Fast Pitch

Fast Pitch is a 2021 middle-grade novel by Nic Stone about Shenice Lockwood, who dreams of leading her softball team to their first championship title while investigating a potential wrong done to her family years ago. Through Shenice’s journey, Stone creates space in middle-grade literature for discussing topics such as racism and the history of people of color in sports, the impact of sports on family legacy, and leadership. She does this while making these significant social topics accessible to the younger audience.

Citations in this guide refer to the 2021 Crown Books hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The source text discusses themes surrounding racism and sexism in sports, including intimidation. Additionally, the source text uses outdated and offensive terms for Black people throughout, which is replicated in this guide only in direct quotes of the source material.

Plot Summary

Shenice Lockwood is the newly elected captain of the Firebirds—the first all-Black girls’ team in the Dixie Youth Softball Association in Fulton, Georgia. In Shenice’s first game as captain, her team loses when her focus wavers for a few minutes. Though her team does not blame her, Shenice feels that she let herself and her team down.

Her father knows that she is disappointed, so he takes her upstairs—despite his knee injury—and shows her the shrine Shenice’s grandfather kept of his father’s, JonJon Lockwood’s, baseball career. He opens the trunk—a trunk she convinced herself did not exist—and hands her JonJon’s catcher’s mitt. Though she cannot use it because it does not fit her, her father reminds her that baseball is in her blood. While her father shows her the glove, she notices a small, brown journal in the trunk; she does not have time to look at it more closely yet.

Because she could not investigate the journal, it is the only thing she can think about the following day. She becomes distracted during the school day and into the game, which will determine whether her team can participate in the section tournament; though Shenice does not have her head in the game, her team pulls through and wins. Her father praises her over dinner and gives her his high school championship ring; though she feels undeserving, it makes her want to focus on the game again.

Her focus only lasts briefly, because her mother picks her up from softball practice and takes her to a retirement home to meet her great-uncle, Jack. As Shenice talks to him, Jack reveals that JonJon lost his career unfairly after being falsely accused of stealing a baseball glove. While Shenice’s mom takes a phone call, Jack tells Shenice about JonJon’s rise through the Negro Southern League and the recruiters who wanted to bring him into the Major Leagues. Jack starts to reveal that JonJon went to a recruitment dinner where everything changed, but Jack cannot finish the story before Shenice’s mom returns.

Knowing only part of the story, Shenice wants to uncover the rest. The internet contains no leads, so she must talk to Uncle Jack again. Before she can, she must make it through another softball game—she does not play well, dropping balls and missing easy throws. When she arrives home, her best friend, Scoob, asks if she is okay; she tells him everything. When she later visits Jack, he tells her the rest of the story: JonJon got lost on his way to the bathroom and entered a room with valuables. A Minor League player, Jacob Carlyle, saw him enter the room and accused him of stealing a glove that Carlyle in fact stole himself. Though JonJon lost his career, the other player also lost his, having never gained the renown he thought he deserved for possessing the glove.

When the Firebirds arrive at their next game, they are surrounded by vehicles waving the Confederate flag. Coach and Shenice give pep talks to focus the girls on their game, which they win; some spectators surprise the girls by being complimentary and kind toward them despite the flag they display. The following day, two boys heckle the girls at practice, but they are shown up when they try to hit three balls the girls pitch and cannot hit a single one. After their next game, Shenice’s dad drives her home instead of letting her ride with her teammates; they receive news that Jack is dying.

A nurse gives Shenice a note from Jack sharing the address where he hid the recovered Carlyle belongings; she can only find it once she gets more information from her father about the street name, which has changed. She investigates the house, but before entering, she passes out as a dog charges at her. The dog stands guard over her while her dad finds her and takes her to the hospital. Her teammates are worried and want to know why she was at the house instead of at practice. She explains what she knows, and the team volunteers to help. While exploring the home using a robot, they lose the robot and their chance to find Carlyle’s belongings. The team’s morale is low, and they have their worst practice ever.

Though they do not know how long Jack has to live, Shenice convinces her mom to take her to practice rather than visit him. Shenice uses the time to enter JonJon and Jack’s home to recover the robot and Carlyle’s belongings. She succeeds in her mission, and the story hits the press—allowing JonJon’s story to be published online and prompting Carlyle’s granddaughter to make a significant donation to the Firebirds on her family’s behalf. Though the Firebirds lose their championship match, they proudly come together and prepare to improve for the next season.