“Safe!”
“Whoa! I can’t believe he made it all the way to third base with that run.”
“Keisuke is fired up”
The Seiko dugout whooped and cheered as the saw the exciting play. They were now in a position to score so early into the innings. All they needed was a pop fly into the outfield and there would be a guaranteed run.
Ken headed up to the batters box, turning his gaze to the Coach and awaiting instructions. Coach Yoshida tapped his left shoulder and tilted his hat, giving the signal for him to do as he pleased.
“Kyaa! Go Ken! Hit a home run for us!”
A group of girls in the stands called out, they were the girls from his school who had approached him earlier in the week to go shopping with. Despite having the mind of an adult, Ken still felt some embarrassment at the extra attention.
Not far away from the girls was Ai sitting with a few of her friends. She was a little more reserved, but she looked cute in her Seiko colors and seemed to be watching intently.
Ken shook his head, trying to remove any distracting thoughts. It was a critical point in the game since they were down by a single run at the top of the 7th.
The pitcher seemed to be annoyed that he had given up a triple, Ken could see it in his body language. That was the problem with teenagers, they often let their emotions guide them in most things.
An idea flashed through Ken’s mind and he quickly glanced at Keisuke on third base, making a small signal with his left hand. Keisuke’s eyes widened in surprise, but he quickly composed himself and nodded.
Seigakuin’s pitcher managed to calm down after a few moments and peeked over at the runner on third base. The pitcher brought his two hands to his chest before throwing an inside ball, just within the strike zone.
Ken picked it the moment the ball left his hand. It was the perfect pitch to limit the distance that a batter could hit into the field. Unfortunately for Seigakuin, he had other plans.
He leaned forward and placed his bat out in one smooth motion, tracking the ball all the way up until it made contact with the bat. Then with practiced ease, he pushed the ball towards first base before sprinting as fast as he could.
“Squeeze!?” Naoki called out in shock as the play unfolded in front of his eyes. He had not expected to see such a tactic being employed, especially since Ken had the capability to hit big.
Seigakuin were caught off guard as both the pitcher and the first baseman went for the ground ball. The pitcher managed to get there first and was about to fire it to home plate when he heard the call from the catcher.
“FIRST!”
He spun around in one motion and threw the ball to first base as fast as he could. However, his face twisted in shock and confusion when he lifted his head and saw that there was no one on there.
Since the ball was hit towards the first base, the pitcher should have been covering the base instead of fielding the ball. So while he may have been the first one to get to the ball, the entire field was in disarray because of it.
Ken took advantage of the mayhem to continue his run past first base and onto second. Only a few seconds later, the ball finally made its way over to the base from the right outfielder.
“Safe.”
Naoki and the other two gentleman were speechless. This was not the sort of tactics that they would have expected from a middle school game at this level.
“Was it the coach’s decision, or was it Ken’s?”
“Surely it couldn’t have purely been that boy’s decision to bunt it.” One of the men commented.
“I’m not sure. But all I can say is that bunt was masterful. It had the perfect strength and distance so as to draw in both the pitcher and 1st base fielder, causing chaos on the field.” Naoki stated, flipping through his notes once again.
“He’s so versatile and has great acceleration between the bases, he would be a huge boost to our batting lineup next season.”
There was silence for a few moments before a sigh broke out.
“It’s just such a shame about his throwing.”
A helpless smile formed on Naoki’s face as he closed the notebook. “I think we’ve seen enough to make some informed decisions.”
The other two stood up and were about to head out of the exit. However, Naoki told them to go ahead as he had something that he wanted to do.
The two agreed and Naoki began looking in the crowd for someone. It wasn’t long until he was able to track him down, considering the foreign features and tall build of the man.
“Chris, Mrs. Takagi.” Naoki bowed.
“Ah, is that Naoki? Nice to see you.” Yuki smiled, she recognized the old colleague of her husbands from many years ago.
“The pleasure is all mine. I wanted to talk about your sons if you have the time.”
Chris held his hand up, telling him to stop. “Daichi is up to bat, let’s wait a moment.”
Naoki nodded and turned around to watch the game once again.
DONG!
A wide smile appeared on his features as he saw the ball sailing into the distance, followed by a loud cheer from the dugout and audience. Naoki felt even more confident in his decision and therefore turned back around to the husband and wife duo.
“I want to offer Daichi a full scholarship to Osaka Toin for next season. I hope you can do your best to convince him to take our offer.” Naoki bowed, waiting for a response.
Yuki’s eyes lit up, however she deferred to her husband in such situations, since he was the head of the family.