Youngjae was stunned as he connected with the ball with the center of his bat. For some reason the ball had felt slow and he was able to smack it with some force.
“Right deep!”
Masayuki yelled out to Ken in the right outfield, but Ken had already started moving before his words came out. He dashed towards the back wall with his eyes locked upon the baseball.
Time seemed to slow down as his mind furiously worked to measure the distance of both the wall in front of him and the approaching ball.
‘It’s going over…’
It only took a second for Ken to understand that the ball was going to be a home run. However, he did not slow his speed at all, tracking it with all of his focus.
“L-Look out!”
Seeing that Ken was still staring at the ball, Masayuki shouted out in panic. If he were to run full force into the wall, the least damage he could expect would be a concussion.
At the last moment, Ken took his eyes off the ball and leaped from the ground, placing his foot upon the wall and kicking upwards, propelling himself into the air.
His neck then snapped towards the ball before he shot his arm into the air. Thanks to his long limbs and added height, he was able to easily reach above the wall.
*DING*
Ken landed on the turf before falling onto his backside, clinging the glove to his body.
Silence pervaded the pitch for a while until Ken stood up and showed the contents of his glove.
“Out!”
“W-WHOA!”
“No way!”
The play was enough to get the 1,000 people in attendance to shout out and cheer, followed by the Japanese fielders.
Masayuki felt his heart blaring in his chest as he witnessed the play. He wondered how someone who had just been moved to the outfield was able to have such a high level of spatial awareness.
Daichi was stunned. The pitch Satoshi sent his way was a meatball with hardly any spin. If it wasn’t for the heroics of his brother robbing the home run, they would have lost a lot of momentum.
“Are you sure your son has never played the outfield before?” Coach Takashi asked, his tone sounding rather suspicious.
“I… I don’t think so?” Chris answered, though the evidence seemed to point otherwise.
“Dude, that was sick.” Masayuki said with a grin.
Meanwhile, Daichi had called a quick time out and headed over to the mound. He was a little worried with how Satoshi had been pitching up to that moment.
“Hey man, are you all good? The last ball was far too easy.”
“Yeah my bad, I lost some grip on that one.” Satoshi answered. He was already rolling the rosin bag around on his hand in order to get his grip sorted.
Daichi frowned a little, especially since he’d heard a similar excuse from Yatsuo only a few weeks ago.
“Are you sure you’re not injured or anything?” He asked.
“Eh?” Satoshi looked at him quizzically before scoffing.
He made a shooing motion at Daichi before ignoring him completely.
‘Ah… Maybe I pissed him off.’
Instead of responding, Daichi did as he was told and went back to home plate. Maybe he was a little harsh with his accusation, after all he was questioning their Ace’s pitching abilities.
As he returned, he saw Satoshi’s gaze had turned even sharper, if that was even possible.
Coach Hyun felt a wave of annoyance flow through him after being denied the home run. It wasn’t often that his team hit big, so to lose such an opportunity definitely did not feel good.
He made a few signs to the next batter Dong, who had already stepped into the batters box. They essentially translated to, stop hitting it to the right outfield.
Dong nodded in response before turning his attention back to the game.
Daichi still felt a little uncomfortable from his earlier interaction with Satoshi, but he quickly composed himself.
‘Let’s waste a few pitches while he warms up more.’ He thought, placing his glove on the outside.
However, the stern looking Satoshi was having none of it. He touched his cap and shook his head, showing that he didn’t like the lead.
Usually, Daichi would be annoyed when pitchers didn’t follow his lead. But this time he made an exception.
‘If it’s another meatball though, I’ll be pissed.” He thought.
Eventually, the two settled on a cutter to the inside, hoping to either jam the batter, or make him hit a grounder.
Satoshi let out a deep breath and performed his wind up, sending the ball whipping from his fingertips.
Daichi’s eyes widened, but a grin soon followed. The ball was spinning wildly and almost looked alive.
Dong’s eyes never left the ball as he tried to track it. He planted his foot and twisted his body before swinging through. Unfortunately for him, the ball broke inside at the last moment, hitting close to the handle.
DING
A jarring sound came over the field. While it was music to Japan’s ears, the South Korean team paled.
The ball shot across the ground towards Aki who was at short stop.
“Thank you very much!” He said with a grin.
With practiced ease, he scooped the ball up and sent an accurate and quick throw to Hiroki’s outstretched glove on 1st base. The batter was easily outpaced as Japan picked up their 3rd out in only 4 pitches.
“3 outs, changeover!”
Thus the score was still 2-0 in favor of Japan after 3 quick outs.
Ken waltzed off the field from his position in the outfield, only to be mobbed by Masayuki who slung his arm over his shoulders.
“Damn man, here I thought I was going to have to carry you in the outfield. Hahaha.”
“Haha…” Ken let out a small laugh, but inwardly he was happy. If Masayuki who had played outfield his whole career said such a thing, then it meant he was doing something right.