Damn. He’d outsmarted me. I needed to think about what he would do next. If I were him, I would throw outside and see if the batter would chase a bad pitch. That was precisely what he did on the next two offerings.
“Good eye!” Coach Kingwood barked from the dugout. “Put it in play.”
I was sure the next pitch would be another fastball. He wouldn’t want to wait for a full count; then, it would be his best against mine. I knew he didn’t want me knowing what was coming because I had the power to put us up 3–0. He began his motion home, and I’d guessed right. I heard the contact, and it was a solid hit. The ball jumped off the bat and rocketed right up the middle about three feet off the ground.
If the pitcher hadn’t been there, it would have sailed to the outfield for a base hit. Instead, it hit him in the hip. That had to smart. I sprinted to first to beat the throw. Shane had frozen at second when he thought the pitcher might catch it. He decided to take third. The pitcher threw the ball over the first baseman’s head, so I rounded first to go to second. The right fielder did his job and backed up the throw. Shane had rounded third and was headed home. The right fielder’s throw was off the line, so the pitcher caught it and turned to throw Shane out. He put this one in the dirt, and it rolled to the backstop.
I was told to hold at second as the catcher quickly gathered the ball in. I could see the disgust on the pitcher’s face. He’d cost his team a run and an out on two throwing errors. I felt bad for him but was glad we were the beneficiaries of his miscues.
Up next was Royce, Logan’s brother. He hit a single to right-center. I didn’t hesitate and was at full speed when the third base coach signaled me home. We were now up 3–0. The next batter struck out, and the following batter flied out to end the inning.
From there, it was total dominance. Allard had started, and he shut them down. We were up 11–1 at the end of the seventh inning. The game was called at that point due to the mercy rule. That was where if you were up by ten or more runs when the seventh ended, the game would be called.
We behaved like we should and congratulated Panama without acting the fools. Knowing we were the better team and winning by such a large margin seemed to take the excitement out of it. I was glad the first game was out of the way. I felt we’d put the rest of the tournament participants on notice. They would have to make it through us if they wanted to win it all, and we weren’t backing down.
Coach Kingwood gathered us around in the locker room after the game.
“Good job, men. You took care of business tonight. I want to point out the stellar job Allard did pitching. He only allowed four hits and one run; that’s a great performance. Shane was three for three at the plate and pushed across three RBIs. David and Nick each had two hits and two RBIs. Not too shabby an effort from the top of the order. When you add in Mitch, the first four batters accounted for eight of our ten hits.
“I also wanted to point out that David came in on his own and did batting practice before the game. I’m not going to point any fingers, but some of you might want to put in some extra BP.
“Defensively, we played a clean game. I have no complaints about anything I saw on the field. You all did an excellent job.
“Tonight, David has graciously invited all of you and your families to a victory celebration. I heard there will be ice cream. When we were in North Carolina, he started a tradition that winners got ice cream after the game. I understand there’ll be a sundae bar.
“After what happened to David today, I would encourage you all to attend and not leave the hotel. I understand that the police will have more security in place tomorrow. Enjoy today’s win and get to bed at a reasonable time. Tomorrow is a big one: Cuba,” Coach Kingwood said, and let us take our showers.
I had a feeling that my mom was behind the ice cream idea. I was positive she’d done it to make sure we were all safe. This way, she could keep an eye on me. I was glad. Today had opened my eyes a bit to how she felt about me.
◊◊◊
We walked into the ballroom, and everyone clapped. It put smiles on all our faces to have our families and friends support us. I may have gone a little overboard in who I’d brought with me. But I figured this was sort of like if I ever played in a World Series or the Super Bowl. Naturally, I would want everyone to share in my adventure.
It made me happy to see that my friends and family hadn’t all congregated in one spot. Instead, they’d spread out around the room and were talking to other families to make them welcome. Wolf, Sarah, Tami, and Tim were sitting at a table with Nick and his family. I started toward their table when Cassidy grabbed my arm.
“Yes?” I asked.
“Come with me,” she said, and then grabbed my hand in case I decided to bolt.
I smiled when we arrived at a table with Brook, Zoe, Halle, Trip, Pam, and Tracy.
“Hey, sailor,” Trip said with a smirk.
“Behave,” Halle told her big brother.
Cassidy left while I caught up with everyone. They wanted to go to a market tomorrow, but Fritz had us all on lockdown until he had more security here. Cassidy came back and handed me a sundae. I tasted it and blinked. It wasn’t quite what I expected, and it threw me for a minute. It looked like your traditional sundae, with chocolate sauce, toasted coconut, and peanuts; all things I liked. What surprised me was the chocolate sauce had cinnamon, something else I liked. I took a small spoonful of just the sauce and put it in my mouth and smiled.
“This is good,” I announced.
“I know how you like different tastes. They also have crushed cornflakes. One of the waitstaff said that was something his family sometimes puts on ice cream,” Cassidy shared.
I took my time and made sure I had the perfect bite ready. I wanted to be sure it had a bit of everything. As I brought it to my mouth, a hand grabbed my wrist, and someone stole my ice cream.
“Mmmm, good,” Tami said as she sat on my knee.
“Get your own,” I complained.
“I want some,” Beth Anderson said as she claimed my other knee and took my spoon away from me.
I looked around the table and suddenly felt uncomfortable. It was fun to spend time with all these women, but I couldn’t remember the last time they were all in one place. I sure hoped everyone played nice.
“David, since we’re all here, I hope you can help us with a couple of questions,” Tracy said.
I now realized why Beth and Tami had claimed knees. They knew I wouldn’t toss them off and run for it.
“What might those questions be?” I asked.
“We want to know where you plan to go to college,” Tami replied. “Tim said you would plan your five official visits soon, and he and Wolf would like to tag along since they want to go there as well. I realize you don’t want the girls to go on the trips with you after what happened last year. But we’d like to know so we can schedule our own visits.”
“Have Tim and Wolf put together their wish lists. I want my dad and Uncle John to sit down with us when we do this. Caryn sent me a note that the college football forums have been wondering where I might go, and she’s getting calls begging me to set something up. I’ve asked her to tell them I’ll think about it once baseball is done,” I explained.
“Enough about football,” Trip said with a big grin. “Tracy says you’re going to decide which one of us is going to be your girlfriend.”