Liam leaped to his feet and tore off his mask. The batter hit Carter's pitch, but it wasn't a clean blast to the outfield. No, that ball was shooting straight up like a rocket ship—and Liam needed to be directly under it when it came back to Earth!
His brown eyes locked onto their target. He lifted his glove. It was a make-or-break moment. Make the catch, and the game was theirs. Miss it, and he'd break the hearts of his teammates, not to mention the thousands of fans who'd traveled to see their local team in action.
Liam's and Carter's families were among those fans. Liam knew exactly where they were sitting. Before the game, they had unfurled a huge banner that read "Mid-Atlantic All the Way!"
The banner had been his mother's idea. "We'll paint the words in neon colors on a long bolt of fabric," she declared, fanning her hands out to diagram a headline in the air. "The Mid-Atlantic fans will love it!"
"Unless it's in front of them and blocking their view of the field," Carter's mother pointed out.
Her sister waved her objection away. "Then we'll take it up to the hill and invite everyone to gather under it! Imagine all of us cheering together, one big booming voice, as our home-state heroes play their way to the title!"
Liam, Carter, and everyone else in their families had pitched in to make the banner. Liam's older sister, Melanie, had even offered to hold one end, although she made it clear she had an ulterior motive.
"Your games are shown live on one of the big sports networks, right?" she'd said the week before the tournament. "They always pan around the crowd, looking for stuff like this banner. When that camera lands on me, it could be my big break."
While Liam dreamed of one day playing professional baseball, Melanie longed to make it in show business. She took every dance, voice, and acting class their small town had to offer, and performed in local theater productions. She'd once thought that New York City was where she should be, but a two-week family vacation to California the summer before had changed that. Now living near Los Angeles was all she could talk about.
For Liam's part, he couldn't imagine leaving Pennsylvania for California. He'd had a great time on their vacation. The people they'd met had been friendly and helpful, the weather had been great, and the food even better. But compared with Pennsylvania, everything about California was just so . . . different.
That afternoon, when he saw the banner on the hillside and heard the cheers from the crowd gathered by it, his heart swelled with pride and determination. Those feelings stayed with him throughout the game. They thrummed in his chest when he hit the RBI triple that gave the Mid-Atlantic players their fifth run of the game. They powered him through the long fifth inning, when Great Lakes threatened to overtake Mid-Atlantic by racking up four straight runs. And those feelings surged in his veins when Coach Harrison pulled the starting pitcher, Daniel Cho, and put Carter on the mound for the final inning instead.
His pride peaked when Carter stopped Great Lakes' rally cold. Now his determination to win took over as he tracked the ball in the air above him. It reached the top of its climb and started its descent. Liam shuffled sideways. He widened the fingers of his glove a hair more. A moment later—Thud! The ball landed in the pocket and stuck there.
"Yer out!" the umpire yelled.
The fans erupted, roaring, clapping, and stamping their feet. Liam leaped into the air, only to be brought back to earth when his teammates swarmed him, their screams of victory ringing throughout the ballpark.
Final score: Mid-Atlantic 5, Great Lakes 4.