The next morning, Ken woke up at 5am as usual after a restful sleep. He woke up Steve and the two went for their morning run. With the weather a much more acceptable temperature, they made the most of it and ran outside.
Having run with Ken in multiple different locations, Steve had already mapped everything out and explained it to his friend prior. With this, the two did not get lost this time and returned to the hotel around 90 minutes later.
After a shower, the two joined some of the other teammates for breakfast.
"Did you see your home run on Sports Center last night?" Ayden said, sending a grin to Ken.
"Eh? They showed that?" Ken was a little surprised. This would be the first time he'd appeared on National Television.
Kaden pulled out his phone which was conveniently already on the video and showed Ken who watched the whole thing.
There was some color commentary and he had to admit that the play looked awesome from the angle in the crowd. He could see that the top end of the bat had narrowly missed the pitcher, much closer than he had initially thought.
"That's pretty cool." Ken stated, turning his attention back to his breakfast.
"Yeah, the University also made some social media posts and tagged you in it. I bet your notifications are going off like crazy right now." Kaden replied with a grin.
"Oh, I don't really go on social media."
"Really? How the hell did you hit 150k followers then?" This time it was Ayden who was gawking at him, clearly jealous.
"I've got someone who manages it all for me so I can focus on baseball."
Ayden sighed, "You already sound like a professional… Just like Ryan."
Ken's ears perked up, hearing a name he hadn't heard in quite a while. "You speak to Ryan still?"
He had completely forgotten that Ayden and Ryan were on the same U18 US team a few years back, so it would make sense if they kept in touch.
"Yeah, he's signed with the Miami Blue Marlins a few hours south of here."
Ken was shocked upon hearing this. In his previous life, Ryan did not play for the Blue Marlins, which begged the question, what had happened to him?
"He didn't go to College?" Ken asked, seeming far more interested than he liked to admit.
Ayden shrugged, "I heard he was going to Kansas State, but then he disappeared for a while. The next thing he told me was that he was playing in the minor league. But he's set to debut for the Blue Marlins this season."
Hearing that his rival was about to make his Major League debut while he was just starting his college career made Ken feel restless. However, he quickly calmed down after realizing that he needed patience.
The reason why he chose college was not only for Ai, but also to get an education. Not to mention that he would have missed out on potential rewards from the system missions that came with the college season.
Still, there was a burning desire to join him on the main stage, something that he couldn't resist even if he wanted to. Without knowing it, he'd already pumped himself up for today's game.
Just when everyone had almost finished breakfast, Clinton arrived downstairs, walking gingerly. He saw the group and waddled over before taking a seat and letting out a discomforted grunt.
"Morning guys."
"Hey man, you doing okay?"
However Clinton shook his head, "I've been ruled out for 4 weeks. Maybe I shouldn't have gone for that steal…" He said, letting out a hollow chuckle.
Steve froze, almost spilling the cereal contained in his spoon. He felt Clinton's gaze resting on him.
"Looks like you're up freshman. Don't let us down."
"A—Ah, I won't!" Steve felt bad, but he couldn't hide the smile pulling at the corner of his lips. If Clinton hadn't gotten injured, there was no way that he would have been able to play even a minute in today's game.
As if to back up this claim, it was addressed in the meeting later that day.
"Clinton is out for at least a few weeks, so we'll need others to step up. Steve, even though you're a freshman, you've shown some good promise in training. I'm moving you up to the starting line up."
Coach Brown wasted no time and called out Steve who enthusiastically responded. Ken could feel that the guy was excited, but then again, so was he.
Apart from Daichi, Steve was the catcher who knew him the best. With him making his debut the same time Ken was taking the mound for the first time, it almost felt like fate.
Upon thinking this, Ken suddenly grew suspicious.
'This isn't the doing of the system is it?' He thought inwardly.
He didn't ask Mika because he wouldn't trust what she responded with. Or perhaps he didn't really want to know the answer, since that would bring everything else into question.
Either way, he decided to ignore it for now. Aside from Mika accepting the rewards on his behalf, it hadn't touched his bottom line just yet.
If the system ever did something against his morals, he wasn't sure what he would do. Could he throw everything away and give up on baseball if it went too far? He didn't know.
Thankfully this was something that he didn't need to consider, at least for now.
The rest of the session continued with Coach Brown going through film of their game yesterday. There were a few defensive plays that he wasn't happy with, but other than that, things were quite positive.
The coach confirmed the starting lineup which largely remained unchanged apart from Ken pitching and Steve entering the lineup as the starting catcher.
With the game at 1:30pm, the team didn't have much time before they were hauled onto the bus and headed out to Melching field for the 2nd of their 3 games in Florida.