Post by Winter on Nov 16, 2014 22:22:16 GMT -5
It still rings in my ear even after eight years. The announcer yelling with joy, “The Bees take the title and win the game!”. My teammates screaming my name as they came running from the dugout to join me. My friends in the bleachers cheering my name loudly. I was still in shock as I looked around at the softball field, the clay ground marked endlessly with the footsteps of the players and the paint that led to each base completely ruined, the lights blinding me and the smell of everyone’s sweat flooding my nose. The musk was annoying but I couldn’t help but smile as I got hugs from my whole team. I had just won the game.
My mother, who was also coach of my little league softball team, would wake me up every Saturday morning to take me to the batting cages all the way in Orange City. We would always have spare tokens to use for it since we would collect them after playing a round of mini-golf since that’s what the place mainly was for. It was always quiet but the owner was a friend of my father so we would be let in early to head to the batting cages so long as that was what we were doing. My mom would then give me ten tokens, my helmet, my batting gloves, and my aluminum bat that belonged to my uncle a few years before. We would pick out the cage in the middle since it had a bench behind it for my mom to sit on and watch from a good distance. After giving me the go-ahead and sitting down, I rubbed the small gold token in my hand before placing it in the slot and pressing the blue button that had the word “START” written above it. The machine made a soft whirring noise and I could see the yellow rubber balls slowly fall into the machine. One after the other, the ball would shoot out of the small tube that was facing my direction and I would swing at it, smiling as I heard the two collide with a loud ringing noise from the bat, and frowning as I heard the ball collide with the rubber mat against the door behind me.
My mother would be giving me words of advice the whole time. “Time it, Courtney. Wait till the ball is about to cross the plate!”, she would yell sometimes. Other times it would be, “Hit the ball with the END of the bat!”. Even with her words of advice, I’d either miss the ball completely, or the ball would fly a few feet. In all honesty, I was probably the third worst batter on my team since my reactions are a bit on the delayed side. If a ball is standing still in front of me, I could send it flying about twenty feet (give or take a few inches), and just under that if the ball is moving at a slow pace. If someone decided to pitch it to me at a fast pace though, my reaction would be severely delayed and one of four things would happen: I’d either get struck out, I’d hit the ball and it would get caught by the pitcher without it letting hitting the ground, I’d be just a few steps from first plate and I’d be out, or I get struck in the shin. I have power, but also the worst timing tears (which basically is a late or early movement/reaction) in the world in my opinion, so it was rare that I hit the ball and actually made it to first plate.
It was the night of the little league finals against one of our biggest rivals, the Deltona Wolves. The bleachers of Chipper Jones Baseball/Softball field were filled since there were three games happening at the same time: a regular baseball team, a tee-ball team, and our softball team. My mom and our assistant coach were deciding the batting order while I was helping my friend on the team with her pitching. We were both worried because Deltona’s team was one of the best teams in Central Florida at the time and we weren’t even close when it came to skill. Coach Jim walked over to us and smiled as he rested a hand on our shoulders, saying his famous saying: “They may have the skills, but not the teamwork that we have.” He then went to the dugout and posted the batting order on a small wipe-off board. It wasn’t surprising that I was going last and one of the smallest teammates was batting first. She didn’t have much power behind her, but she was fast and could lock onto any moving target in the blink of an eye.
It was the last inning of the game and we were losing by three points. They had the fastest pitcher as well as fast infielders and outfielders. It seemed like they were going to take the title and we were going to come out in second once again for the spring season. The bases were loaded and it was my turn to bat. Ever had that feeling where everyone’s relying on you and looking at you, hoping to get them out of a mess? Well, that was my situation, but I had the entire team, the opponents, and the crowd staring at me; it was very unsettling to say the least. I heard one of the opponents yell out “EASY OUT!!” and that made my gut turn upside down. I had to prove them wrong somehow. I took a deep breath as I readied myself at home plate. The first pitch took me by surprise since it nearly hit my face. The second flew right by me, which counted as the first strike. Coach Jim was giving signals to the other girls on the bases in case I was able to take first plate. It was a bad idea to look at him since I missed the second ball right then.
I heard a voice at that moment as the pitcher was scoffing and laughing at my futile attempts. “I may not be able to hit a ball if I think about it, but if I think about winning the game and seeing my teammates happy, I could knock the ball right out of the park.” My teammate for the fall season told me this and it encouraged me to not give up no matter what. I glared daggers at the pitcher who in turn spat at the ground below, winded up, and pitched the ball. All I could think about was team, game, win, happy. Team, game, win, happy. I don’t know what happened at that moment, but all I knew was, I was running as fast as my legs could run. I hit first and my mom was motioning for me to keep going. One of my teammates crossed home plate as I made my way to second base. I heard more cheering; another teammate made it home. I was heading towards third and hit the plate as more cheering pierced my ears.
All that was left was me. I started charging full speed as I saw the ball come right back to the catcher. At that moment, I just braced myself and then all went dark. I was out of breath and nauseated, but there was loud cheering and screaming as I managed to stand up. I looked at the board and it read, “HOME-6; DELTONA-5” I was in shock. I actually won the league championship. People were cheering my name as I looked around, a smile creeping upon my features. The smell of sweat was making my head spin but I could feel slippery arms embrace me. My teammates were filled with joy and so was I. When they asked what happened, I simply said, “Team, game, win, happy.”
((this got me an 88% in English. If you want, leave a reply on how I could've made it better so that I could put it in place for my next English assignments.))
