Supercharged Infield by Matt Christopher Page B

saw him sitting there among his buddies, cheering for his sister.
    The first pitch came in, and Karen
did
sock it out. The ball sailed over the center-field fence for a whopping home run.

    Penny hardly noticed the team leaping out of the dugout, pushing past her, and going to the plate to congratulate Karen. She
     was too stunned by the magnitude of that home run. Karen wasn’t a very strong girl. Where had she gotten all that power?
    “It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?” a low, drawling voice said beside her.
    Penny turned and saw Harold Dempsey, the team’s scorekeeper, smiling at her.
    “It sure is,” Penny answered, then snapped out of her confusion and went to offer Karen her congratulations, too.

TWO
    K AREN ’ S TWO-RUN HOMER put the Hawks ahead of the Owls by three runs, 7 to 4. But the Owls rallied during their turn at bat and tied the score.
    In spite of the Owls’ rally, however, Penny was sure that other members of the Hawks team, especially Coach Parker, must have
     noticed how well Shari and Karen were shining at bat and in the infield. Shari was catching Mary Ann’s pitches and returning
     them as if she’d been born behind the plate. And she had already knocked out a home run. Everyone could see that Karen was
     playing far above her normal ability, too. Those hitsshe had banged out were not accidental. They were solidly hit.
    “If the rest of us played half as well as Shari and Karen, we should win this game. And, boy, do we need another win!” exclaimed
     Faye Marsh, swinging a bat in the on-deck circle.
    Penny, standing at the side of the dugout, took her gaze away from the leadoff batter, Mary Ann, and looked at her red-haired
     friend. “The way Shari and Karen are playing, we might not have to play half as well,” she said soberly.
    “Right,” Faye agreed. She stopped swinging her bat for a minute to rub her nose. “Remember the game against the Gray Wings?
     Shari got a homer and a couple of singles in that. Now she’s already got a homer in this game. Where did she get all that
     energy, anyway?”
    “Good question,” answered Penny. “And she
was
hitting pretty lousy in the games before that, wasn’t she?”
    “Lousy is right,” said Faye.
    Penny sighed. “I don’t know,” she said, turning her attention back to Mary Ann. “She and Karen are doing something right,
     that’s for sure.”
    The words had barely left her mouth, when Mary Ann swung at a high pitch and slammed it to shallow center field. Pauline Case
     ran in about a half a dozen steps, reached down, and caught it.
    “Tough luck, Mary Ann,” Penny cried. “Okay, Faye. Get a hit.”
    Faye did: a sharp double to deep left center field. Penny smiled, then watched as Melanie strode to the plate, carrying a
     bat across her right shoulder.
    Short, blond, and just slightly chubby, Melanie stood in the batting box, took a called ball and a strike, then cracked a
     sharp grounder to deep short. The shortstop fielded it perfectly and winged it to first, but Melanie beat the throw by half
     a step.
    “Way to go, Mel!” Penny yelled, leaping out of the dugout and clapping so hard her palms stung. It was Melanie’s first hit
     of the game.
    Then Shari came up, and Penny sat down and watched her, wondering what Shari would do now. The plump, dark-haired Chinese
     girl leaned into the first pitch and drilled it into deep left center field. Two runs scored, and Shari stood on second base
     for a double. Penny stared at her, wondering if there wassome kind of hex mixed up in this. She didn’t believe in that sort of thing, but there
was
something fishy going on with Shari and Karen. Of that she was sure.
    Gloria smashed a hard grounder down to first base, which Josie Slade, the Owls first baseman, scooped up and dashed to first
     for the putout.
    “Third! Third!” a cry rang out from the Owls dugout. But by the time Josie turned and brought her arm back to throw to third
     base, Shari was already there. Penny,