She stood beside the bag and swung the bat a few times and I headed out to a real mound. We never actually had a mound when I was growing up. I turned and looked at Hailey and she shouldered the bat choked way up, and looked right at me. “Let ‘er rip,” she said.
I gave the ball a gentle, under hand toss from the front of the mound right into the zone. She held the bat out and let the ball bounce off of it and roll back to me.
“That isn’t the way you teach pitching, is it Coach?” She looked at me wide-eyed and leaned on her bat. Okay, I was a little embarrassed.
She took her stance again and looked me right in the eye. I didn’t want to embarrass either of us with another fluff pitch, so I wound up and let one fly over an inside corner. Or towards it, anyway. It had some pepper on it. She dropped her left shoulder, started to crouch, then swung. I heard the crack and something flew by my left ear.
“Coach, we only have two balls. You have to catch ‘em, or we’ll spend all our time in the woods looking for ‘em.”
I picked up the second ball and watched her take her stance. Her eyes didn’t leave mine. I backed up a few steps so I’d have more time to react. This was a tough player. My eyes locked on hers. I wound up and curved one towards the outside rear corner. At least that’s where it was heading when she smacked it. It flew to the same place as the last one, only I managed to get my glove up in time. It smacked right in. She was aiming her hit so I could catch it! None of my players had that kind of control.