Capital Stadium, Hapilopper City
World Baseball Classic 49 Series 2: Hapilopper v. Ihilthracna
Over the course of three games, the Hapilopper National Baseball Team probably did more to restore the public’s confidence in their national team, their favorite ballplayers, than anything could have. In front of 63,000 rabid fans every night, the Haps delivered on the expectation that this team wasn’t screwing around this time. The team wasn’t the kind of team that were relying on stupidity and egos like it had in years past. This was a team that more resembled the team from the 46th Classic, a team that made the playoffs in its first year out.
Sure, the team from Ihilthracna pulled out to an early lead in the first two games. But the Hapilopper National Baseball Team was a team hell-bent on turning that around. In the first game, shrewd pitching (and the right substances) from starting pitcher Vic Foster kept that lead to just 2-0. There had been some controversy over his use of foreign substances to doctor the ball, but Vic wasn’t having anything of it, and at the end of the first inning, went from fat shortening to a peanut butter and petroleum jelly cocktail, and as a result, his pitches spun the way he wanted them to, and dropped exactly where he was hoping.
The change of substances bought the Haps plenty of time. Sure, they were getting runners on base, but they weren’t able to plate any of them. That changed in the fourth inning, when Dayton Rowe pulled off a ballsy move in the bottom of the fourth when Leroy Hunnisett was up with two outs. It was foreshadowed when Dayton, taking a lead off third base, started screaming at the pitcher, daring him to pick him off.
The screaming was so intense, Leroy looked back towards third base to see Dayton hollering obscenities at the Ilthracnelik pitcher. Realizing what he was doing, Leroy nodded his head and set in for what he thought would be a pitch. It was a pitch that never came. The Ilthracnelik pitcher called Dayton’s bluff and started to pick him off. Unfortunately, Dayton was halfway to home plate by then, and the Ilthracnelik pitcher threw to his battery mate, but it was too late. Dayton had slid into home, and Hapilopper was on the board.
Dayton, strutting back to the home dugout, started shouting at his teammates, daring them to top that performance. There was more than a little bit of enthusiasm in the Hapiloppian dugout, as well all over Capital Stadium, and that enthusiasm stretched to the next inning, when Vic Foster – the pitcher! – got the pitch he wanted from the Ilthracnelik pitcher, and sent it into the first deck in left field.
The Hapiloppian fans were delirious. The fans out in the outfield seats threw their cups of beer and soda into the air, and streamers flew like crazy onto the field. But it was quite unexpected. Many Hapiloppians had taken bets on who would be the first to homer in Capital Stadium during the World Baseball Classic. Popular bets had been for Jerome Hayden, Leroy Hunnisett, Levi Berry and Terry Blanchard, but very few – if any – had picked a pitcher.
The Haps won that game 4-3, the other run coming from a towering third deck shot from Jerome Hayden – a blast that Jerome looked up at, stopped, flashed a massive smile, and flipped his bat before going on his home run trot. It only set the scene for a magnificent three-game series that saw the Haps grow even wilder and rowdier, and their fans louder and louder.
In the second game, another rally got going from a ballsy Hapiloppian play. It happened when Terry Blanchard blasted past the stop sign from third base coach Chad Walter and roared straight at the Ilthracnelik catcher. Some fans swore they heard Terry screaming at the catcher en route to trucking him at home plate. The ball flew out of the catcher’s hands, and Terry was safe.
Two more runs were plated in that inning, on the strength of a two-run home run from Levi Berry, bringing Campbell Braxton home. The Haps won that game 6-5, with the other two runs coming from a Dayton Rowe triple, that were it not for shrewd fielding from the left fielder (and Dayton running past Chad Walter’s stop sign at third base), would have been an inside-the-park home run.
Game three was different. There wasn’t much in the way of ballsy baserunning and beautiful hitting. What the Hapiloppians got to see, however, was one of the best performances from Charlton Forest in some time. On a night where many of the 63,000 on hand at Capital Stadium were enjoying some of his own beer from Fastball Brews in Kingsland, Charlton had a gem of a night, allowing just two runs while ringing up sixteen strikeouts in a complete game win, a 3-2 victory.
The Hapiloppians were in ecstasy. Their national team had swept their opponents from Ihilthracna and were very easily in second place, behind the all-powerful team from Nova Anglicana, with only run differential being the difference between the two. More importantly, the team felt like they had momentum. They felt they were firing on all cylinders, and whatever issues that had been going on between certain players appeared to be behind them.
That sense of unity, that sense of comradery was needed now more than ever, for a very tall order awaited them in the form of the Lions from Nova Anglicana. The Haps were going to have to be on the top of their game if they were going to take down the Lions, and in Archbishop Stadium, where the Haps expected to be filled with 35,000 Nova Anglicans cheering on their favorites.
But if anyone could take the Nova Anglicans down, it had to be the Haps. This was the best the HNBT had been in a very long time.
