“Wow, that was easy.” He commented, sending Steve an appreciative glance.
“Heh, what can I say. I’m kind of a savant when it comes to hitting.” Steve replied with a mischievous grin.
“So why are you only the 6th batter?” Ken replied dully.
Steve’s smile froze on his face, not knowing how to respond. In actuality, he had been so bad at hitting that he had to receive one on one lessons for over a year before he improved.
He had repeated what one of the coaches had taught him back then when he also suffered from not being able to keep his balance.
“Ahem… Well, I’m going to watch the rest of the game. Don’t be too long.” He said, quickly leaving the vicinity before his pride was wounded any more.
Ken let out a smile, “Thanks man.” He called out after him, receiving a wave in response.
Now being left alone, he felt a bit better.
‘Hey Mika, sorry you got interrupted there.’
[It’s fine. He was mostly right, user is overcompensating for the weight of the bat.]
Ken let out a sigh of relief, though part of him was still a little spooked. While the system had been upgrading, Ken’s pitching mechanics had subconsciously changed without his knowledge.
Hearing about his batting form being affected just from the weight change of the bat gave him PTSD. If it wasn’t for Steve and Mika, there was a chance that he would have embarrassed himself in this tournament.
‘Thanks Mika. Can you let me know if I do anything wrong?’
[Affirmative.]
With that, Ken took up the bat once more and began to complete more and more swings in the clearing. Every time the bat swung through the air, a devastating noise could be heard from afar.
A little while later, some figures appeared, wearing red and white baseball uniforms. They were making their way from the field after having just finished a match.
The stone-faced batter who had hit a home run in the previous match was at the front, his expression unreadable. His dark brown eyes scanned the parking lot, only for his ears to perk up a moment later.
He paused, looking around with interest. Only after walking closer did he finally find the source of the noise. His eyes narrowed as he saw a tall figure swinging a bat by himself in a clearing.
Despite being almost 100 yards away, he could still hear the crisp noise of the bat flying through the air.
“Who is that?” He muttered, feeling a sense of curiosity blossom from within.
“Trent, you comin’?”
The stone-faced teen took one last look at the figure before turning around and joining the rest of his team. “I guess I’ll find out soon.” He muttered, a small smile finally breaching his cold mask.
“Ken! The game is starting soon.” Steve yelled out, jogging towards his friend.
Trent’s ears perked up but he didn’t turn around, merely committing the name to his memory.
Unaware that anyone had taken notice of him, Ken wiped the sweat from his face and turned to see Steve jogging over.
“Hasn’t it only been 30 or 40 minutes?” He asked. From what he knew, the game wasn’t meant to start for at least another 30 minutes.
A pained smile appeared on Steve’s face, “The game ended at the bottom of the 6th because of the mercy rule. Elite Squad got another 3 individual home runs…”
Ken’s eyes widened. The fact that 3 players were able to get home runs meant that the Elite Squad’s batting lineup was stacked. However, instead of giving him a sense of foreboding, his excitement bubbled to the surface.
‘Elite Squad huh? I can’t wait.’ He thought inwardly, a dark smile forming on his face.
Seeing the smile on Ken’s face, Steve shuddered. Whenever he saw this smile, it was usually followed by something bad happening, generally when it came to training.
However, Steve inwardly told himself that the smile was not meant for him. Or at least, he prayed that it was not.
The two made their way back to the field, only to see Coach Wyatt and their teammates already on the field warming up. They quickly joined in, not wanting to miss out.
Ken muscles were already warmed up from swinging the bat for the past 30 minutes, so he only did a light exercise to keep himself warm.
“How did you go?” Coach Wyatt asked, his face betraying his nervousness.
“Mmm, I think I made some progress.” Ken stated rather confidently.
The coach had no reason to not believe him, so he breathed out a sigh of relief. There would be many people watching this tournament, he needed to make sure the team had a good showing.
“Okay good. Are you fine to bat 3rd as usual?”
“Sure, no problem.” Ken replied nonchalantly.
“Alright. We’re going to start Brett for the first few innings today, but you’ll come on soon okay?”
Ken shrugged, “Sure coach, no worries.”
There was no doubt that Ken would get his chance to pitch at this tournament, so he didn’t mind switching it up every now and then. As long as he could pitch the full game against Elite Squad, he didn’t care too much.
The team continued to warm up before being called over by the umpire. Max and a player from the other team walked up to participate in the coin toss.
“Heads, Gladiators choose.” He stated, pointing to Max.
“We’ll field first.” Max said confidently.
“Gladiators have won the toss and have chosen to field first!”
With that, everyone returned to the bench and grabbed their things. Ken placed his hat and glove on, heading over to the outfield. The coach had made the decision a few days prior when he had revealed his prior experience from the World Cup.
It was clear that the coach wanted to keep Ken in the batting line up, while also giving him a break from the mound. The fact he could play in the outfield was perfect for this.
Relegated to the outfield once again. RIP
Mass release: 8/14
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