Chris finally spotted his wife in the stands and made his way over. Seeing her after so long put a smile on his face, despite the earlier interaction with the High School scouts moments before.
"Sorry I'm late honey." He said, leaning in and kissing her on the cheek.
"All that matters is that you're here now." She replied with a smile.
Yuki could see that her husband had something on his mind when spotting him from afar. His creased brows was one of his telltale signs that he was thinking about something deeply.
"A penny for your thoughts?" She said softly, leaning her head onto him.
Chris was silent for a moment as he looked out onto the field where Seiko were about to bat. Letting out a sigh, he asked her a question.
"Did Ken tell you why he wasn't pitching this season?"
Yuki was a little surprised, however she shook her head in response. "No, he didn't seem to want to tell me. But I said that as long as he was happy and healthy, I wouldn't pry. I was worried he might be embarrassed for getting kicked out of the position."
Hearing this, Chris pulled his wife in and embraced her tightly. This woman had a heart of gold, always worrying about them all while doing her best not to step on their boundaries.
Once again Chris let out a heavy sigh, feeling a bitter taste in his mouth.
"I think Kenny has hurt his shoulder…" he stated.
Yuki almost jumped out of her seat in a panic, "W-What do you mean!?"
"Did you see his throw back to home plate? I've never seen Ken throw like that even since before elementary school. It was as if he was afraid that throwing too hard would cause him pain." Chris replied, seeing the worry on his wifes face.
"We can't let him play if he's injured. You need to do something."
Chris grimaced. He knew how stubborn his son could be, especially when it came to baseball. They would have better luck of winning the lottery than convincing Ken to leave this game, especially since it was the finals.
Now that he thought deeper about it, the decision to move to 1st base was likely because it required the least amount of throwing out of all positions on the field. It was rather likely that Ken had known about his injury for a long time and came up with this solution.
The High School scouts had commented on how good his batting was, so that was a large indicator that Ken had been doing what he could to improve his game.
What kind of parent would he be if he were to trample on all of his sons hard work this year to make it back into the team in a different position. Sure, he was wrong for not telling his parents that he was injured, but seeing his wife's reaction, he could understand Ken's thought process.
Letting out his 3rd sigh in as many minutes, Chris leaned back in the chair and shook his head.
"This is his last game in Middle School. He won't be able to play during the Autumn tournament because of entrance exams. Let's let him play with his brother one last time."
"Huh? One last time?" Yuki was immediately confused, tilting her head in response.
Back on the field, Kouichi was up to bat after both Aki and Shin, the 7th and 8th batters had been struck out. Unfortunately, batting was not his strength and his fate was the same as his two predecessors.
Seiko once again walked onto the field, their faces filled with determination. It was currently the bottom of the 6th innings and they were up against the clean-up batters of Seigakuin.
These were the best batters in the tournament so far and a big reason as to why Seigakuin had managed to make it to the finals. Considering this was their 3rd at-bat, Kouichi was filled with some nerves.
As a rule of thumb, batters tended to hit well in their 3rd at-bat considering they would have had enough time to acclimate to the pitcher. This was especially true in the professional baseball scene.
The third batter for Seigakuin now stood in the batters box, holding his bat out and preparing for the pitch.
Ken leaned forward off his base, preparing for anything that came his way. Since being exposed last innings, he was much more aware of his shortfall.
DONG
The ball flew from the bat and flew over his head. Ken tried his best to reach the ball, however it was just out of his reach, heading towards Shin in the outfield.
Ken spun towards the outfield and held out his glove, awaiting the throw from Shin. Yet the batter managed to make it before the ball landed in his glove.
"Don't mind." Ken said, lobbing the ball back to Kouichi on the mound.
It was a little unfortunate that the batter made it onto base, especially since this next batter was the real headache. Ken had performed Identify on this teen and could tell that he would be hard work to beat.
While his potential was capped at A+, his physical attributes were high. He was also the reason for 2 of the 4 Seigakuin runs on the board, hitting a 2 run home run in his 2nd at-bat.
Daichi too felt some danger when facing this player, however he had confidence in his pitcher. He held his glove right down the middle of the strike zone and called for a two-seam fastball.
Kouichi nodded. As long as he threw this right, the ball would break towards the batter, hopefully jamming his shot and giving an easy catch.
He wound up and threw the ball, yet he could tell from the moment that it left his hand that it was a dud. The ball which was meant to curve inwards, kept its straight trajectory down the middle, causing both Daichi and the clean-up batters eyes to light up.
DONG!