Will Livingston and his best friend, Sugarbread, aren't about to let the paucities of war deprive them of the adventures of childhood. The Pinch Hitters chronicles one South Carolina family facing the flight of young adults in their call to wartime duty after Pearl Harbor in 1944. When the enlistment of the four military-age siblings leaves their farm in the hands of Granny Jack, the widowed owner, she soldiers on with the help of the resident sharecropping family, an elderly neighbor, and a German prisoner of war farm laborer. With a child's pragmatism, Will navigates the challenges and joys that arise from planting season. Will's observations of those who "came to bat" for the young men who left the farm to fight in World War II is an education in integrity and courage, with a love of baseball at its metaphorical core.