About the book
For fifteen-year-old Ethan Morgan, baseball is more than a game — it's where everything makes sense. But during one unpredictable summer in the small town of Ridgeshore, the world around him begins to shift. His family is unravelling, his sister Aubrey is fighting battles no one can see, and his relationship with Lena is pushing him further from the people he's always trusted.
As the Ridgeway Riptides fight toward a state championship, Ethan must navigate unexpected fame, the weight of leadership, and the quiet pull of someone new — Emily, whose steady presence helps him rediscover who he is beneath the pressure.
Torn between loyalty and growth, heartbreak and healing, Ethan realizes the real challenge isn't just what happens between the foul lines — it's what happens when the game ends.
Clutch is a coming-of-age story about grief, grit, and what it means to show up — for your team, your family, and yourself — when everything's on the line.
Inspiration
Clutch began as a story about baseball, but it became something more.
Chris Govero, from the author's note
A story about pressure, identity, grief, hope, and what it means to show up when life tries to pull you apart.
Ridgeshore is not a real town. It was built for these books — a place small enough that everyone sees everything, which is exactly what makes it hard to carry something alone.
The seasons on the page are invented. What sits underneath them is not. These stories come from somewhere close to home, and that is why they are written the way they are — plainly, and without looking away.
What this book deals with
Clutch is written for readers of roughly twelve and up. It deals directly with depression — Ethan's sister Aubrey is fighting something the people around her cannot see — alongside family strain, a parent's sudden health scare, grief, first relationships and their endings, and the particular weight of being the one everybody expects to deliver.
None of it is sensationalised, and none of it is resolved by winning a game. The book carries the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in its back matter. So does this site.
Upcoming works
Some seasons end. Others are just the beginning. Ethan Morgan returns where new teammates, new expectations, and a different game will test everything he thought he knew about success, friendship, and himself.
Details to follow.
