Clutch Hit, Faith O'Shea [read along books TXT] 📗

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 faithworksnovels@gmail.com

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,