Strike Two Outs: A Short Story

Seeing my breath come out as smoke in the crisp night time air. We were home team, which means that we took the field first. I was out at short-stop, just waiting for the ball to be hit to me, and whip the ball to first.
“Strike one… Strike two,” the umpire yelled out. On the third pitch the ball is blasted toward me, but I wasn’t stunned. Instead I dove for the ball and caught it. There’s one out! The inning didn’t last long. Right after I got that first out, our teams morale went up and the opposing teams went down. The next two outs happened in about 2 minutes.
After that happened, it was time for my team to hit. I am third in the batting order, so when I watched the first and second outs go by I started getting frustrated. Something

happened that you was unexpected since I was a contact hitter. When I got into the batter’s box on the first pitch I hit the ball like it came out of a cannon! It was a line drive to left-center almost ripping through the fence. The thoughts going through my head was “RUN!” I took off down the first base line… rounding first base, and the outfielder still hasn’t gotten to it so I kept sprinting my heart out and slid into second!
Back out on the field starting of the inning, “No outs, let’s go to first!” I always yelled. And one of the best feelings of yelling that out is hearing the rest of my teammates say it back. Every time it was hit to me I got it to first as fast as I could, throwing with pure speed! And before I knew it there were three outs, and that means it’s time to go back in to bat.
I’m on first and it’s the bottom of the seventh, two outs. A lefty pitcher has started pitching and I got the sign to steal. Knowing me, being the aggressive base runner I took off in a faster-than-a-jackrabbit sprint. My coaches were screaming, “NO! NO! NO!” but I didn’t care because we were down and I was going for the win. I was safe and my coaches were relieved as I saw the sweat dripping from their cheeks. I got to third and my friend Will was on second, and my coach wanted to try something. I got a huge lead at third base and after the pitch the catcher threw it down and I stole home! “SAFE!” The umpire called out as soon as all of the dust cleared. As I got into the dugout I was watching Will again and we decided to go for the same exact play that I had just done, but that time the catcher was mad. He threw the ball screaming to third, however instead of Will getting out we he stole home too!
We ended up winning that game, just because of one call that my coach made. That call was to not let up, still be aggressive, and keep fighting. A few of the things that I always remember about that game was the running until I could barely breath, throwing the ball as hard as I could to make the out, and hitting the ball to the fence as the other team watched in aw. I also remember the sound of the crowd, and remember the sound of the bats hitting balls, and remember winning that impossible game. And I look back on that moment and think if the other team learned not to throw the ball to third when their rival had nothing to lose.