Maybe two batters was the whole show. Maybe the kid had run out of tricks. Maybe Prescott was right all along.Β
Tyler stepped off the rubber, took a breath. Not a showy breath, a real one. The kind you take when you're deciding something that matters.Β
He came back with a fastball inside corner. The batter froze. Strike one.Β
Two and one. Next pitch, changeup outer half. The batter swung, fouled it hard down the first baseline.Β
Almost connected. Almost drove it. Two and two.Β
Full count. Full battle. And something happened at the complex.Β
It contracted. The entire world shrank down to 60 ft and 6 in of red clay and white chalk. The cicadas stopped.Β
The sprinkler system was off. No parents whispering behind sunglasses. The concession stand was still.Β
The breeze died. Even the phone that had been streaming live seemed to hold its breath. Tyler stepped off the rubber one more time, rolled the ball in his bare hand behind his back.Β
His fingers walked across the seams. He turned the ball slowly, deliberately, finding the grip. Here's what nobody in that ballpark knew.Β
Tyler hadn't thrown a curveball yet. Not once. Not to batter one, not to batter two, not in warm-ups.Β
He had been hiding it this whole time, saving it, keeping his best card face down on the table for the exact moment when it would matter more than anything else he'd ever done. The older scout knew something was coming.Β
He'd leaned so far forward his folding chair creaked under his weight. Ray knew. He'd watched Tyler throw curveballs against that cinder block wall, balls that changed direction so violently they looked like someone yanked them sideways on a fishing line.Β
But Prescott didn't know. And the batter definitely didn't know. Tyler stepped back on the rubber, set.Β
The catcher put down one finger. Tyler shook it off. Two fingers.Β
Shook it off. The catcher paused, then put down three. Tyler nodded.Β
He rocked, kicked, reached back. Same arm speed, same slot, same everything, and released. The third perfect pitch.Β
A curveball. The ball came out of Tyler's hand chest high. The batter's eyes went wide.Β