The Lady Bandits, winners of the National League pennant in Lake Forbing won the toss for the single elimination play off game and took the field before a capacity crowd at their league park. Coach Wilson had Madelyn ready to pitch with Destiny Johnson available if Madelyn should weaken. One loss now would eliminate the Purple Panthers and coach intended to start her ace hurler every game, or whenever possible, until they reached the Little League Softball World Series or heaven forbid them and they lost.
The Purple Panthers started without any wasted time. Sarah Anderson grounded out, but Emilee doubled to right field on her first pitch. Jasmine Brown singled her to third and then the power side of the Purple Panther line-up literally blasted the Lady Bandit pitcher off the field.
Hannah tripled, Madison doubled, then Isabella followed with another double, and four runs were in. Yelling with the others in the dugout, Emilee saw the look of amazement on Coach Wilson’s face. Even the Purple Panther coach had not imagined that much power in her batting line-up.
Madelyn pitched her usual smooth, consistent game and the final score was 11 to 1 for the Purple Panthers. The win advanced them to the district playoff tournament, the first small step on the long trail to the top. There were sixteen district winners playing for the district championship, with the winner advancing to the sectional tournament.
Emilee Davis tried not to think beyond the district championship, but she could not help herself. It was almost inconceivable that the Purple Panthers would get beyond the district playoffs, but it was there in the back of her mind all the time as they practiced and prepared to travel up to Mooringsport for the opening game.
Ashley Jones said to her that evening after the Lady Bandits win, “Think we have a chance, Emilee?”
Emilee nodded. “We have as good a chance of beating Mooringsport as they have of beating us.”
“I didn’t mean that,” Madison muttered. ‘I was thinking of the world championship, playing in that huge stadium for the Little League Softball World Series.”
Emilee stared at her. “Do you know what that means?” she asked. “We can’t lose a game. We’ve got to beat Mooringsport and we’ve got to beat everybody we come up against all the way to that final game.”
“I know,” Madison nodded. “I know.”
“Stop talking about it,” Emilee told her. “It’s supposed to be bad luck to do that.”
“I can think, can’t I?” Madison chuckled. “I can dream, can’t I?”
Emilee was dreaming too, realizing how wild the dream was. Any Little League Softball team, which reached the playoffs in the Little League Softball World Series Championship tournament, would have to be a great team, a real team pulling together as one, fighting like mad for every run, every pitch, bearing down every moment. The Purple Panthers were far from being that kind of team, not when four or five players were not even talking to each other.
Four busloads and several cars of players, friends, and parents went up to Mooringsport, thirty miles away, to witness the Mooringsport and Lake Forbing contest in the district playoff game. The Lake Forbing Little League Association chartered the bus the players were riding in. This was a Saturday afternoon game and as they drove up late Saturday morning, Coach Wilson looked as nervous as a mother hen with a dozen fluttering chicks scattered around a barnyard. The players could scarcely sit still in their seats and coach, sitting up front with the driver, kept calling back to them repeatedly,
“Okay gang, Take it easy. Relax back there.”
Mooringsport, a city of over one hundred thousand people, was three times bigger than the town of Lake Forbing and the Mooringsport Little League Park facility was about twice the size of the Lake Forbing Park. The playing field, of course, was the same size as required by league rules, but there were at least two thousand Mooringsport fans in the stands when the two teams took the field.
The Mooringsport team had a left-hander pitching by the name of Jenny Kay Gipson, a tall, rangy, dark-haired girl, and Gipson could pitch. She struck out Sarah, and then she struck out Emilee. Jasmine Brown managed to hit a Texas league blooper for a single to right, but then Jenny Kay Gipson fanned the tough Hannah Miller to end the inning.
Isabella said to Emilee after Hannah fanned, “This is going to be a ball game. That lefty throws heat. Stay loose.”
Madelyn started for the Purple Panthers with Destiny Johnson and Maria Rodriguez available from the bullpen. Madelyn was as good as ever, even against the Mooringsport sluggers. After three innings of play the score was tied 0 to 0 and Emilee noticed that Madelyn was really working hard, bearing down, and giving everything she had on every pitch, which meant she would tire in the late innings. Gipson, on the other hand, was working very smooth and easy. Her mechanics were excellent.
In the fourth however, the Mooringsport club broke the ice, reaching Madelyn for a walk and two hits, giving them a run and a 1 to 0 lead and it was obvious Madelyn was getting tired.
During that half inning, with one out and two Mooringsport runners on, Sarah and Emilee had broken up the incipient rally by pulling off a beautiful double play on a hard-hit ball over second. Sarah had to go behind the bag for the ball to field it, and then she flipped it to Emilee who whirled and tossed it to Jasmine Brown for the double play. The crowd gave them a big hand on the play and Coach Wilson slapped both of them on the back when they came in to the dugout for the top half of the fifth inning.
“We need to get that run back,” Emilee said grimly. “Start us off, Madison.”
Madison did start them off with a nice single over third. Coach flashed the bunt signal to Sofia Hernandez and Sofia dropped it beautifully down the first base line, pulling the first baseman in to field it, and Sofia beat the left-handed Gipson on the pitcher’s banana run to the bag. Two Purple Panther runners were on with no outs.
Madelyn came up to hit, with Sarah on deck and Emilee in the hole. Madelyn, given the sign to bunt as well, placed the ball in a perfect spot in front of the plate, which advanced both runners, though the Mooringsport catcher threw Madelyn out at first base. It brought Sarah to the plate with one away and runners on first and third.
Sarah looked at Emilee in the batter on-deck circle as the left-hander threw four wide balls, intentionally walking Sarah and loading the bases for the force out anywhere. Coach Wilson came out to speak with Emilee and she said quietly,
“You’ve done this before, Emilee. This is just another ball game and it is not the last inning this time. We do have another at bat. So, just take it easy and hit the ball. We’re going to score a few runs this inning.”
Emilee just nodded, but there was a lump in her throat and she was breathing with difficulty. Her lungs felt compressed by an unknown weight. She had struck out once against Gipson and the second time she had rolled a weak grounder back to the pitcher. She had heard about this Jenny Kay Gipson girl, whose fastball supposedly clocked in at 62 miles per hour on a radar gun. From 40 feet away that was pure heat with no smoke, gas you would call it. She knew that she was batting against a good pitcher and she did not feel confident about being able to get a hit. Coach’s words, however, made her feel better, so Emilee stepped out of the box, relaxed her shoulders, and took two deep breaths. She wanted to make good contact for the team, for Lake Forbing, and for Coach Wilson, who had never really gotten anywhere as a ball player, but who loved this game of softball and her new family of fastpitch softball players.
Jenny Kay Gipson pitched a curve ball, which broke right over the plate for a called strike. Emilee wet her lips with the tip of her tongue. She made eye contact with the three Purple Panther base runners and she could hear the yells of encouragement from the Purple Panther dugout. They had to win; they had to win every game from now on.
Gipson pitched again on the inside corner and Emilee’s eyes lit up with an instant reaction. She swung her bat at the ball, driving the ball down the first base line. The Mooringsport first baseman lunged at it, missed, and the ball rattled down the right field line, fair by six inch
es.
Two runners came in and Emilee slid into second with a double. She got up, dusted herself off, and listened to the noise from the contingent of Lake Forbing fans rooting. It was for her. She saw Coach Wilson grinning, shaking a fist at her from the dugout steps. It felt good to be alive; it felt great to be a Little Leaguer playing to win a softball game.
They did not score another run that inning, but the score was now 2 to 1 for the Purple Panthers and everybody felt much better. There was talk, a lot of chatter, in the Purple Panther infield now.
In their bottom half of the fifth inning, the first Mooringsport batter singled to lead off. The next batter failed to drop a sacrifice bunt, and Isabella threw out the base runner who was trying to take second. Isabella threw the ball down with the force of a pro player and Emilee tagged the runner in plenty of time. Isabella had such a natural quick release of the softball for a Little League Softball catcher.
In the last inning, the bottom of the sixth, the Mooringsport team quickly threatened again. Madelyn was on her last legs, her curve ball was not breaking off as it had in the early innings and her control was not as sharp.
Coach Wilson had Destiny Johnson warming up in the bullpen at the start of the sixth. Madelyn had walked the first batter; the second had singled to right. With runners on first and second and no one out, the big Mooringsport crowd started to make some noise.
As Madelyn stood there, shoulders sagging, Coach Wilson walked out to the pitching circle, asking for timeout from the umpire. Emilee came in and she stood there listening to coach as she spoke. Madelyn’s parents were in the sector behind the Purple Panther dugout and Emilee could see Madelyn’s father, standing up, glaring at Coach Wilson. It was apparent he did not want the Purple Panther coach to take his daughter out of the game.
Coach said, “You’re tired, aren’t you, Madelyn?”
Madelyn nodded. She was looking at the ground.
“Arm hurt?” Coach Wilson asked.
“A little,” Madelyn admitted.
“Okay,” Coach Wilson said simply. “I’m putting Destiny in, Madelyn. I want you to understand they are not knocking you out of the game. You’re tired and it’s for the good of the team that I take you out.”
Madelyn looked at her coach. To leave a game once she had started it was a new sensation for Madelyn. She did not like it too well, but she nodded, seeing the logic in Coach Wilson’s statement.
Coach waved a hand to the bullpen and Destiny Johnson came in. Emilee saw Madelyn Taylor’s father take a big half-smoked cigar from his mouth and throw it down angrily. He sat back down, arms crossed, his face literally glowering red with rage.
Destiny Johnson was nervous too, knowing she had to protect that slim one run lead. Emilee said to her neighborhood chum,
“You can do it Destiny. We’re all behind you.”
Destiny nodded gratefully. Coach Wilson said quietly,
“The infield plays back for the double play and remember we’re in the lead. They have to make one run to tie us, two runs to beat us. Do you know how hard that is? Let them do the worrying. You, just relax out there.”
Destiny Johnson pitched carefully and got the first girl on a pop-up to Madison Moore. The next batter, the Mooringsport cleanup hitter, slapped a hard, spinning grounder to second. Emilee fielded it, threw it to Sarah Anderson who was skipping over from short, and Sarah whipped the ball across to the tall Jasmine Brown at first. The throw was wide of the bag, but Jasmine stretched out completely and made a sensational catch, keeping her foot on the bag. The field umpire hesitated, and then she waved the runner out, ending the game. The Lake Forbing Purple Panthers were still in the tournament.
SPLIT SEAMS