C h a s i n g D r e a m s ➮ C a r r i s o n

• Prologue •

March 2017

"You are so rusty!" Carrie shouted as she jogged back to first base after another successful steal against him.

Harrison lifted his catchers mask on top of his helmet. "That's why we're doing this."

She touched first base before taking another lead off. "You still won't be able to get me."

He smiled, pulling his mask back down and sat up in the crouch. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her extend her lead off. Instead of calling a pitch, he called a pickoff throw to first base.

The pitch was delivered and Harrison popped right up and threw down to first. But Carrie, getting a great read on the pickoff, was able to turn it into an easy steal.

"Wow."

All the guys laughed. It was spring training and he was catching a bullpen session. While they had the time, the guys decided they wanted to work on steals. So he made Carrie come and run.

Throwing out his girlfriend of four years was no easy task. She was so damn fast. On both a baseball and softball field, she made him look silly behind the plate.

Carrie set the NCAA stolen bases record at Florida with 307 stolen bases in her 4 year career. With the Chicago Bandits professional softball team, she also led the National Pro Fastpitch league in stolen bases.

She took another lead off from first when the pitch was thrown. This time, she didn't try to steal.

"You afraid to run on me now?"

Carrie laughed. "Alright hotshot, let's see what you got."

He paid attention to her out of the corner of his eye as she stretched her lead off. When the pitcher lifted his leg to deliver the ball to home plate, she took off. After Harrison's quick pop up and strong throw right to the right side of the bag, he still couldn't get her. She was standing on second base after a pop up slide when the shortstop caught the ball.

"Man I could take a nap before the ball even got here," she teased as she jogged back to first base. "Let's go, I know you can do better than that."

Harrison was determined to throw her out. On the next pitch, she waited longer than normal to take off. His throw beat her to the base. Carrie was also brilliant at avoiding tags. The shortstop put the tag down where she would slide into second base.

Instead of sliding into what would be an out, Carrie stopped her slide short of the base and jumped over the tag to the base.

He held his hands out. "What was that!?"

"Throwing me out isn't easy," she said with a sly smile.

Carrie stayed at second base. Now was the real test. A throw to third base was a lot closer than second. But she still managed to make him look silly.

The throw was perfect, except for the fact she was so fast. It was an easy steal. "Come on. Give me a challenge."

She took off for third again. Harrison popped up and threw a bullet down to third base. Carrie dove and snuck her hand in just before the tag. "Now that was better."

He didn't notice she stayed at third base until she was coming down the line and sliding around the front of the plate while reaching her hand out to touch the plate as he dove out to tag her. The tag was late.

Harrison rolled his eyes. "Come on."

She laughed while jogging down the line to first.

⚾︎⚾︎⚾︎

Harrison finally caught her stealing. The tired base stealer slid in to second base after the ball arrived and was thrown out.

He threw his glove on the ground and threw both hands up in the air. "I got you!"

Carrie made her way to home plate. She was sweaty and covered from head to toe with dirt. "Yeah you did. 50 tries later."

"I still got you."

She pushed him. "If you can throw me out like that all the time, imagine what you can do this season."

"Right here. Tomorrow. Let's go again."

Carrie shook his hand. "Game on."