FWB Friends With Baseball

Holy Sh*t.

Jailyn~

Life has been a whirlwind ever since I told Cathy I would go for it. Between figuring out how to balance school and training, it's been a zoo. Somehow sitting at the airport, waiting to go to the trials that could change my entire life, it's the most peace I've had since I was selected.

Waiting for my flight to board, I check through my carry-on, making sure I have everything. While I've never had a problem with flying, there's another major factor going into this one. Either I'm coming back from this a soon-to-be Olympian, or I come home and continue on the path I'd planned. This is crazy, but for all the best reasons right now.

Pulling up my phone, I text Christian, "Waiting to board now, have a safe flight! I'd say send my luck to the crew, but we don't know each other xD. I'll let you know when I land." He's got to be excited heading to D.C. to support the guys in the Wild Card game.

"Christian: Okay, I'll let you know when I land too. You're going to kill it! Play like me and you'll be fine. ;)"

"Foul a ball of my knee in the top of the first?" I ask, laugh a little to myself as I do.

"Christian: Hate you. . . Do everything but that."

"Got it!" I reply, smiling slightly to myself as my flight is called. My stomach flips on itself as I stand up. I'm really about to get on this plane right now to have the chance to become an Olympian.

"Jailyn left field, Maddy center field, and Tatiana right field," one of the coaches running the trials calls out. I'm pretty sure he's from LSU. Grabbing my glove quick, I jog out to my spot in the outfield, ready to take on whatever drill comes next. Heading into the trials, I had no clue what to expect. Coming in and running drills wasn't expected, but it's been incredibly fun. Glancing around the field, I notice players are being set up in every position, and a pitcher is warming up. We're probably doing a scrimmage or running real game scenarios.

That's exactly what's happening. If a batter strikes out, our pitcher throws something hittable to help get balls in play to see what we all can do. They're trying to see everything and get positioning worked out. Glancing around, I catch Maddy looking at me from center field. She gives me a nod, and I return it with a smile. The girls here have all seemed great, we haven't had a lot of time to interact with each other yet, but I'm sure that'll come. 

The first batter hits a grounder to third and is thrown out easily at first. The next batter up strikes out first before hitting a sharp liner right to our first baseman. Pretty slow outfield inning so far. The third batter up gets two strikes on her before hitting one out towards me. Running up on the ball, I know pretty quickly as it starts to come down that either I'm not going to make it, or I'm going to overshoot it if I don't lay out. The ball pulls slightly foul as I dive for it, laying out to make the catch. Holding my glove up to show I made the play, I push off the ground tossing the ball in. The small crowd gathered to watch today cheers. Damn, that's a really good feeling. 

They have everyone hit through the order, hoping to set up as many different fielding scenarios as they can. Then they run through a second time to try and force different situations. They set up a runner on three, alright, I'm throwing home when it's out to me. Our pitcher gets two strikes on the batter before she takes a hack at one and sends it my way. It's deep as I track it back, hitting the warning track as I catch it. Immediately, I transition and throw home, getting her on the tag. As I'm here now, making these plays against the best players in the country, I don't know how I ever convinced myself I wasn't supposed to be here. 

After the second time through the order, we switch sides and head in to get some at-bats. I'm set in the three spot, alright, I can work with this. Watching our first two batters get their at-bats in, I get ready to take mine before heading up to the plate. Alright, Jailyn, you've got this.