Baseball Boys

Road to States

We got on the bus after a 7-3 win against Williams. Our record is 9-1, we lost one game to the reigning state champs, melrose academy.
"We have officially made it into the state tournament" said coach Burns as the whole bus cheered
"The tournament starts in 2 and a half weeks, and we only have 5 games left, so let's finish the season strong and get a good seed."
Coach finishes his speech and I turn to talk to Alex.
"What are you.." I start to say as I get cut off by Jason and Mark screaming the lyrics to holla back girl.
Me and Alex start dying of laughter and soon everyone joins in and sings.
We soon arrive back at the school and all go home for the night.
2 and 1/2 weeks later
Kiera and I walk into the gym and all we can hear is the whole entire school chanting "freshmen, freshmen, freshmen.." Being the freshmen at a pep rally sucks. As we stand on the bleachers, the whole varsity  baseball team walks in. The crowd roars. They start throwing candy into the crowd while music blasts out of the speakers.
The baseball team sits on a bench in the front of the gym while coach Burns gets up to the podium.
"Well hello Malden Knights!" He says as the crowd goes crazy
"You should be very proud to be a knight. We have a pretty solid team this year with a whole lot of skill..." Coach goes on for a couple more minutes talking about the team and what they've accomplished this year.
"There is one specific person in this room that has had such an impact on the team on and off the field. They can turn the team around with just a few motivational words and without them, I'm not sure if we would have made the tournament. I would like to call up Sara White!" Coach says as everyone's head turns to face me.
I awkwardly make my way down the bleachers and an applause bursts from the crowd.
Mark and Jason hand me flowers and coach thanks me for everything I had done for the team.
I go back up to the bleachers and the pep rally continues.
It was your typical pep rally with cheerleaders, dance offs, games and then some Malden traditions.
The pep rally ends and we get dismissed from school. I go to the parking lot and meet Shawn at his car. We head to the last practice before the state tournament.
~
"Pick it up boys" coach burns yells as the boys run their warm up lap around the field.
After their lap, coach called us all in.
"Did you see all those people at the pep rally today?" Asked coach burns
"Yes" we reply in unison
"They all believe that we can be state champs, now do you?"
"Yes" we all scream a little bit louder.
"Then let's show it out in practice today."
We had your average practice, but we seemed to have more of a spark, that pep rally really helped.
After practice, shawn and I went to marylous. We both got Oreo cookie monsters. We then headed back to the school for a short meeting to discuss our opponents, the east cherry hill lions.
We gathered in the locker room with a projector watching film.
"Cherry hill's best player is their short stop, #17. He hasn't made an error in the last 14 games, people say he's on a streak" I said to the team. "He is a good hitter and is also very fast, so we'll have to make sure we can contain him" I said as the team agreed.
"So Shawn, that means we have to watch out for stealing when he's on base, so be ready." I added as he nodded his head.
We talked and watched some more film, and then the meeting was over. We all went our separate ways so we could prepare for the big game tomorrow.