Despite Kouichi's wild pitches towards the end of the game, Seiko were able to come out with the win against Yamate Gakuin with a final score of 10 to 3. Imai came in for the last 2 innings and was able to shut out the competition, giving up no runs.
It was not as evident during their past 2 games thanks to invoking the mercy rule, but Kouichi was burning out by the end of the game. Now that Coach Yoshida had drawn his attention to it, Ken could see his performance waning in the latter innings.
As the team was heading onto the bus to head back home, Ken pulled Kouichi aside and had a chat to him.
"Hey man, nice work today." He said with a smile.
Kouichi seemed a little out of it, but he still replied with his thanks. He currently had an ice pack on his right shoulder, something that helped with recovery after pitching in a game.
"Are you feeling any pain or fatigue in your shoulder when you throw?" Ken asked in a low voice, ensuring that no one would be able to pick up on their conversation.
Kouichi's eyes widened in shock, staring at Ken as if he had two heads.
"H-How did you know?"
Ken's features softened, "I know more than you think about hiding such things." He responded wistfully.
Kouichi looked extremely nervous and pleaded with Ken to not tell the coach what was going on. He had finally gotten an opportunity to showcase his abilities, even being moved up to the Ace position.
If the Coach were to find out, he would no doubt get moved to the bench in a heartbeat.
"Don't worry, the Coach asked me to help you out which means he has an idea of what's going on."
"Really?" This was the biggest shock to Kouichi. He had only begun feeling discomfort towards the end of the first game, yet the coach had already noticed.
"Yeah, so don't stress too much." Ken replied with a smile, putting the teenager at ease a little.
"It's Saturday tomorrow are you free? If so let's meet up at the school fields around 8am. What do you say?"
Kouichi pondered for a while before eventually nodding. The fact that the coach had sent Ken who was the previous Ace of the team in order to help him out spoke volumes. Not only did it highlight the trust the Coach had in Ken, but also in Kouichi himself.
"Great, I'll meet you there with Daichi." Ken gave a thumbs up before getting onto the bus and finding a seat next to his brother.
The group traveled home in high spirits after securing the win and moving onto the Kanto prefecture tournament. This was the final tournament for the 3rd years, as they would be too busy taking entrance exams for high schools to compete in the fall tournament.
Ken and Daichi arrived home to see their father waiting in the dining room. He had returned from the states this morning but was suffering from jet lag so he went straight to sleep.
"Dad! Welcome home." Both Ken and Daichi called out, receiving a smile in return.
"Well? How did the game go?" Chris asked, seemingly more interested in their baseball results than themselves.
"Hehe, we've got the nations number 1 catcher on the squad. How do you think it went?" Ken said proudly, draping his arm over Daichi's shoulders. Despite how long his arms were, he still found it difficult to reach the width of his brothers shoulders.
"We won 10 runs to 3." Daichi said simply, even though he was inwardly pleased about Ken's comments.
"Did you hear that honey? Our boys have made it through to the Kanto tournament! Hahaha." Chris tilted his head back and laughed, shouting out to his wife who was only a few feet away in the kitchen.
"Yes yes I heard. Congratulations you two." She chuckled.
"So did either of you hit a home run?" Chris asked enthusiastically.
"Ah, well… I didn't actually get to play." Ken said a little awkwardly, yet his tone changed in the next moment. "Daichi also didn't get a home run, but he got 2 triples and 3 doubles!"
Chris raised an eyebrow, yet he didn't comment on the first part so as not to rub salt in any wounds. "Nice work Daichi!" He said with a thumbs up.
"Oh I almost forgot. Are you free tomorrow Dad?" Ken asked.
"Yup! I've got the next 5 days off. Why, what's up?"
"It's about our pitcher Kouichi. Would you mind helping him out with his form and recovery regime?"
"Oh? You mean the same ones that you refused to do for the past few years?" Chris said, causing Ken to feel attacked. Yet he could only smile wryly in response.
If he had have listened to his father, he could have probably avoided the mistakes he made in his previous life altogether.
"Yes that one…" He said shamelessly. "Since I've refused to pitch this season, the Coach asked if I could mentor Kouichi. But I'd say that getting training from you would be much better than that."
A small bit of flattery at the end of his words seemed to work wonders. Chris who had been giving him a condescending look suddenly brightened and began to laugh heartily.
"Hahaha, yeah I think you're right. After all, I used to be a professional trainer." He said with a dumb smile.
Yuki who was busy cooking, could only shake her head as Ken expertly manipulated her husband into training his friend. That was the problem with Chris, he was too unguarded against simple flattery.
Daichi seemed to be taken aback from the whole thing. As the catcher on the team, he was the most aware of the wild pitches that Kouichi had been throwing, but he never knew that the Coach had asked Ken to help mentor him.
He gained another layer of respect for Ken who had selflessly agreed given the circumstances.