Clutch Hit Greenliner, Volume 3 Faith O'Shea Published by Faith O'Shea, 2019. This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental. CLUTCH HIT First edition. September 9, 2019. Copyright © 2019 Faith O'Shea. ISBN: 978-1733571265 Written by Faith O'Shea. Also by Faith O'Shea Everyday Goddesses Magic Bean Cafe Once There Was a Tree Tipping the Scales Can't Be Tamed Fire and Ice Consumed by Fire Skoli on Ice Heart on Fire Heart of Ice Tendrils of Ice Rekindling the Fire Greenliner League of Her Own Clutch Hit Out in Left Field Scalera Family Finding Joy Coming Home to You Standalone Thrown for a Curve Table of Contents CLUTCH HIT Copyright Acknowledgments CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN CHAPTER FOURTEEN CHAPTER FIFTEEN CHAPTER SIXTEEN CHAPTER SEVENTEEN CHAPTER EIGHTEEN CHAPTER NINETEEN CHAPTER TWENTY CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE CHAPTER THIRTY CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE EPILOGUE To My Readers About Faith Books by Faith O'Shea Out in Left Field CLUTCH HIT Alicia Nilsson, the Vice President in charge of Player Development for the Boston Greenliners, would do just about anything to see her team win the World Series. And she’d proven it. She had also proven, quite possibly, that she was crazy. But when she bumped into a Cuban player at a bar in Cancun, what else could she do? He was the third baseman she’d been looking for and he came with a strong bat to boot. Mateo Alvarez couldn’t believe his luck, or how far a woman would go to provide for her team’s future. He chalked it up to some pretty strong existential winds, the kind you don’t mess with. At least he wasn’t willing to. Could he convince Alicia that she was the sky he took flight in and his glove and bat might be clutch, but they weren’t the only things she needed? CLUTCH HIT FAITH O’SHEA Copyright Copyright 2019 Sue Campbell/Faith O’Shea All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in all form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known of hereinafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in an information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the author, Sue Campbell writing as Faith O’Shea at [email protected] This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Cover Design by Jaycee DeLorenzo at Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs Formatted by Woven Red Author Services, www.wovenRed.ca Clutch Hit/Sue Campbell writing as Faith O’Shea- 1st edition Copyright eBook: 978-1-7335712-6-5 Copyright Print: 978-1-7335712-7-2 Acknowledgments I’d like to thank my editor, Amy from Blue Otter Editing, for her expertise. She has become a valued partner in my writing life and I don’t know what I’d do without her. Jaycee DeLorenzo form Sweet ̍N Spicy Designs has done it again. I want to thank her for her patience working with me on my covers. I’d also like to thank Joan Frantschuk, from Woven Red, who not only formats my work for eBook and print but who has become a valued resource. And of course, I’d like to say thanks to my family. Jeff, Kait, Juan, Justin, Kathryn, Jaiden, Jakob, Jon-Christopher, Dominic and Liam. They surround me with the kind of love necessary for creating novels that touch the heart. And it might be time to say thank you to my Dad for introducing me to baseball. I’ve watched our home team for over fifty years. There’s been some ups and downs, some highs and lows, but it’s always been summertime entertainment. And to all who read my books, I thank you for taking time out of your life, to journey with me. CHAPTER ONE Alicia Nilsson approached the Calipari Sports Complex, the knot in her stomach tightening with every step. It was the first time in the two years she’d held the job as senior vice-president of Major and Minor League Operations for the Boston Greenliners that she felt this kind of dread. She usually relished the interaction she had with the men she’d drafted, traded for, or farmed in their minor league system. When she’d taken the job, a rise up the front-office ladder that had her as only the fourth woman who’d risen that high in the ranks of Major League Baseball, she couldn’t wait to put her well-defined plan into action. Dan DeLorenzo, her boss and president in charge of Baseball Operations, had given her the green light to create a manual that spelled out exactly what it meant to be a Greenliner. From clubhouse behavior to how to wear the uniform to rules about facial hair, she’d defined what administration expected from their team members. The expectations, no longer ambiguous, were clearly stated and she hadn’t stopped there. She culled the scouts until she had the best, and she gave them quantitative measures for what she wanted from them— specifics on strengths, weaknesses, stats, family, attitude, any and all information they could gather about the person in question. And she insisted each player be treated as if he were a precious investment. Because he was. She’d done her part, objectively evaluating each of their prospects, discussing their skills and talents and what she thought they’d bring to the team with the managers. She’d had individual sit-downs with each of them, wanting to get to know who they were and how they approached life. She challenged the professionals in the big leagues to be better, and she outlined ways they could achieve those goals. What had surprised most of her critics was that they had all listened. What the naysayers had missed in the gender equation was that she was good at her job. She’d been talking baseball since she’d been a toddler at her father’s knee, interned with the team in high school, and when she’d graduated from college with a degree in sports management, she was hired as Dan’s assistant. From that moment on, she’d made a point of learning every player’s name, from every league, minor to major, every stat, where the men came from, how they got where they were,
