If he'd seen Steve acting like this before the issue with Steph over Christmas, he might not have recognized his friend.
"I don't think you're useless, not in the slightest." Ken responded confidently.
Steve turned his head and looked his friend dead in the eyes, "So why are you refusing my leads? First you take away my catching ability, then you start cherry picking my leads."
"Huh?" Ken was stumped. Just where had this come from?
"What do you mean I took away your catching ability?"
Steve's fist clenched, "Your pitches… I don't even need to move my glove anymore. I used to have to follow your moving fastballs and make an effort to catch them, but now I can just stay still and they'll find their way into my glove."
Ken frowned, "Isn't that a good thing? If a pitcher has no control, then he's essentially worthless. But you're complaining that I'm too accurate?"
Steve scoffed, "You wouldn't understand."
He was right, Ken couldn't understand where Steve was coming from. In fact, he was quite annoyed with the guy right now.
"Ken, head up on deck to warm up." The coach called from the top of the dugout, getting his attention.
"Coming!"
Ken briefly turned to his friend and spoke, "Let's talk about this later. For now, let's win this game."
Not waiting for a response, Ken grabbed his gear and made his way up the stairs and onto the field to warm up. The moment he swung his bat, the conversation was directly moved to the back of his mind.
This was another perk of the Dauntless trait which allowed him to compartmentalize and always perform at his peak.
He looked to the field and saw Ayden standing a few feet away from 1st base, ready to run. Tristan was in the batters box awaiting the next pitch.
When the pitch finally came, Tristan stuck out his bat with two hands and sent a perfectly weighted bunt towards 3rd base. Even before the bat hit the ball, Ayden had already sped towards 2nd.
This time there were no fielding mishaps as the ball was swiftly scooped up by the 3rd baseman and sent accurately across the infield to 1st.
"Out."
The ending was rather close, but Tristan still walked away with a satisfied grin on his face as he walked back to the dugout.
"Send him home." He stated, patting Ken on the arm on the way past.
"Say no more."
With that, Ken walked into the batters box and went through his pre-hit ritual before getting into position. The pitcher was different to yesterday, but Ken was familiar with him from the film they'd watched.
Unlike the big guy yesterday, this pitcher was rather skinny but was quite tall, coming in just a couple inches shorter than Ken. He had a killer curveball that generally left batters swinging at air.
However, Ken was filled with confidence.
'Time to see how this Zone Mastery effects my batting.' He thought.
As the pitcher wound up and sent out his ball, Ken instantly realized that he'd thrown a curveball. Although he didn't expect it on the first ball, that didn't mean he couldn't hit it.
WHOOOOSH
WHACK
Ken timed it well, smacking it just below the strike zone with some force. Due to the lower speed of the pitch, it was lacking the usual carry that he might have expected.
Still, the ball flew into the outfield, out of reach of the right fielder for an easy 2 bases. His hit allowed Ayden to stroll onto home plate, gaining the first run for the Bobcats.
"Nice hit Ken!"
The dugout went crazy, whooping and cheering for the first run of the game. They continued their streak of scoring in the first inning with the trio of Ayden, Tristan and Ken.
"Batting 4th for the Bobcats, Number 7, DJ Larson."
With DJ's appearance, Ken took a lead from 2nd base, his eyes locked onto the pitcher. While he didn't have a mission to steal bases, he was always looking to score runs. Since there was only 1 out, he had the freedom to do so.
At least, that was until he turned to look at 3rd base. He saw the 3rd base coach sending out signals to stay put, likely relaying the coach's orders.
Ken frowned. Why wouldn't he try and steal a base in this sort of situation, especially with DJ at the plate who had the best plate discipline out of the team.
He backed off a little, getting closer to the base. As long as he could put some pressure on the pitcher, he might not even have to steal a base to get the desired result.
However, just as the pitcher entered his wind up, Ken felt his intuition stir. It was hard to explain, but an overwhelming confidence surged into his veins and before he knew it, Ken was already running full pelt towards 3rd base.
Nothing else existed in his mind but him and the next base.
"Ball."
"THIRD!"
The catcher didn't need reminding as he shot up and shuffled his feet slightly, sending a rocket-like throw towards 3rd base.
Ken saw the 3rd base coach pale, but he quickly made the action for him to slide. Ken smoothly sailed in feet first, his cleats touching the bag before he was unceremoniously tagged in the stomach by the opponents glove.
"Safe!"
Keeping his foot on the bag, Ken got to his feet and quickly brushed himself off, sending a grin to the dugout nearby. Though his teammates seemed pleased with his run, the coach was wearing an unreadable expression.
'Whoops, I probably pissed him off.' Ken thought, though he didn't regret it. It was likely that Coach Brown didn't want him to risk any injury while running the bases, but the entire notion was preposterous to him.
What was the point in playing baseball if he was restricted?
Ken turned his attention to the next pitch, waiting to see what would happen.
WHOOOOSH
WHACK!