Rogues vs. Storm — Game 2 (Rogues Lead 1-0)
R/R Sonic - CF #15
L/L Verne - RF #8
L/L Shadow - P #27
R/R Knuckles - C #3
L/R Storm - 1B #20
L/R Silver - 2B #17
R/L Blaze - LF #14
R/R Sticks - SS #6
R/R Marine - 3B #11
"What do you think he's looking at?"
The scarlet echidna and I were casually tossing the ball back and forth from third base, where I stood, to home plate, where he stood. Upon hearing this inquiry, he briefly fixated his view into the dugout, towards the dullish red hedgehog, who appeared to be staring out from the seat closest to the main entrance of the dugout, maybe towards us, maybe at the prominent plaque at the center field wall displaying the number 16 in red, or maybe at the pitcher's mound, whereto he would not be returning tonight for obvious reasons.
The echidna looked back at me puzzled and shrugged. "Couldn't tell ya. Maybe he's looking at nothing in particular."
"Could be."
He looked to his right and waved. "Hey Shadow! Remember what I told you."
"You haven't said anything yet," a disgruntled Shadow grunted in short response.
The echidna chuckled. "Oh, that Shadow."
I sighed. "I'm just glad he went out of his way to pitch tonight."
"Why, of course."
"I don't think you understand." I eyed him coldly. "He seemed a little off last night after the game."
He shrugged. "Doesn't everyone, though?"
"I found him alone in the clubhouse." I sighed. "He... had a moment."
"Oh, now I get it," he remarked, nodding lightly.
"Yeah, it's been hard. He hasn't taken it very lightly. I don't think that last game helped matters much. But, you know, one game at a time."
The echidna nodded again. "That's all you can do."
"So how's Verne been handling things?"
"Oh, you have no idea how excited he is to be playing tonight. He's been like, running all over the outfield all day long, since like, noon or something." He shook his head either in some kind of disbelief or in disappointment of his rambling. "It's crazy. I bet he'll be a better ball player than I ever was."
I chuckled. "He looks like he'll be a great five-tool player. Now I guess we'll see if he can hit."
"What's a five-tool player?"
I shrugged. "Ask Z."
As we took the field to start the game, I noticed that the crowd was a lot less into it this time around. I looked around the field for any oddities, but everyone was where they were supposed to be. Shadow seemed to take forever to throw his practice pitches. Maybe he needed to do that.
R/R Jeff - CF #9
R/R Mina - SS #18
L/L Flame - RF #24
R/R Kyle - C #6
L/R Crush - 1B #25
L/R Rocky - 3B #16
L/L Shonen - P #77
R/R Tron - LF #51
R/R Clay - 2B #30
The game started once again with Jeff Buck striking out, this time on five straight strikes, two of which he fouled off. Then Mina hit a high chopper to Marine, who made a nice throw to Storm to nab her, if only barely. Flame hit his first pitch well into the gap between me and Blaze, bouncing high off the warning track into the first row of seats. The play was dead and the flame-colored hedgehog settled into second base.
As Kyle the Wolf stepped in, the negative fan reaction that ensued was priceless. Of course you knew he was up to no good. Unfazed, the wolf pointed his bat in my direction. I shrugged it off. But he lined the first pitch up the middle, past the middle infielders, forcing me to run up and field the ball. I threw it with all my strength back to home plate. Shadow quickly ducked, waiting for the ball to sail past him. Instead, Marine ran into the ball's path and cut it off, faking a throw to the plate. As the runner touched home, the raccoon instead threw the ball to Silver covering second base, whereto Kyle was still running; the throw was easily in time, allowing Silver to apply the easy tag to end the inning.
Rogues 1, Storm 0.
Leading off the home half, I dribbled a pitch back to the opposing pitcher, Shonen the Hedgehog, who flipped it to first for the quick out. I was left to sit in the dugout and watch in anticipation as the next guy stepped up to the plate for the first time.
"Batting second: the right fielder, #8... Verne the Bat."
"I see what you did there," the scarlet echidna chortled.
Verne held the Sticky McSchnickens cautiously to his left, staring the pitcher down menacingly. Kyle yapped some things at the ivory-furred Mobian, but he appeared to pay no mind to the blabbermouth catcher. He wasn't having any of that.
He watched the first pitch go by, a slider that barely hooked, well outside for ball one. He stepped out of the batter's box to take some practice swings before casually strolling back in and readying his next swing. He went after the following pitch, another slider that broke right down the middle, and slapped it into deep right field, well out of anyone's sight. Finally something for us to celebrate. Verne immediately dropped the sticky and began running for a while. Meanwhile in right field, Flame briefly ran for the wall before stopping dead in his tracks, knowing he wasn't going to get it. I don't think he ever saw where it landed. I know none of us did.
Storm Solo Home Run: #8 Verne the Bat.
Rogues 1, Storm 1.
Only Shadow stood outside the dugout to greet Verne as he touched the plate. The rest of us were seated on the benches, pretending to look bored, unimpressed, dead tired, call it what you want. Amy seemed to be actually sleeping. It made sense.
Zenith high-fived Verne as he entered the dugout. He proceeded to settle in quietly, sitting in between me and Knuckles and looking just as bored as anyone else. After about five seconds of excruciating boredom, Knuckles was the first to congratulate him on his first Turbo League home run, and the rest of the team immediately mobbed him. Except for Shadow, of course. He was already in the batter's box through all of this, and he followed up on Verne's impressive showing with... a strikeout. Knuckles got to first from a base on balls before Storm also struck out.
Things were never the same for Shadow after that. The next inning, in another pitcher vs. pitcher battle, Shonen drove a ball that sailed over my head, leaving me to watch it settle way too many rows above the field.
"Oh, boy," I grunted, looking back and forth towards the area where it landed and Shadow, throwing his glove onto the dirt again.
Rogues Solo Home Run: #77 Shonen the Hedgehog.
Rogues 2, Storm 1.
The third inning wasn't much better: with Jeff (for once) and Kyle on base, Crush, living up to his name, crushed the first pitch from Shadow all the way to the left field wall, forcing Blaze to play the ball off a tricky carom. With Jeff already having scored, Kyle had rounded third base as she darted the ball to Sticks covering second. Sticks faked the throw to the plate, allowing Kyle to score yet again, as meanwhile Crush, not being that fast for a jungle badger, had stopped in between first and second base. The fake throw caused the unsuspecting badger to run a few steps to second, then turn around and dart back to first. Sticks simply ran him there with the ball, and only when they'd gotten close enough, but not too close, she threw the ball to Storm covering first, who applied the tag to end the inning.
Rogues 4, Storm 1.
All of a sudden I had the implication that this defense would have to be the one factor that could pull us out of this hole.
Shadow won the pitcher's duel that ensued the following inning by striking out Shonen, taking seven pitches to do so. Just minutes before, Rocky the Mole had reached base on an infield hit down the third base line that Marine dove to stuff into her glove, but was late on the throw. Next, Tron laid a bunt down the first base line, allowing Rocky to advance to second as Tron was tagged out. The next batter was Clay the Mole, not looking nearly as powerful as his rocky counterpart on base. On the second pitch, he hit a sharp, hanging liner into the right-center field gap. As Verne and I both ran to stop it, the ball seemed to hook towards Verne, who reached out with his catching hand to try to stuff it into his glove before the ball hit the ground, but missed. Luckily, as it took a high bounce, I ran right into its path. With ball in glove, I quickly turned around and fired it back to second base, where Clay dug in safely less than a second later. As expected, Rocky scored through that mess. Wow, that was fast.
Rogues 5, Storm 1.
I noticed Tails running with Bunnie into the bullpen, the de-roboticized rabbit standing behind the plate as the fox started to warm up his pitching motion. Shadow's day would likely be done soon, leading me to question if everyone else on our squad would be too rusty to pitch a full nine innings. For now, the ebony hedgehog stayed on the mound long enough to induce a groundout from Jeff to put an end to that mess.
In the fifth inning, after Flame had walked on four straight pitches, in came who else but Kyle to drive the ball well over Blaze in left field, settling in virtually the same spot as his shot from last night. Shadow said some things to the opposing catcher as he started his relatively long trot around the bases. I palmed my face, surprised but still relieved that nobody got ejected after all that.
Rogues 2-Run Home Run: #6 Kyle the Wolf.
Rogues 7, Storm 1.
When Zenith ran onto the field, the ebony hedgehog simply lobbed the ball in his direction before walking slowly back to the dugout. The tall red hedgehog made some motioning gestures towards the bullpen, then to left field. Tails ran out of the bullpen to the mound, where the game ball awaited him, while Bunnie went back into the dugout. Curiously, Blaze also ran towards the dugout, with Jet the Hawk sprinting onto the field, presumably to take her place. I don't think she was very pleased to leave the game this early.
Nevertheless, Tails was able to strike out the next two guys to end the frame. He then led off the bottom of the inning with a single that blooped into center field, followed by a six-pitch walk for Sticks. Marine then grounded into a double play, advancing Tails to third base.
Before I stepped into the batter's box, I saw Tails give me a wink. I guess that was his way of saying, "You got this, Sonic." And sure enough, I smacked a ground ball that passed the first and second basemen into right field, giving Tails an easy pass to home plate.
Rogues 7, Storm 2.
I got into a six-step lead as Verne stepped up, but Shonen threw the ball to Crush covering first base three times. I reduced my lead to five steps, and then the pitcher threw the first pitch, which Verne slapped all the way to the left center field wall. As soon as I heard the crack of the sticky, I jumped off my lead and ran for a while. As I rounded second, I adjusted my view to the outfield, where the very fast buck was only just stuffing the ball in his glove, so I rounded third, prepared to slide head-first to the plate, being covered on one foot by a certain pesky opposing catcher. The throw was offline, forcing him to scurry well off the plate when it looked like the play would be close, and I stepped on the plate without risk of being tagged.
Rogues 7, Storm 3.
Sooner or later, I wanted to get this game over with.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Marine surprised everyone by driving one of Shonen's sliders to straightaway center field. As the ball soared higher and higher, Jeff Buck backed up further and further, eventually setting up again the wall. He jumped... but the ball sailed well above his outstretched glove. The whole dugout erupted again, knowing now that our squad was likely full of unlikely heroes.
Storm Solo Home Run: #11 Marine the Raccoon.
Rogues 7, Storm 4.
Sooner or later, I thought, we might have a chance.
Jet led off the bottom of the eighth with a triple off a high fly ball that shot up very high down the right field line, but banked off the wall, kicking away from Flame as he climbed the wall as if trying to rob a home run. He pointed towards me, and I simply gave him the "thumbs-up". Hey, anything helps. After Knuckles flied out to the shortstop, Storm flied out to Tron in left field, deep enough to get the speedy hawk home without a throw.
Rogues 7, Storm 5.
The next inning, the Rogues struck back, with Tron and Mina both hitting the ball to short outfield for singles, and Flame striking it all the way to the left center field wall, scoring the hyena easily and forcing a long throw from Jet, who reached the ball before I could, to try to beat the mongoose breaking for home. Marine cut the throw off and proceeded to dart the ball to Knuckles covering the plate, but the mongoose slid head first and touched it with her left hand right as he gloved it, beating out any chance of a tag.
Rogues 9, Storm 5.
Curiously, Xander came back out to the mound in the following frame, because apparently baseball teams these days had designated closers. Tails came up first in another pitcher vs. pitcher battle and grounded out to Clay. Then Sticks waited out seven pitches before striking out looking at a fastball right down the middle. Marine came up, waiting out another seven pitches, eventually working the count full. She laid off the payoff pitch, a changeup down and in, awarding her a free pass to first base.
As I walked into the box, the pressure to perform mounted onto me like never before, or so it seemed. I watched the first pitch go by, a fastball well outside for ball one. I fouled off a changeup that broke into the zone. And another. Finally I got ahold of a fastball, grounding it hard to Rocky, who had to dive to his left to stop it. Marine would totally be safe. I had a clear path to first base ahead of me, and all worry of being thrown out had escaped. All I had to do was run, run, run.
I charged to the bag, all the strength I could muster to my feet, pushing off the dirt six times per second, lunging further to the bag. Then, the sound of the ball being stuffed into the glove. Then, the sound of my foot stepping on the bag. I turned around, the momentum pushing me backwards still. Crush's dominant right foot was planted on his side of the bag the whole time. I was out.
FINAL: Rogues 9, Storm 5.
"Can you still run?"
That was the only quote ringing in my head over and over. Of course I could still run. At least, I thought I could. My life had been — no, all our lives — pretty darn quiet without baseball. Tails spent all his time in his lab, only thinking of really obscure contraptions to invent. Knuckles would either relax the whole day away, or pay this Hector guy to guard the giant jewel. Amy had to slow down for family life. Shadow and I did... basically nothing. There was no reason for either of us to run. Dr. Eggman was dead. Nobody was ever there to steal the Master Emerald. To top it all off, we were all getting old.
As I walked slowly off the field in deep contemplation mode, Zenith met me at the foot of the dugout steps, his foot tapping impatiently, a genuinely concerned, yet still stern-looking expression painted on his face, his dominant right hand sort-of grasping the dugout fence behind him. Finally he sighed lightly.
"You did your best, Sonic."
I eyed him for a few seconds. Then I stared more or less at the dirt covering the warning track in front of the dugout, or perhaps his black-and-white sneakers perched atop that patch of dirt. I glanced back at him, sighing just as lightly.
"I need to do better."