I was the second to last one out of the dugout. Garret was slower than me, surprisingly. He walked up the mound like something was on his mind. I bet that first baseman was talking to him too when he was on first during my at-bat.
Just as I was hoping that Garret wasn't too affected, the cleanup hitter connected on the first pitch, hitting a line drive to the corner of left field. Jesse was sprinting to get the ball, picked it off the grass and threw his hardest to Noah, who went to be the cutoff. Noah turned to me at second, but the batter already made it here without needing to slide.
Noah threw the baseball back to Garret on the mound. Garret was expressionless when turning to face the next batter. I usually didn't care to note who the batter is or what position he plays, but the next batter up was that talkative first baseman. Garret cornered him quickly into a 1-2 count. He then threw his best breaking ball, the cutter.
