Something is different, though.
Kara Nilan, the Taconic High softball standout who has garnered awards, headlines and sparkling statistics during her four years with the Braves, is digging in at the plate, and she's nervous.
The pitcher delivers a high, hard fastball, and Nilan takes a monstrous cut.
She misses - badly. Looks overmatched. Wasn't even close to making contact.
Nilan, a senior who batted .403 this past season with 16 runs batted in, isn't used to being shown up by pitchers. But her opponent isn't just any pitcher.
Brian Pedrotti, the Wahconah Regional senior who threw that fastball, just smiles. It isn't often that he gets to take down a superstar.
In 20 minutes, however, the tables will turn in this just-for-fun matchup arranged by The Eagle to showcase its Most Valuable Players from the spring high school sports season.
For the fourth straight year, Nilan, a right-hander who went 20-1 as a pitcher, with a 0.10 earned-run average, is the county's All-Eagle MVP in softball, as selected by the newspaper with input from league coaches.
Pedrotti, who finished 10-0 as a starter, earned five saves as a reliever, and had a 1.32 ERA, is this year's All-Eagle MVP in baseball.
The right-hander, who throws a fastball in the mid-80s,
Although Pedrotti was the No. 2 hitter in the Warriors' lineup - batting .284 with two homers and nine RBI -he is a pitcher first, as is Nilan.
But here at Pine Grove, résumés don't matter. The accolades, the all-star selections and the statistics are in the history books. The MVPs are seeing firsthand why each earned the title of MVP in 2007.
It begins with Pedrotti on the mound. The rules are set: Each player gets two outs, with Nilan hitting baseballs and Pedrotti hitting softballs. The Wahconah ace made quick work of Nilan, striking her out twice on a total of six pitches.
"The only thing I have to say is I never have faced a baseball pitcher before, so this might be true of every baseball pitcher,"
Nilan said. "But I was way behind; I was swinging at stuff that wasn't even remotely over the plate.
"He's very good; I was very impressed. Now I know why a lot of the Taconic kids struck out against him. I can't laugh at them anymore."
(It should be noted that Nilan did get pieces of several Pedrotti warm-up pitches.)
Pedrotti had some success when the pair went to the softball diamond.
After displaying the same wide-eyed look of terror that Nilan had before her at-bat, Pedrotti went down on four pitches in at-bat No. 1, ending with a dribbler to Nilan.
Pedrotti switched over to hit left-handed for the next at-bat and quickly slapped a sharp ground ball to the empty space at shortstop. If Taconic's Amy Giardina had been there, it likely would have been out No. 2.
One more at-bat settled the day. Nilan first came in hard at Pedrotti, sending him skittering out of the way. Pedrotti ran the count full, but Nilan struck him out with a rise ball.
"For one thing, she throws really hard," Pedrotti said. "You can't read the pitches coming out of her hand. Everything looks the same; her release is the same every time. Sometimes the ball will rise on you, and sometimes it'll drop. It was really tough."
The catchers weigh in Digging in against Pedrotti and Nilan is no easy task; catchers Jackie Candelet of Taconic and Dan Vreeland of Wahconah had season-long, front-row seats for a master class in pitching.
Pedrotti and Nilan, who will play collegiately at Division III schools UMass-Dartmouth and Bowdoin, respectively, received high marks for being experts in the mental game.
"That's all it is - a thinking game," Vreeland said. "You've just got to figure out what the hitter doesn't think he's going to see. It's a big plus with [Pedrotti], because he mixes in a knuckleball, three different kinds of change-ups, and [two different] fastballs."
Nilan's arsenal, much like Pedrotti's, has as much to do with illusion and guile as power. Both pitchers have effective fastballs, but rely on movement to keep hitters on their heels.
The scouting report from Candelet has Nilan throwing six pitches: the rise ball, a curve, a change-up, a drop ball, a fastball, and an occasional screwball to torture left-handed hitters.
Pedrotti, who decided to become a pitcher at age 11, after watching Roger Clemens on television, built a makeshift but regulation-sized mound in his parents' basement, working on everything that has made him what he is.
Throwing against the basement wall was loud but valuable.
"Oh yeah, it made a ton of noise," Pedrotti said. "And there were poles down there, so it'd come off the wall and hit those. I think they're glad I did that now."
It's hard to keep up with Nilan when she starts talking strategy.
Quiet but confident, she becomes a rapid-fire pitching philosopher at the mere thought of how to attack a batter.
"A lot of it is the mind game," she said, about to rev up for speed-of-light analysis. "The first pitch isn't so much mind game. I'll try to see what they're capable of doing. I'll throw them a high inside rise to see if they can get around on it, and if they foul it off or something, I know I'll have to go outside or with a change-up.
After the first pitch it is a mind game, just seeing if you can set them up for what you need to do."
She finishes with a smile and a shoulder shrug, as if to say, "It's just that simple."
But for most hitters, it never is.
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