AOMG High School

SK vs China

Game day yet again and I was joined did my walk through by the rest of my team.
I stood shoulder to shoulder with Umji and smiled up at her nervously. Seunghwa started playing one of Jay's songs and I slammed my baseball cap down over my eyes.
There was no shortage of excitement and love on AOMG's campus and it made me feel really good.
I got super excited just like last time and couldn't contain myself.
After our walk through, Umji told me how cute I was. "Hehe I can't help it. Doesn't all that cheering make you feel good?" I looked at my rather calm teammates. "Eh we're used to it." #3 shrugged.
Oh yeah. I forgot that they were actual superstars before the tournament. Very briefly, I lost my confidence and felt out of place.
Umji squeezed my shoulder and reminded me that I earned what I got, making me feel better.
We got into the van that would be taking us back to Daegu for our game. We didn't play till later in the afternoon so that people would have time to travel to support us in person.
I figured Jay wouldn't wanna do that since he always complains about gas money so I wasn't expecting him at the game.
We got to the field safely and started warning up. Shortly after we started we looked into the stands and saw China's team.
After we finished, we let them have the field and Umji went over our strategy for today.
"Heeji, remember...ignore my signs." "Why do I have to ignore your signs again?" I felt anxiety creeping into my body. "Because there are gonna be people from other teams here filming us and I want them to think me and you don't have good teamwork. I need you to trust me and only for today, brush off my signs. I'm trusting you to make good calls on your own." I took a deep breath and nodded. "Youve got this Heeji. We believe in you." Umji hugged me and rubbed my back, helping me relax a little bit.
Time went by as we got closer and closer to the game and the stands starting filling up.
We went into the lockerroom and waited for our time to come out as Umji gave us a rather relaxed pep talk.
We walked out onto the field to the sound of Jessi's voice, the Gucci Goddess herself.
I do, in fact, feel nothing like Gucci at the moment. I was feeling sick and unsure of myself. Umji told me to ignore her signs which basically meant she was gonna give me any and that's what Dasom did to me and we sucked. I had faith in Umji and everyone else though.
Umji went up for the coin toss and China got to bat 1st.
I stepped onto the pitchers mound and very briefly looked into the stands, my eyes immidiatly landing on my big brother. I was shocked to see Jay but I felt good to know he was supporting me in person.
Umji gave me the sign for a fast ball right down the middle so I threw a screw ball up and to the left. Immidiatly China got a strike.
Right out of the gate they had 2 strike outs.
When it was our turn to bar, Umji told me to start throwinh easier balls because they were purposely sttiking out to weeken my arm. "Guide the ball into their bat and I promise everything will be okay."
I observed their pitcher who was the best on their team and she was oddly average. I'm not sure what I was expecting but this wasnt it. Her pitches were slow and predictable and though I wanted to believe she was just playing mind games with us, a large part of me thought she just sucked.
During the 6th inning, Umji put me in the out field to rest my arm a bit and I prayed a ball didn't come to me. Though I practiced pitching and being a centerfielder, I got my #4 rank by being a pitcher. Honestly I'm a sorry fielder.
China had 3 people on base and I was only low-key feeling paniced.
And wouldn't you know that in my panicked state, China hit a ball and it came right to me? I rushed into position to catch it and the second it hit my mit I threw it to 3rd base and got their runner out.
I remained frozen in my throwing position, almost certain that I wouldn't have gotten the ball there in time. I couldnt believe that I did it.

The announcer said something about how cute it was that Korea's ace was so nervous and I began wondering how obvious it was that I was basically just a withering ball of anxiety at the moment and I wondered what I did to earn the title of Ace.

Back in the dugout, Umji reasured me countless times that I was doing good and we were gonna win.

Bases were loaded and it was my turn to bat. Let me tell you, I'm not much of a batter either. Quite frankly, I'm a bit of a one trick pony.
I had 2 strikes and a ball weighing down on me and I felt the pressure rising. If I could hit this ball far enough into the outfeild, we'd be ahead and China would have no chance of winning but I'm so close to striking out.
Their pitcher threw the ball at me and it was like it came at me in slow motion. I swung as hard as I could all I heard was the smacking sound of the ball and bat making contact. I watched the ball soar then I took off to 1st base. One runner made it to home so I ran to second base. Then anorher dinner made it home so I booked it to 3rd base and before I knew it I made it home.
I was out of breath and my adrenalin was rushing.
"What happened to being a one trick pony Heeji?" #10 teased me. "I am honestly so shook right now. I can't believe we did that."
I looked onto the score board. We were 5 points ahead with one inning left. There honestly wasn't any chance of them winning.
Just as I was making way to the pitchers mound, the umpire sent me back to the dugout and informed us that China gave up.
The announcer came on over the intercom and told everyone China forfeited the match and that we won.
The crowd went crazy. We all cheered and hugged eachother and I was on the verge of tears.
"Ive gotta say, I didn't think we could do it today but I guess even the Chinese have their off days." The announcer joked.