234 Stanford University: Friday 10 (1/2)

I continued to hit every pitch, fast and slow, back towards the machine as a line drive. Besides the first pitch that surprised me, the rest really weren't that hard. In fact...it was too easy. Not interesting like I had thought before. After my 20, I headed out of the netting and rejoined the Atkins boys.

”Great job, Jake!” Dave slapped my back, forcing me forward.

”I think you may be more related to Zeke than we are.” Kyle laughed. ”No one else can hit so consistently like you two.”

I blushed. It's not like they didn't have a chance to be like Zeke. The twins focused all of their attention on pitching. Plus Noah was more talented at fielding, but he wasn't bad at the plate. I looked at Noah to see if he was offended by Kyle's comment since I knew he wanted to surpass Zeke one day.

Noah tilted his head at me. ”You don't look satisfied.”

I blinked in surprise. Then glanced at the two college players beside us. I didn't want to seem cocky...except... ”It wasn't a real challenge.” I shrugged helplessly.

Shawn frowned, but Nick didn't reveal any different expression. ”Why not?” He asked, not sounding or looking upset.

I looked at Noah and he gave me a nod to say that it would be okay. I needed that kind of confirmation just in case I would upset these men that were taller and stronger. ”There are two things that made it easy. The first was the location of the pitch. Even though the speed would vary, the location wouldn't. If I know the location, that cuts down the difficulty in half.”

Shawn's frown deepened. ”So what. With a varying speed, that should have at least thrown you off.”

”Yea...” I mumbled. ”It should have. But, the machine was too loud.”

”The machine?”

”The pitching machine makes a certain noise when it's getting ready to shoot the pitch out.” I explained. ”The noise gets louder when it's a fast pitch because it needs more speed itself before sending the ball. So when it slowed down, I would have to be patient. But when it got a little louder, I knew I had to be ready to swing to match the fast speed. All of that plus knowing the exact location it would come to, made it easy.”

The cages filled with silence. No one spoke and the breathing was barely audible. After two long, awkward minutes, I shuffled my feet away from the group to the cubby. I put away the helmet and bat, before facing them, uncertain of what they were thinking.

Noah was the first to return to normal. He pounced on me, jumping around excitedly. ”Wow. Too cool! A random pitching machine can't even throw you off!”

Ah, compliments are so embarrassing and hard to accept. I tried to brush it off. ”I'm sure Zeke could do the same. And the first pitch did throw me off so it's not like I'm completely perfect. Pitching machines are only good for practice.”

”Look at you, comparing yourself to a monster like Zeke?!” Kyle laughed.