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Bases Loaded 6
Tournament Day Two
Thenextmorningis an early wake. At breakfast, the team is looking tired. There is a long line by the coffee makers. The coaches insist on rubbing and adjusting all of us before our practice.
“I’m sore today.” Taylor tells me once I sit down.
“Me too. But we will loosen up once we start moving.”
After roll call, we ride the entire way to the practice field in silence. Looking over, I see Taylor leaned against the window and has her eyes closed.
Practice turns out to be a quick one. Coach Simons basically wanted us to stretch and get ourselves moving. Forty minutes later, we are in the locker room at the stadium. The energy this morning is different. The team seems unfocused and tired.
“Ladies, I know you are tired and sore.” I call out. “But we are in game three of this tournament. That means we have won two games already. TWO!” Cheers go up. “We can not let our guard down now. Each team is going to be harder and tougher. BUT SO ARE WE! We WANT this. IT IS OURS TO TAKE!” The team cheers and starts chanting “OURS!”, “OURS!” Then they break out in a chorus of Eye of the Tiger, an oldie but always a goody. By the time Coach Simons walks in, we are stoked and ready to play.
“What changed the energy?” She walks over and ask me. I tell her we had a pep talk.
“You would make a wonderful coach.” She smiles, and I bow my head. I would like to coach someday, who knows, maybe even at a college level.
We bat first, which I always like. I feel more comfortable stopping a team than being behind and having to try to score. The early morning game must have contributed to their loss. They seem sluggish and made a lot of errors. We won with a score of seven to four. Taylor has a hard line drives to right field that drove in two points.
Now the wait has started. We have two more games today, the semifinals and the final tonight under the lights. We head to lunch, then to the practice field to stretch and keep limber. I’ve had hands on me ever since I left the field, ice, then heat, massage and back with ice. Finally, I’m taped up with an ice bag and able to jog around some.
Eyeing Taylor stretching behind home plate. I head in her direction. She raises her head and her eyes seem to go brighter and a happy smile spreads across her face.
“Hey, you want to run the outfield line with me?” I ask as I approach her. “Since we haven’t had any time to talk today, I thought we could spend a few minutes together.”
“Thought you would never ask.” Taylor jumps up.
Jogging past first base where Libby and Stacy are, Libby calls out, “Where are you two heading?”
“We are going to run the outfield fence.” Taylor answers. Libby and Stacy look at each other and run to catch up with us.
“Good idea. Helps stretch more.” Stacy says as they fall in behind us.
Looking over at Taylor, I raise an eyebrow as we get to right field and pick up all three of the outfielders. As we are jogging to third base, the rest of the team is heading our way. They fall in with the rest.
“Want to go again?” I call over to Taylor, who nods.
"Let’s do it again.” I call out and the ladies whoop in agreement.
“And what happened to we could spend minutes together?” I lean close to Taylor and ask in a low voice so no one else can hear.
“What can I say? You’re a chick magnet.” She winks at me.
I can feel my face heating up. No doubt I’m blushing. Finishing our lap around the field, everyone stops at home plate. Coach Simons is there waiting for us.
“I love the unity of this group. The family. The comradery.”
“Are you buttering us up for bad news?” A voice in the back of the group calls out.
“I really do love this team’s closeness. But yes, I’m buttering you up. The team we are playing is close, like you all. They have the same record as we do. The coaches and I were hoping we would battle them in the finals, but they are our next game. We CAN beat them, but it very well might be the battle of your lives.”
Another voice in the back of the group pipes up in a high-pitched voice with the line from Pirates of the Caribbean, “And so we shall go to war!” The team explodes with excitement.
“Okay then, let’s pack up and head to the stadium.” Coach yells.
The locker room is buzzing with activity and songs. When the team is like this, we are unstoppable. I can tell we are ready for this game. We take the field first, which thrills me. Taylor walks out to the mound, and we do our look over.
“You know, when we get home, we are going to spend some time together, just the two of us.” I tell her as we make it look like we are scoping out one of their players.
“We damn well better. There is no way we can take this many girls with us on dates. It will be way too expensive!” She makes it look like she’s really examining the group. “I mean, can you imagine feeding them all?” I have to put my mitt to my mouth to cover my laughter. We lock eyes and at the same time, we both say, “Let’s kick some ass!”
This is the game our parents will be talking about during family holidays for years to come. When coach said it was going to be a battle, she was right. For every hit we get, they get one. For every fly ball we catch, they catch one. We are matched player to player. The last inning, the score is tied, and we are up to bat. Mia hit a home run, knocks it over the fence, scoring and winning us the game.
