Pitch My Heart

5th-Game

I run out of the bullpen to the mound. The crowd cheers and I try to calm my nerves down. This game is big for me. I can't afford another loss because they might really look into getting rid of me.

I walk around the mound one time before grabbing the rosin bag. I wipe my hand on my pants then I throw a couple of warm up throws to Ryujin before grabbing the rosin bag again.

I stand on the mound, waiting for the first hitter to go through their routine before taking their stance.

I bend forward to see what Ryujin is suggesting I should throw. Again, her and I haven't played in a while so I'm not sure how things will turn out.

We decide on a fastball so I go through my pitching routine and throw a fastball. The batter is able to hit to right field for a single. He now stands on first base.

The umpire throws me a new ball and I closely look at it to make sure it's good.

I take a deep breath before getting into position again. This time I don't let Ryujin take charge but I also don't know what to throw because my pitches has changed so much from when I was in high school so I don't know if she'll be able to recognize them.

I choose pitches that doesn't have a lot of movement so Ryujin will be able to catch them no problem. I'm just gonna make sure that I don't throw it right in the center of the strike zone. If I'm lucky, the hitters might chase the ball outside of the strike zone and miss.

I throw three quick pitches for the second hitter and he didn't chase any of them so now the count is against me with 3 balls with no strike.

I start to feel frustrated and I look to the manager in the dugout for signs on what I should do next. I can't walk this batter because then they'll have runners on first and second base. A single hit could make them score.

I face the batter's box again then I see Ryujin walking up to me. I slightly panic seeing her approach me. I know it's normal for the catcher to sometimes talk to the pitcher but it just feels weird to me since she's my ex.

Ryujin brings her glove over mouth and I do the same.

"You gotta tell me what pitches you're comfortable with. I don't know these players like you do. I'll trust your call. Don't worry about me. I'll catch whatever you throw me" she says in a calm and cool manner. My heart does flutter a little bit but I think it's because of nerves.

How is she so professional with this whole thing? She even heard me say that she's not worth remembering but she's acting like she wants to help me win.

"Okay" I simply say because I want to keep this interaction short.

While waiting for her to get back into her catching position, I again wonder why she's being like this? If I were her and I left without saying goodbye then I would be yelling at her. Maybe I didn't mean to her as much as she did to me? My heart was broken because of my decision but here she is acting like we just played baseball together in high school and that's it.

She's back behind the batter and she goes through my pitches again. This next pitch needs to be in the strike zone no matter what.

I decide to go with a change up because I think the hitter will think it's a fastball and maybe swing too early.

I throw my change up and I almost cheer when I see the hitter swing then misses. But before I can do anything, Ryujin catches the ball then signals for me to get down so out of habit, I do it.

She throws the ball above my head.

"Out!" The second base umpire shouts.

I stand back up and I see the first hitter walking back to their dugout. When did Ryujin get so good at throwing out runners?