High and Inside (15 page)

Matt felt a hand grab his as David Martinez finished his warm up pitches for Middleton. Sitting beside him, Andrea had locked the index and middle finger of her left hand through the last two fingers of his right. He stole a glance into her blue eyes. For a second, even though the game in front of him would determine his team's playoff fate, Matt wasn't thinking about baseball at all.

That changed as Martinez began throwing to the first Central batter in the bottom of the seventh. Again, he had the Wildcat swinger baffled with his change-up, forcing him into exaggerated contortions and setting him down in four pitches.

But something was wrong with the Middleton pitcher. He clutched his shoulder, where he had been hit by Willis Brown's pitch earlier in the inning. Middleton's veteran coach, Ace Wilkens, headed out to the mound.

The two talked for a few seconds. Martinez shook his head twice. The coach strolled back to the dugout. Now the field seemed to go absolutely quiet just at it had for Matt in the day's earlier game.

Martinez wound up and delivered. The batter swung early but managed to chop the ball down the first-base line. It looked like an easy out, but it went through the Middleton first baseman's legs. The tying run was aboard with one out. There was still life left for the Stingers.

Martinez shook off the disappointment and bore down now on the next batter. In four more tantalizingly wonky pitches, he struck out that Wildcat too. There were two out, with third baseman Stan Hebert coming to the plate for Central.

It was almost too much for Matt and his Stingers to bear in the stands. Watching this drama play out, and not being able to do anything about it, was excruciating. Maybe it would have been easier not to come to the game, to just listen for the results on KSWT.

Martinez dragged things out to supreme dramatic effect. He painted the corners with his change-up and refused to give the Central batter anything decent to hit for the first five pitches. But with the count three and two and the season hanging in the balance for both Middleton and South Side, he had no choice but to throw a strike.

Hebert guessed right. It was the change-up, and he had waited perfectly, turned and absolutely pounded the ball. It rose high into left field, and Matt's heart almost stopped. It was heading out of the park. Central was going to do it—to upset mighty Middleton and send South Side into the playoffs!

But in that flickering second between what he wished for and what would transpire, Matt realized the baseball was soaring too high. Gus Martinez had been running full out toward the fence since the crack of the bat. The towering Middleton fielder stuck out his mitt on the dead run and snagged the baseball just as it was about to clear the fence. The batter was out and Middleton had won. The Marauders were going to the playoffs. The season for the Stingers was over.

Matt looked around at his teammates. Everybody was dejected after being taken for a two-hour emotional roller coaster ride by these two teams. It had been a great game with an unbelievable ending—just not the ending the Stingers needed and wanted so desperately.

Matt watched as David Martinez was mobbed by his teammates. Although he was sad for himself and the rest of the Stingers, he felt good for Martinez, who was as talented a pitcher as he had ever seen.

Then Andrea jumped up from her seat and shouted in full voice: “Three cheers for the Marauders. Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray! Hip Hip Hooray!”

Jake was next. “Three cheers for the Wildcats!” he yelled.

Martinez looked up from where he had been mobbed on the field by his teammates. He waved to the South Side players in a gesture of respect.

Matt looked at Jake, sitting in the stands. He knew his friend had been disappointed by the way his seventh-grade baseball season had ended. But in typical Jake fashion, he wasn't sweating it now. The competition was over, and he was the good sport Matt had known since pre-school.

Then he felt Andrea's hand in his as they stood together in the stands watching the Middleton celebration unfold. Baseball season might be over, but summer was about to begin. And Matt had a feeling it was going to be a good one.

Jeff Rud
has worked as a journalist for the Victoria
Times Colonist
for the past twenty-one years. This is Jeff's second installment in the South Side Sports series. He is also the author of
Long Shot: Steve
Nash's Journey to the NBA
. Jeff lives in Victoria, British Columbia.