

“Come on, Fletch, just six more pitches, you got this! They can’t hit you!” Joe hollered to the pitcher, Fletcher. Pretty soon, everyone else was yelling encouragement, but it didn’t help. Fletcher threw a fast ball right down the middle to the Rattlers cleanup hitter, and he bombed it over the fence for a three-run homer. Coach Fleds immediately replaced Fletcher with one of the relief pitchers, even though it was only the third inning. The Rattlers were destroying the Condors, 7-1, the Condors lone run coming on an RBI triple from the third baseman Kyle. The relief pitcher retired the next two batters thankfully, and Joe and the rest of the Santa Cruz Sunfish jogged to the dugout. Ike Johnson was up to bat and ripped the first pitch off for a double. The next batter Pedro Gonzalez took the count to 3-2 and was hit on the next pitch.

“Come on Pedro! You got this, walk it off!” Joe yelled. Pedro took his base and the next batter walked up to the plate. The batter was Kyle Majic, and he was a top recruit in the state, people even called him the Magic Man. Kyle took the first pitch all the way to the centerfield wall, just missing a homerun by two feet. The powerful hit knocked in Pedro and Ike, and Kyle was in scoring position on third. The score was now 7-3. Unfortunately, Kyle stayed on third for the rest of the inning, the next three batters striking out.

“Come on guys!” Coach Fleds yelled at them in the dugout, “They want this more than us, so unless you want to lose, start trying a little more! Now go take the field!” Joe ran out to his position at shortstop fuming. If coach wanted him to play harder, he would. The relief pitcher, Diego ‘the Bullet’ Gustavo, struck out the first batter on three pitches.

“Attaboy!” yelled Joe, “Let’s go, only two more batters!”

The next batter managed only a weak little hit that went to Diego, who quickly swiveled his hips and sent it on its way to Pedro, the first baseman. That recorded the second out, and Joe was feeling more optimistic. He zoned out for a second and that was all the time needed for the Rattlers centerfielder to hit a grounder to the unsuspecting shortstop. Before Joe realized what happened, the ball rolled between his legs and he barely had any time to spin around and jump on it before it got too far away. Just as soon as he had fallen, he got up and pinned the ball to Ike who was at second. The throw barely beat out the runner and Ike tagged his foot.

It was the bottom of the fifth inning and Joe still didn’t have a hit.