Chapter 301: Preliminary Selection (1)

FWHEE

“Alright that’s enough, everyone make your way over here.” Chris blew his whistle and got the attention of everyone who was busy running laps.

A cacophony of relieved grunts and groans was heard as the players finally ended their run and made their way over to where the coaches were.

Ken placed his hands on his head as he tried to stabilize his breathing. Since his stamina was high it didn’t take long for him to compose himself.

Unfortunately not everyone had monstrous stamina like him. Hiroki was okay since he’d trained with Ken for a long time, but Daichi looked like he’d just run a marathon.

It didn’t help that they’d been forced to do drill after drill for the past 4 hours.

While he could have dealt with the constant workouts, the real issue was that he had no idea how he was performing. Not once throughout the day had their results been leaked.

Now that he thought about it, Coach Takashi had barely said any words since his speech at the start of everything. His father had been the one directing all of the players, in tandem with the other staff members who would take down their scores.

“Take a seat and catch your breath.” Chris said, giving them a small smile.

Out of all the coaching staff, his father was the only one who gave off a sense of warmness, albeit a lot less than he did at home. Since Ken didn’t want to cause any disturbances, he treated his father as a coach only in their interactions.

It wouldn’t be good if the other players thought he had an unfair advantage.

Coach Takashi waltzed out in front of everyone, his face showing no emotion. He gestured to one of the staff who brought him a clipboard.

“Alright. If I call out your name, come and grab a red bib.”

Hearing the coach’s words, everyone suddenly tensed up. Now was the moment where they could see how well they performed against the other players.

“Riku Sato.”

The smiling teen from earlier got up quickly and headed over to the staff member with the bibs. He quickly placed the red bib on and stood next to the coach in front of everyone.

It was clear that it was not his first time going through this process since no one had told them to remain up front after receiving a bib.

“Ichiro Kimura.”

A teen with long hair tied up in a ponytail stood up from the group and made his way forward. He collected his own bib and stood next to Riku.

“Hiroki Kondo.”

Ken’s eyes lit up as he finally heard a familiar name. He reached out and patted his friend on the back with glee before watching him head up to collect his bib.

“Kuro Tojo.”

“Akimitsu Jin.”

Ken waited patiently as a few more names were called out. The gloomy guy he’d seen earlier and the one with the shaved head were now among the 7 players lined up next to the coach.

“Ken Takagi.”

Coach Takashi’s deep voice called out his name, causing Ken to almost leap up in joy. Thankfully he managed to contain himself before heading up to join the others.

As he went to stand beside the other players, he noticed something on the back of the bibs, causing his eyes to widen. However, he had no time to dwell on it as the coach continued calling out names.

“Satoshi Subaru.”

“Masayuki Yamazaki.”

This continued for a while before there were only 8 people left seated on the ground in front of him.

Ken’s gaze met with Daichi whose name had not been called. He felt a bitter taste in his mouth in that moment, however he still held some form of hope.

There was another figure from Koshien that he recognized in the group of players remaining. It was Kei, the delinquent pitcher.

“Gentleman, if I did not call your name it means that you are not currently selected for the National Team…”

He paused briefly, letting his words sink in.

“However, you still have another day left to show me that your skills make up for your lack of athleticism. After all, baseball isn’t just about how much of an athlete you are…”

Daichi let out a visible sigh of relief after finding out he still had another chance. While he thought that his fitness was good, it was clear that his athleticism did not match up to the best in the nation.

“That’s all for today. There will be a bus that will take us all back to the place we’ll be staying tonight. Use this opportunity to stretch your muscles and cool down.”

With that, the coach walked off the field, flanked by the other staff members.

Once adjourned, the players did as they were told and began to stretch their burning muscles.

Ken and Hiroki both returned to where Daichi was. It was a little awkward since he wasn’t wearing a bib, but Daichi did well to not make them feel bad.

“Don’t worry about me, today was just physical drills. When it comes to playing baseball, I’ve got a lot more of a chance.” He said with a grin.

This put the two at ease and they began to join in on the stretching routine together.

“Hey what’s with the number on your back?” Hiroki asked a few minutes later.

Only when stretching did he finally see that there was the number 8 on Ken’s bib.

“Wait, does mine have a number also?”

He turned around and showed his back which depicted the number 3.

“Maybe it’s based on your results today?” Daichi asked, scratching his head a little.

“Well it makes sense. The number 1 position is reserved for the Ace of the team, yet Riku isn’t a pitcher. I can’t think of any other reason why they numbered us as such.” Ken added.

If that was the case, Ken was a little surprised that Hiroki had scored so high. Then again, fitness and athleticism weren’t directly correlated.