The First Game

    "Strrrike!" howled the home plate umpire. "Let's go Ben! Come on one more!" I yelled at Ben. Ben got the ball from the catcher and cooly made his way back to the mound. Which for hot day, and this being one our biggest games in our baseball careers seemed awe inspiring. He stepped on the mound, and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He checked the runners. He glared at one for a while. Eyeing him letting the runner know if you move I'll get you. He took another breath, and got into the set position. One more breath and out the ball went from his hand. It wizzed, and hissed down towards the plate.  The batter was setting finishing his stride.
    When the ball was shot back at me. The third basemen. I saw that it was coming in hot. For some reason though I took it as a regular ball. So I made a bad move and knelt down to get it. Not even half a second and the ball had jumped over my glove and into the outfield, for a base hit.  I just looked at Ben and saw his eyes sink. Then they cameback and gave me a mean look.
    Eventually the runner scored, and so did another. Two runs were scored that inning. I blame myself on helping that team score those runs.
    We lost the game 4-1. We played hard. I stole two bases, but I also made one error. For our first game it was fun, and we put together a team that had never played and had only done practice. But our pitcher gave it all he had and then some. We were proud of our loss, not sad.