CRAAAACK~
Ken felt the bat almost disintegrate in his hands as he swung with full power. A shard of wood kicked up, grazing him on the side of the face and causing a sharp pain.
He ignored it, searching for the ball.
Somehow, the ball had rocketed into left field with force despite the breaking of the bat. Ken wasn't sure how far it would go and his right eye was watering from taking the blow from the wood shard.
He quickly threw aside the mangled remains of his bat and sped towards 1st base.
As he approached, his eyes moved towards the ball, trying to see where it was, only to see it clear both the fence and the outstretched arm of the outfielder.
Instantly, his body relaxed and he couldn't help but let out a grin. He slowed his run into a jog and idled his way towards 2nd base. It was there that he saw the barrel of his bat on the field, a few feet away from the pitcher.
Ken quickly glanced at the pitcher, only to see him gawking at Ken as if he was some kind of freak. Thankfully the guy didn't appear to have been hit by the debris, though he looked rattled.
Elsewhere on the field, Coach Brown's jaw was wide open. While it was true that the outfield was shorter in this stadium, that didn't make the home run any less spectacular.
He had never seen anyone get a home run with a broken bat before, at least in person. It took a tremendous amount of precision and power to pull of such a feat, something that one would not expect from a freshman of all people.
Even the home crowd for Stetson University were stumped. A round of applause broke out, though it was late since everyone had to recover from the shock of the play.
"I—It's a home run into left field by number 13… Ken Takagi."
The announcer was also slow to react, stammering his words when he finally made the announcement.
Ken arrived at home plate with both Ayden and Tristan waiting for him with jovial expressions.
"Hot damn Ken! I've never seen such a hit like that before." Ayden cried out jumping up to smack the guy on top of the helmet. There was no other way that he could reach otherwise.
In fact, both Tristan and Ayden were of similar heights. Next to Ken who was almost a foot taller, it looked rather ridiculous.
Tristan on the other hand shot him a dazzling grin, exposing his pearly white teeth. Instead of saying a word of praise, he wound up and smacked Ken on the behind, causing Ken to almost let out a yelp.
Out of reflex, Ken lifted his elbow and performed a strike to the top of the guy's helmet, almost knocking the guy out from the force.
Ayden caught Tristan's wobbly figure and held him up. The guy didn't seem too worried, still wearing the same grin as before.
The trio made their way back to the dugout, only for Coach Brown to flag Ken down. "You crazy bastard! Where did you learn to hit like that?"
This was the first time he'd seen the coach so animated, but it brought a smile to his face. He didn't really know how to reply, but before he had a chance, the coach's expression changed.
"Go get that cut of yours checked out." He said, pointing to the side of Ken's face.
"Yes sir."
With that, Ken headed over to the dugout and received a lot of attention from his teammates. The whole team was buzzing after seeing such a rare display of strength and precision, especially from a freshman.
"Dude that was so cool!" Steve was practically jumping for joy as Ken returned. "How the hell did you still manage to send it over the fence after breaking the bat?"
Ken shrugged, "Just got lucky I guess." He responded casually.
"Yeah right… Well, I managed to record it and sent it to Tara already."
"Eh? Why were you recording?"
"Tara asked me to try and get some good footage." Steve replied simply, however his tone was a little odd. Ken felt like there was something that his friend wasn't telling him, but he suddenly remembered the coach's words.
He moved towards the back of the dugout and consulted with one of the medical staff who took a look at his cut. It was shallow and wouldn't require stitches, but it was close enough to his eye to seem dangerous.
"There's a few fragments of wood in there, I'll need to remove them." The woman said.
"Um… Would you mind taking a seat." She asked, her shoulders sore after having to reach his height.
"Oh, sure."
The wound was expertly attended to by the medical staff and promptly covered with a plaster. The woman asked Ken a series of questions and took him through some tests to determine whether he was fit to continue the game.
After getting the nod of approval, the staff went and notified that coach that he was in the clear.
Once free, Ken stood alongside Steve and watched the game from the dugout. With his earlier home run, they had taken a 3 run lead and it was only the first inning. Starts like this was something that every coach dreamed about.
DJ managed to continue the momentum, getting a hit into the outfield and securing his position on 2nd base. By the end of the inning, Columbia had 5 runs before Stetson was able to secure 3 outs.
Ken made his way out to the field, sporting his new plaster. Since this was their first time defending in the game, the announcer called out the names of all the starting players with little enthusiasm.
Ken received some cheers when his name was called, likely because of his amazing play 10 minutes earlier. Even now there seemed to be a buzz in the stadium, despite him being from the opposing team.