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 ti and returned to the hotel around 90 minutes later.
After a shower, the two joined so of the other teammates for breakfast.
"Did you see your ho 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 ti 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 so color comntary and he had to admit that the play looked aweso 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 so social dia 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 dia."
"Really? How the hell did you hit 150k followers then?" This ti it was Ayden who was gawking at him, clearly jealous.
"I've got soone who manages it all for so I can focus on baseball."
Ayden sighed, "You already sound like a professional… Just like Ryan."
Ken's ears perked up, hearing a na he hadn't heard in quite a while. "You speak to Ryan still?"
He had completely forgotten that Ayden and Ryan were on the sa 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 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 cald 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 ntion that he would have missed out on potential rewards from the system missions that ca with the college season.
Still, there was a burning desire to join him on the main stage, sothing that he couldn't resist even if he wanted to. Without knowing it, he'd already pumped himself up for today's ga.
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 ga.
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As if to back up this claim, it was addressed in the eting 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 so good promise in training. I'm moving you up to the starting line up."
Coach Brown wasted no ti 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 sa ti Ken was taking the mound for the first ti, 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 sothing 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 sothing 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 ga yesterday. There were a few defensive plays that he wasn't happy with, but other than that, things were quite positive.
The coach confird the starting lineup which largely remained unchanged apart from Ken pitching and Steve entering the lineup as the starting catcher.
With the ga at 1:30pm, the team didn't have much ti before they were hauled onto the bus and headed out to lching field for the 2nd of their 3 gas in Florida.
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