It didn't take long for Ken to switch gears from what had happened earlier. Whenever he was going to pitch, it was as if a fire was lit deep inside of him.
No matter the place, nor the time, he would always be ready to pitch.
"Where have you been?" Coach Wyatt asked, his face showing just how worried he'd been. If they had lost their Ace pitcher, then it would have been disastrous.
"Sorry, I just got lost on my jog." Ken replied apologetically.
"Right… Well, go and join in on the drills. We're up against Elite Squad this game, our hardest match up of the group stage." He said, waving him off.
"Yes sir." Ken replied back, jogging onto the field.
Coach Wyatt let out a sigh, stopping Steve on his way past. "Next time, don't let him go off by himself alright? I want you to never let him out of your sight."
Taken aback from the serious expression of the coach, Steve nodded frantically. He then jogged onto the field, feeling a little weird. 'What am I, a babysitter?' he thought.
After around 20 minutes, the Gladiators were done with their warm ups and headed back to the bench, allowing the Elite squad to begin their warm up.
Ken's eyes lingered on their players, silently evaluating them. From his initial inspection, their fundamentals looked sound, giving him the impression their fielding was tight.
'It might be a low scoring game.' He thought to himself.
Of course he didn't plan on giving any runs up this game when he was pitching. But baseball was never so straight forward.
His eyes happened to move to the crowd, seeing a familiar face staring back at him. The figure flashed him a brilliant smile and waved.
'It's that woman…' Ken's face soured, and he quickly ignored her. There was a good chance that she was here under the guise of watching the Elite Squad, which were from Florida.
While the staff at University of Florida might be brazen enough to try and tempt him with this woman, they wouldn't be so stupid to risk accusations of foul play.
From what he knew, the penalties from the NCAA for contacting an amateur athlete prematurely were quite harsh. The college could receive a ban from recruitment activities in addition to involved staff being reprimanded or even terminated.
No player was worth such a hit to their reputation.
On the other foot, Ken could also face a sanctioning from the NCAA body if he was proven to be complicit in the recruiting. This held the possibility of him losing his eligibility for college altogether.
Just this was enough reason to remove the University of Florida from his consideration.
"You all good man?" Steve asked, seeing the scowl appear on Ken's face.
"Mmm, just thinking about some stuff."
Steve looked at him with wide eyes, "Wait, you're not nervous are you?" he asked with disbelief.
"What? Why the hell would I be nervous?" Ken spat, as if the notion itself was offensive.
"Well, they've got one of the best High School hitters in the country, so I wouldn't be surprised if you had some nerves." He replied matter-of-factly, shrugging his shoulders.
"Who?"
"You don't know?"
Ken gave him a deadpan look, "You think I'd be asking if I knew the answer?"
Feeling his frustration, Steve raised his hands in submission. "Damn dude, it was just a question." He mumbled, wondering why his friend was so testy today.
"Trent Waters, he's that guy over there." Steve said, pointing to one of the players warming up.
Ken moved his gaze, landing upon a figure in the middle of a fielding drill. The guy was a bit taller than average, but he had a wide chest and large shoulders. His square jaw and thick eyebrows made him look heroic rather than handsome.
At a glance, it was obvious that the guy had power.
"I see… Is he as good as Leo though?" Ken asked.
It couldn't be helped that Ken would compare all of the US batters to Leo Cameron. In his baseball career, Leo was the only one that had truly tested him. Even when going all out with his showdown skill, the guy was able to foul off his pitches consistently.
"Huh? What kind of question is that?" Steve asked, staring blankly at his friend.
Ken shrugged, losing some interest. He would soon find out the level of this Trent Waters after the game started.
Soon enough, the toss was made and Elite Squad chose to bat first, sending the Gladiators onto the field. Ken couldn't help but smile as he made his way up to the mound.
Despite developing his batting skills in this life, he much preferred pitching. If he was told to pick one, then he wouldn't even have to think before choosing the latter.
After getting his warm up throws in, he nodded towards the umpire who then gestured for the batter to come up.
"Play ball!"
Ken looked down the lane and waited for the first lead. He wasn't surprised when Steve called a fastball.
With a small grin touching the corner of his lips, Ken got into position and lifted his leg. Pushing off his back leg, he strode forward, sending a whip-like fastball down the lane towards the outstretched catcher's glove.
PAH
The batter didn't even have enough time to register that the ball had beaten him, his eye's wide in shock. He turned to the catcher behind him, as if to confirm that the ball had indeed gotten past him.
"Strike."
The umpires call confirmed it, but that didn't make the information any easier to swallow.
The Elite Squad bench were silent, their expressions grave. They didn't need a speed gun to understand that the ball was fast. Just the sound of the ball hitting the leather of the glove was enough to tell them just how dangerous it was.
Trent's expression turned thoughtful, 'Isn't that the guy who was swinging earlier?'